# HELP! Algae!



## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

This has been a slow accumulation over a few months... I went away for a vacation and had my brother feed the tank and since then its been bad.

Its a mixture of "hair" like algae and what appears to be cyrano...

It also started to occur when i replaced my bulb about 6 months ago

Not sure what it is, so not sure how to combat it!!!

Pictures:


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Run a phosphate remover and manually remove it. You can lower your lighting setting to 1 hour a day and increase it by an hour everyday. Remove whatever you can see every day for a week and your hard work should pay off.


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## 50seven (Feb 14, 2010)

Chris S said:


> Run a phosphate remover and manually remove it. You can lower your lighting setting to 1 hour a day and increase it by an hour everyday. Remove whatever you can see every day for a week and your hard work should pay off.


What he said.

DO mechanically remove whatever you can, especially the cyano. I find it works best to use a toothbrush to loosen it while I'm siphoning out some water during my regular WC's

What did you change on your lightbulbs? I got a plague of green hair algae when I ran bulbs with too low of a K rating (like <6000 K).


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## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

I dont know what the original bulb was, but i purchased a Pheonix 150W bulb (i think its 14k)

Ill try doing more manual removal and water changes...


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## azotemia (Jan 28, 2009)

*hmm*

regarding the hair algea - my foxface ate em all 
as far as cyano - i used ultralife red slime remover and (fingers crossed) haven't seen cyano anymore. It will make you skimmer go nuts for weeks but good ol' water changes will do the trick

HTH


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## ecoleshill (Jan 22, 2009)

Careful with the red slime remover. It's an antibiotic and when I used it it caused a major issue in my tank. I ended up dumping in lots of good bacteria to repopulate the system.


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## disman_ca (Nov 12, 2011)

Chris S and 50seven are correct. Hard work and diligence is key to remove the red slime. As for the hair algae, it'll never fully go away so you'll have to make a choice about how you want to control it. I received some free live rock with tons of hair algae. I scrubbed and scrubbed but it didn't fully go away. It bothered me so much that I ended up leaving the rock to bake in the summer heat/sun for a month then cured the rock in a separate tank. It didn't ever come back after that and the rock looks great.


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## 50seven (Feb 14, 2010)

disman_ca said:


> Chris S and 50seven are correct. Hard work and diligence is key to remove the red slime. As for the hair algae, it'll never fully go away so you'll have to make a choice about how you want to control it. I received some free live rock with tons of hair algae. I scrubbed and scrubbed but it didn't fully go away. It bothered me so much that I ended up leaving the rock to bake in the summer heat/sun for a month then cured the rock in a separate tank. It didn't ever come back after that and the rock looks great.


or get a fish that will keep it in check. Like a lawnmower blenny or tang, or some angelfish. . .


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## disman_ca (Nov 12, 2011)

50seven said:


> or get a fish that will keep it in check. Like a lawnmower blenny or tang, or some angelfish. . .


 You're right but my blenny couldn't keep up but he certainly enjoyed the feast.


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## azotemia (Jan 28, 2009)

A foxface will do the trick!


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## duckhams (Oct 13, 2009)

I battled cyano. Tried everything, water changes, manual removal, lights out for days and days. Nothing seemed to kick it. Ended up increasing my water change/maintenance schedule, turkey basting rocks more often and used (here comes the 'miracle' product) MicroBacter7 from Brightwell Aquatics. Its not a quick fix, but it will help boost your denitrifying bacteria. It worked for me, my father in law and Explor3r of the Frag Cave.


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## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

Ive changed water twice (10% one day, 10% the next)
I have another 20% that i will do spaced out in the next week or 2.

I also removed a bunch of rocks & rubble pieces to increase flow.

I had a emerald crab that seemed to eat it, but only at night. I went through two blennies, neither of them would eat it and both wouldnt take the food i fed, so they didnt make it.

Recent count shows about 8 astrea snails and 3 hermits. Should i look at a nassarius or something to help eat any possible ditri buildup?


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

Strawberry Conch is very good in cleaning sand surface.






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