hair algae

[tgoeujon]

would the use of a phosban reactor help to control hair algae or should i just try one of the small sea hares jl has right now. id rather not get a sea hare but if i have to im sure someone else could use him when hes done. hoping the phosban idea will work.

[Aquattro]

The reactor would play a part, but overall, you need to reduce your nutrient levels. This includes PO4, but also NO3 and dissolved organics. Water changes would help, add a reactor, make sure there isn't any area where waste accumulates, in tank or sump. Use a good skimmer, and clean it often.

[tgoeujon]

its a 10 gallon nano with only one fish (sand sifting goby) which i rarely feed. other than that its just sps and clean up crew. 2 gallon water changes every week. dont know what else to try really. also theres a k3 and a powersweep 212 in it so im pretty sure theres no dead spots.also running a rio nano which so far seems to be working well.

[X-Treme]

How old is this tank? How long has it been running I mean? Where do you get your water from?

[tgoeujon]

the tank itself is about 2 months but every thing in it (including the original water) is from my 55 and it hasnt had any problems in quite awhile. so i guess the stock is about 2.5 to 3 years old other than the .5 inches of live sand which is actually new. all my water comes from superstore.

[X-Treme]

Hmmm. All seems ok, but I wonder when the last time superstore cleaned their system, changed filters, etc.......

Maybe try getting water from somewhere else for a while? Just a thought.

[tgoeujon]

at some point , hopefully soon i want to set up a water system of my own

[slakker]

new sand and maybe rock? Even though using old water may cause a 'new tank' syndrome. So if you get a sea hair, it'll control it and when your tank settles, you can give it away. The hairy sea hares do a great job.

But if it's not 'new tank', then u gotta figure out what's causing the HA.

[tgoeujon]

the rock is all old i just thought about the lighting change. i went from pc with t5s to 150 mh. would that do it. same photo period different penetration?

[slakker]

Me personally think the new sand, even with old water and rock is basically a "new setup". So the system hasn't reached equilibrium yet, ie; nitrogen cycle not in balanced yet with the bacteria that's already in the rock, also not yet in the sand and not in the balanced concentrations (how's that for a run on sentence) :). So while it's reaching equilibrium, any excess extra nutrient will be feeding the hair algae. The increased MH lights also is a variable that's helping enable photosynthesis in the algae to take up the nutrients. Decreasing photo period will help...

It'll slowly come back to balance, but it doesn't hurt to get a Sea Hare to keep the growth down while everything is coming into balance.

[tgoeujon]

picked up one of the mini sea hares on jls site, ill let you all know how it works. i also went with a lettuce nudibranch, figured it was worth a try as well

[slakker]

Cool... do they ship via Greyhound to Clinton? My wife's uncle lives in Lac la Hache and he was really interested in setting up a tank after seeing ours...

[tgoeujon]

yup greyhound is the only option here, i would imagine lac la hache would be the same. i just have to remember that if i order on friday i wont get anything till like the next wednesday. lol greyhound always loses weekend orders