Loosing Battle

M

MikeB

Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2013
Location
Guelph, Ontario
After 3 months of fighting a losing battle with green hair algae I am getting ready to throw in the towel. Running gfo rowaFoss. Adding daily doses of magnesium and dripping Kalkwater. Doing water changes 3 times a week and hand picking.
New carbon and sediment filters on my 5 stage Rod unit.

Just fed up. getting ready to tear down and sell everything.
 
unibob

unibob

Distinguished Member
Website Affiliate
Joined
Mar 15, 2012
Location
St Thomas
Where did you purchase your rock from? I suspect something leeching badly


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
heath

heath

Distinguished Member
Joined
Oct 2, 2012
Location
Woodstock, Ontario
I hear what your saying but, don't give up. Is there a fellow reefer close by that could come and look at your tank, sometimes the cause is sitting in front of us.
 
SamB

SamB

Super Active Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2015
Location
GTA
What kind of water are you using for salt mix/top up ?
If not RO, then you are probably adding a batch of extra nutrients that algae love!
 
theyangman

theyangman

Distinguished Member
Joined
May 22, 2013
Location
London, Ontario
"The other problem with hair algae, especially briopsis type is that it collects its own detritus from the water and forms a soil in which to grow. You will not remove this no matter how low the phosphates go in the water column and without good water flow directed at this point or a toothbrush to clean it and starve it out then it will hang about. I have a clump near my overflow in an extremely low nutrient tank."

Also how old is the rowaphos that you have currently? Like how long has it been active in the reactor?

Ripping out as much as you can helps as it permenantly removes what they have already absorbed, but you might need to dig your heels in. This is not going to be a fun fight.

Also what sort of substrate did you use? Was it new when you did it? Also what is your feedings like? Heavy feedings are going to be counter productive here.

What does your RODI unit read for TDS? How old is that unit? Was it used when you bought it?

There are a lot of questions here.... You need to find the source of your problems. Anything else till then is just a waste as you are not fixing anything.
 
M

MikeB

Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2013
Location
Guelph, Ontario
The tank has been running for 2 years. Gfo and rowafoss are 3 weeks old. Never had any algea in the tank till this started. Right now it is a jungle in there. Sick of picking algea for an hour at a time and the next day it looks like nothing was done. All my fish are fine swimming and eating when I feed every second day.
 
jeffopentax

jeffopentax

Super Active Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2013
Location
Brantford, Ontario
I've got a gha battle raging as well. Though i think some of my lr is leaching. I would suggest a seahare or a dozen or so turbo snails. Both will buy you some time to figure out the source before being completely overrun.
 
EricTMah

EricTMah

Aquariums by Design
Joined
Mar 2, 2014
Location
Kitchener, Ontario
Website
www.aquariumsbydesign.ca
What type of lighting are you using? How old are your bulbs? What was the most recent changes you've made either right before or right around the hair algae started? Change in salt mix, additives, new buckets for water changes, new equipment in the tank, moved tank recently?

And like mentioned above. What are your NO3 and PO4 testing at?

Have you tried lights of for a few days?
 
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