Need Some Help w/ Algae

L

ldreefer

I have had a problem with this crap for the past moth. I have a 40B with 20L sump. I run my leds 8 hours a day, have 2 clowns, a leopard wrasse and a lawnmower blenny. Nitrates are at .5 and Phosphates are at .02 as of Monday. I need to know if you guys can ID it and give me a strategy to beat it.

I started Red Sea's NO3PO4-X last Friday.

It looks similar to hair algae, which I've dealt with before, but I don't think that's what it is.

Any ideas?

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There are many types of green hair algae, and this is probably one of them. Here is a page from reefcleaners.org that might be helpful:

http://www.reefcleaners.org/nuisance-algae-id-guide
 
What is you Mag level? I would get some Kent Tech M magnesium and get your mag up to at least 1500 if not slightly higher.
 
Also, it could be possible that your nitrates are actually high, but test low. The hair algae could be consuming the nitrates and thus promoting the growth/bloom you're currently experiencing. We're your nitrates ever high prior to this outbreak?
 
@Mike R wrote:
What is you Mag level? I would get some Kent Tech M magnesium and get your mag up to at least 1500 if not slightly higher. said:
Does mag have a big impact on algae? I guess I haven't read up on that quite enough.

My nitraes haven't really been high before this, but I also hadn't been testing as often as I am now, so it could be possible.

I have read where your nitrates can test low because the algae is absorbing most of it so there isn't a lot of free nitrates in the water column, but I still feel like there is something that I should.be able to do to fix this.
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Yeah, hair algae doesn't like high mag levels. From doing my own research on the subject, I've discovered that it HAS to be Kent Tech M Mag. Don't ask me why, or what it has in it that works, but I know a lot of people have have good success eradicating hair algae and bryopsis by using it.
 
@Mike R wrote:
Yeah said:
I had read about Kent M working for Bryopsis, which I thought may be the algae I have, but I am kind of thinking it's hair algae, so I didn't think raising the Mag levels would do much. Now that you say that though I've read that on a few forums, so I just ordered a bottle of the Kent M and a new Red Sea Mag, Alk and Cal test kit, so I'll start that when it gets here. I'm also going to take my lawnmower blenny back to the LFS tomorrow and get a sea hare, so that will help if it is in fact hair algae.
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I always make it a point to let some algae threads run a month to check for progress


How's it here, better I hope?

If not, I'm down for another 48 fix just curious how this one fared. By fix I mean the algae dies and doesn't look like this again. Been workin on a couple tanks in the various forums thought I'd see how friends down the interstate are doing.
B
 
@brandon429 wrote:
I always make it a point to let some algae threads run a month to check for progress How's it here said:
It definitely died back a bit, but really only after I cut my lights for 2 days. I just turned them back on Saturday and a little bit has come back, but nothing serious.

I added a protein skimmer since I last posted in this thread and maybe that has helped a bit, but I'm going to leave my lights on the timer and check the progress of the algae and see if it comes back after a period of time with the lights back on. I see signs of it coming back in places, but I'm hoping that's just what was left of it after I turned the lights off.
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team check out how long it took us, about 24 hrs :)

see last entry on this page

the reason I popped into this post is because for sure your algae w respond just the same, this whispy type isn't heavy nutrient driven, its heavily import driven and w bloom where it finds light. Not that my way is better than anyones, there are many ways to beat it. our way is just fun due to being able to nearly name the hour the tank goes clean

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/268706-peroxide-saves-my-tank-with-pics-to-prove-it/page-61#entry5160420

I need to use that as a reference link since it shows about 6 yrs of fulfilling these kinds of statements, some additional grazing is the swing vote in many prob algae tanks and it lasts very long term when directly melted.

b
 
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