Algae issue not resolving

[caveman85]

deleted

 

[TMartinez]

Sorry about that. I made the post but was accidently signed in under a friend... any who

So for the last few weeks I've been trying to manage this crazy hair algae issue I have. Every week it grows and every week I pull as much out as I can while doing a water change. What can I do??? More crabs? Any hair algae eating fish?

I'm doing about a 25-30% water change weekly...

I feed about a block of mysis shrimp a day...

 

[jiNRo.]

i have the same problem, i just recently got a huge algae bloom. i dont know what to do.

 

[nonstophoops]

That block a day, do you rinse it to thaw it with tank water and drain that out before feeding?

Crabs would help, but they also contribute to the bioload of the tank(albeit a small amount) and don't remove those wastes, just put them back into the water. You are doing later water changes though, so this would help.

I hope you are feeding more than just mysis and the mysis was just an example of how much, true??

 

[J.Lake]

uv sterilizer?

 

[TMartinez]

I hope you are feeding more than just mysis and the mysis was just an example of how much, true??

Yes. I also feed flake food and brine shrimp. Some days I only feed mysis, some days I alternate foods etc. I do not rinse it, i just break it in my hand in the water.

uv sterilizer?

Nope

 

[Heathd]

Removing hair algae in the tank will cause some of the spores to break out and spread in the water. Hair algae is a real pain to deal with.

I had an issue with it once, and I pulled all the rocks that had gha ont them and scrubbed them with a cheap (and new) grill brush in a bucket with old tank water. Rinsed the rocks in new saltwater in another bucket, and then put the rocks back in.

I did have some come back, but it was on a small enough scale that my mithrax crabs kept it in check.

 

[Addikted2Cichlids]

What is your phosphate level at?

 

[TMartinez]

Removing hair algae in the tank will cause some of the spores to break out and spread in the water. Hair algae is a real pain to deal with.

I had an issue with it once, and I pulled all the rocks that had gha ont them and scrubbed them with a cheap (and new) grill brush in a bucket with old tank water. Rinsed the rocks in new saltwater in another bucket, and then put the rocks back in.

I did have some come back, but it was on a small enough scale that my mithrax crabs kept it in check.

I'll have to try that...

as for phosphates last time I checked (a week ago) 0ppm

 

[nonstophoops]

I'll have to try that...

as for phosphates last time I checked (a week ago) 0ppm

When feeding both mysis and brine shrimp, you need to de-thaw the cubes in a bit of tank water in a cup. Then once everything is thawed out you need to drain the water from that cup. Then feed the shrimp.

The cubes you are using are loaded with phosphates and other undesirable nutrients that aren't in the shrimp themselves. That is why thawing is imperative.

Another thing, if you are using a whole cube every time you feed them, a large portion is going uneaten and ending up rotting somewhere. This is another benefit to thawing in a cup, you can feed a small amount at a time so that your fish eat almost all of it.

By not introducing these extra nutrients it should help greatly.

Also, most likely your phosphates are tied up in the algae and that is why the reading is low. I still highly doubt it is 0 however, those test kits are very hard to pinpoint and aren't overly accurate anyway.