Bad Hair Algae

[BC564]

can you add pump your ro water from one container to another ...and put a UV sterilizer in the flow?

[likwid]

Originally Posted by Slick Fork

Clean your skimmer weekly. Make sure you get the neck clean, I find mine skims best about a day or so after a good scrubbing. Being that prolific, I'm thinking your algae may be a bryopsis strain rather than straight hair algae. Could we get some close up shots?

I'll second the boiling RO water suggestion. Just do a small bit at a time.

Ya it definately looks like hair algae, but has the bulletproof characteristics of bryopsis. I can try to get some close ups, but my camera really sucks.

What do you mean by boiling RO water a small bit at a time?

[Myka]

Originally Posted by likwid

I believe the kits I am using are salifert. I am not testing for Calcium and Alk right now, I will have to run out and grab those kits. I'll grab some calc/alk additives as well and make sure those are in the correct range.

I do siphon everytime I do a waterchange, and baste the hair a few times daily into my skimmer.

When I presoak my food, I just pinch the frozen mysis in my fingers and run tap water through it to melt it and rinse away gunk from it.

I clean my skimmer every couple weeks, and only get around 1/8 of a cup a week. Seems really low to me.

I did a waterchange last night and ripped out as much hair algae as I could, and when I hooked my skimmer back up it was going crazy. The collection cup would overflow with bubbles in like 30 seconds. I turned it off and tried again this morning and it is still going nuts. Any ideas why it would be doing this?

Awesome! I am interested to hear what your Cal/Alk readings are. Kent Liquid Calcium is very good and easy to use. It is expensive when used on large tanks, but your tank shouldn't go through much, I use it on my 33, and it's cheap. I use SeaChem Reef buffer (not the pH one!!!) for Alk...it's a good product as well. Don't buy any products that directly alter your pH. Even though yours is low the last thing you want is a swinging pH level, and that's exactly what you'll get with pH altering additives.

That is low production of skimmate. You have a Remora Nano right? Does it have an adjustment screw like the regular Remoras and the Remora Pros? If so, play around with it (turned off!! lol it sucks when it's on and you accidentally unscrew it all the way). I find the more I screw mine in the more skimmate it produces. So I have mine screwed in all the way, and then the skimmer cup propped up as high as I can get it. I seem to get the best skimmate this way.

Not sure why it would be going crazy since what you said you did doesn't correlate to it freaking out.

[likwid]

Originally Posted by Myka

Awesome! I am interested to hear what your Cal/Alk readings are. Kent Liquid Calcium is very good and easy to use. It is expensive when used on large tanks, but your tank shouldn't go through much, I use it on my 33, and it's cheap. I use SeaChem Reef buffer (not the pH one!!!) for Alk...it's a good product as well. Don't buy any products that directly alter your pH. Even though yours is low the last thing you want is a swinging pH level, and that's exactly what you'll get with pH altering additives.

That is low production of skimmate. You have a Remora Nano right? Does it have an adjustment screw like the regular Remoras and the Remora Pros? If so, play around with it (turned off!! lol it sucks when it's on and you accidentally unscrew it all the way). I find the more I screw mine in the more skimmate it produces. So I have mine screwed in all the way, and then the skimmer cup propped up as high as I can get it. I seem to get the best skimmate this way.

Not sure why it would be going crazy since what you said you did doesn't correlate to it freaking out.

Unfortunately none of the local stores here sell those test kits or additives, so I cannot check until my next trip up to Calgary.

There is an adjustment screw, but it is screwed in as tight as it can go already. I have my collection cup as low as it can go as well. If I put it up any higher it would not collect anything.

On a side note, I tried basting with hot water again, and put the baster right near the root of the hair algae and it did nothing at all. Today the spots I basted are looking alive and healthy as ever.

Also, I have quite a bit of live rock in my fuge and those have never had any algae growth on them. They look perfect. Shouldnt the algae be growing on those rocks mainly? My chaeto doesnt grow very fast either. I have my fuge light on a reverse cycle, so its on around 16 hours a day.

[calkrog]

Originally Posted by likwid

Also, I have quite a bit of live rock in my fuge and those have never had any algae growth on them. They look perfect. Shouldnt the algae be growing on those rocks mainly? My chaeto doesnt grow very fast either. I have my fuge light on a reverse cycle, so its on around 16 hours a day.

you may just want to run 24hrs on your fuge and dose iron to stimulate your cheato to grow a bit more. then it should out compete some of the hair.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by likwid

Unfortunately none of the local stores here sell those test kits or additives, so I cannot check until my next trip up to Calgary.

There is an adjustment screw, but it is screwed in as tight as it can go already. I have my collection cup as low as it can go as well. If I put it up any higher it would not collect anything.

On a side note, I tried basting with hot water again, and put the baster right near the root of the hair algae and it did nothing at all. Today the spots I basted are looking alive and healthy as ever.

Also, I have quite a bit of live rock in my fuge and those have never had any algae growth on them. They look perfect. Shouldnt the algae be growing on those rocks mainly? My chaeto doesnt grow very fast either. I have my fuge light on a reverse cycle, so its on around 16 hours a day.

Try adjusting the screw out then...? Make an adjustment and wait a few days to see if does good or bad, then adjust again.

I agree - try 24 hour fuge lighting.