Reef Central Online Community

Go Back   Reef Central Online Community > General Interest Forums > Tank Journals & Builds
Blogs FAQ Calendar Mark Forums Read

Notices

User Tag List

Reply
Thread Tools
Unread 11/12/2017, 07:49 PM   #1
dirk_brijs
Registered Member
 
dirk_brijs's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Pattaya Thailand
Posts: 1,457
massive hair algae outbreak

New tank set up which went through the cycle.
Guess after the cycle the Hair algae kicked in and went crazy.
main reason I think for the outburst is the death rock used in the tank which might be leaching some Phosphates I presume and the open build of the tank with natural light on all sides especially one side which has a frontal sun exposure in the mornings.....
Tried to fight it first with just adding some Phosphate remover but that clearly didnt stop the invasion so it went all out of hand....
decided to complete black out now....been 3 days now so will go check today of anything died of by now.....










Last edited by dirk_brijs; 11/12/2017 at 07:59 PM.
dirk_brijs is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/12/2017, 08:03 PM   #2
truffle22
Registered Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2016
Posts: 48
Quote:
Originally Posted by dirk_brijs View Post
New tank set up which went through the cycle.
Guess after the cycle the Hair algae kicked in and went crazy.
main reason I think for the outburst is the death rock used in the tank which might be leaching some Phosphates I presume and the open build of the tank with natural light on all sides especially one side which has a frontal sun exposure in the mornings.....
Tried to fight it first with just adding some Phosphate remover but that clearly didnt stop the invasion so it went all out of hand....
decided to complete black out now....been 3 days now so will go check today of anything died of by now.....
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...psy9bhngrz.jpg
Try no sunlight and use artificial lighting like LEDs or T5. It sounds counterintuitive but the sun is actually your enemy. I had a saltwater Puffer fish tank and it was packed with hair algae I could not keep it under control even when I tried finally gave up on the tank for some reason Sun and algee love each other

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk


truffle22 is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/12/2017, 08:46 PM   #3
James404
I <3 Acros
 
James404's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Long Island, NY
Posts: 2,523
+1 on no sunlight. Hair algae is definitely part of the cycle but that looks like a lot for sure. I always use turbo snails, they mow through that stuff in no time.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk


__________________
80g Deep Blue Rimless - http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2651295
225g Reef Savvy SPS Dominant - Retired http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1945361
James404 is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/12/2017, 11:18 PM   #4
dirk_brijs
Registered Member
 
dirk_brijs's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Pattaya Thailand
Posts: 1,457
Quote:
Originally Posted by truffle22 View Post
Try no sunlight and use artificial lighting like LEDs or T5. It sounds counterintuitive but the sun is actually your enemy. I had a saltwater Puffer fish tank and it was packed with hair algae I could not keep it under control even when I tried finally gave up on the tank for some reason Sun and algee love each other

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk
Not that we wanne use sunlight...tank is set up in the middle of a galery style shop with 2 huge windows as walls so not much we can do to stop the sunlight....the tank is covered with 4 LED lights....what i might do though is during height of day turn of all white and only supplement with 100% blues to break natural K levels.


dirk_brijs is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/16/2017, 01:44 PM   #5
DVader
Registered Member
 
DVader's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Stevensville, MD
Posts: 54
I went through this when I started my 75G and blacking out my tank for 5 days did no good. Check your make up water and I used Phosguard using a remote filter canister....took about a month (give or take) to get ride of it but it is part of starting up a new tank.

Good luck


__________________
- Steve -

Current Tank: 75 Gal. Mix Reef, 29Gal Sump/Refugium, Tek Light T-5 324w, ASM-2 Skimmer, 1200gph Close Loop, Dosing 2 part

Soon to have Ca Reactor, 2-250w 20000K MH, VorTech MP40
DVader is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/18/2017, 06:04 PM   #6
dirk_brijs
Registered Member
 
dirk_brijs's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Pattaya Thailand
Posts: 1,457
after 4 days of complete black out (day 3 and 4 I switched on the UV lights of my LEDs)
every day adding Phosremover.







dirk_brijs is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/21/2017, 02:16 AM   #7
rlhanks
Registered Member
 
rlhanks's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Farmington Hills, MI
Posts: 22
After watching the BRS series on refugiums and cheto it's open up some interesting questions. If you haven't seen it I would highly recommend watching and it should solve your problems. Do you have a fuge? If the fuge is run right it should consume the nutrients needed for other algea to grow. Most interesting point Ryan makes is that we spend thousands of dollars on high tech lights for the display and get puzzled when our hardware store CFL over the fuge can't keep up with the display.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk


__________________
Bought my first tank with my paper route money back in 1984.
150 gallon SC starphire
Metal frame stand made from welded Unistrut and wrapped in Walnut
Most equipment are DIY

Current Tank Info: 5'x2'x2', BLDC7, maxspect gyre250, T5HO and LED's, Home made welded steel tubular stand wrapped in wood work.
rlhanks is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/23/2017, 09:18 AM   #8
dirk_brijs
Registered Member
 
dirk_brijs's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Pattaya Thailand
Posts: 1,457
great results after 7 days complete blacking out the tank.





[url=https://postimg.org/image/gx1ig5ysp/][img]https://s20.postimg.org/gx1ig5ysp/23758195_10155411271143778


dirk_brijs is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/23/2017, 12:30 PM   #9
JUNBUG361
Registered Member
 
JUNBUG361's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Antioch,CALIFORNIA
Posts: 1,091
Nice


JUNBUG361 is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/23/2017, 07:54 PM   #10
rlhanks
Registered Member
 
rlhanks's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Farmington Hills, MI
Posts: 22
when blacking out, what do you do with the livestock? do they stay in the tank during the days worth of darkness?


__________________
Bought my first tank with my paper route money back in 1984.
150 gallon SC starphire
Metal frame stand made from welded Unistrut and wrapped in Walnut
Most equipment are DIY

Current Tank Info: 5'x2'x2', BLDC7, maxspect gyre250, T5HO and LED's, Home made welded steel tubular stand wrapped in wood work.
rlhanks is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/24/2017, 05:01 AM   #11
dirk_brijs
Registered Member
 
dirk_brijs's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Pattaya Thailand
Posts: 1,457
Quote:
Originally Posted by rlhanks View Post
when blacking out, what do you do with the livestock? do they stay in the tank during the days worth of darkness?
Yep everything stayed in the tank
I even had 3 anemones inside who came out well.
Only have clowns and Blue Green Chromis for fish right now


dirk_brijs is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/24/2017, 05:09 AM   #12
rlhanks
Registered Member
 
rlhanks's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Farmington Hills, MI
Posts: 22
Quote:
Originally Posted by dirk_brijs View Post
Yep everything stayed in the tank
I even had 3 anemones inside who came out well.
Only have clowns and Blue Green Chromis for fish right now
My daughter has a 12g nano that is just as bad with the hair algea. For obvious reasons we don't pay enough attention to it, so that's gotta change if we're going to keep it. . Shes was feeding pellets and I'm sure was way too much causing a majority of the problem. Switched to frozen food, the crabs and snails can clean that up easily. No real room for a fuge so I will do more water changes. Been reading about totally darkening the tank to kill off what is there but never really read what to do with the swimming creatures. Inverts and coral wouldn't be a problem but fish seem to be a different story.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk


__________________
Bought my first tank with my paper route money back in 1984.
150 gallon SC starphire
Metal frame stand made from welded Unistrut and wrapped in Walnut
Most equipment are DIY

Current Tank Info: 5'x2'x2', BLDC7, maxspect gyre250, T5HO and LED's, Home made welded steel tubular stand wrapped in wood work.
rlhanks is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:06 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Powered by Searchlight © 2024 Axivo Inc.
Use of this web site is subject to the terms and conditions described in the user agreement.
Reef CentralTM Reef Central, LLC. Copyright ©1999-2022
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging v3.3.0 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.