Magnesium to rid HA

[nayrgaijin]

So I have been raising my Magnesium levels to 1600 slowly, finally there for the past few days, how long should I wait for the HA to start going away before I try something else?
I am getting super annoyed by the HA. I scrub it off all the plugs every other day.

I tried removing some from the plugs and putting on new plugs, but the HA seems to trail with the frags. I'm getting so aggravated.

I heard of Sparkle by Phos-Ban I think, anyone know where to get it? I can't find it...

I cut down feeding to once every 3 days, minimal amount of food, frozen home-made. Lights are on 6hrs, I took out my white bulb and only have Blue+ and one KZ FijiPurple in for now.

I run cabron and Phosphate/Silicate remover in a bag in my overflow.

Thanks for any help or suggestions on what to do next!

 

[agent462]

mexican turbo

nom nom nom nom

 

[gilmour01]

might try running your phosphate remover in a reactor instead of a bag. that would make it more efficient.

 

[nayrgaijin]

Yeah a reactor is something I've been wanting to get.

Turbos will have to do the job for now

 

[TopNotchCorals]

Yeah a reactor is something I've been wanting to get.

Turbos will have to do the job for now

+1 on the reactor,I have been running the BRS single reactor with their HC GFO and I have never ran into a HA problem*knocks on wood*.I think it will definitely terminate your HA problem.

 

[nayrgaijin]

Man.... I want to ride my bike again!

May be awhile since I have an aquarium..... haha

 

[condor]

+1 on the reactor, or you can lay the bag thin and flat across the sump sponge. And for media i recomend rowaphos. A bit expensive but well worth it

 

[kelleyga36]

The Kent tech m works on bryopsis not hair algea.

 

[nayrgaijin]

The Kent tech m works on bryopsis not hair algea.

I'm using Magnesium Chloride from BRS, but what makes you say Kent Tech-M only works on byropsis?

I thought raising Magnesium levels period, helped rid HA?

 

[ReeferBen]

I have read that only Tech-M seems to work on the byropsis. Lots have raised Mg with other Mg supplements and had it not work. I also read that they have or soon are changing the formula for Tech-M and it may no longer work.

BTW I found turbo + toothbrush as much HA away as possible, along with getting parameters in check seems to work fine with typical HA.

 

[lazyreefer]

How 'bout we revisit.....

I've been battling HA for months now, I have a dozen Turbos, run GFO through a Reactor, kept my MAG levels high, and only feed everyother day --- recently my lights were off for about three days straight unbeknownst to me at the time. I still have tons of HA in a 4' frag tank --- I've come to look at it sort of like Chaeto...i.e....I harvest it for nutrient export. I think it has something to do with the frag plugs because some get HA much worse than others......my LFS promotes high MAG to be rid of all nuisance algae.

 

[inactive]

Seaa hhaarrree

 

[Chong]

Seaa hhaarrree

+1 on sea hare

 

[dtpollard]

I have been battleing HA for a couple of months. I have used the Tech-M from Kent to kill Bryopsis effectively before but it did not kill the HA. I had not heard of this for HA before. You should run a reactor with Rowa-Phos to help bring down the phos levels. If HA is growing, even if everything else is good, Phos will still leach back out of your rocks. I have determined that my RO/DI is not working up to speed and needed to add a second DI chamber and a booster pump. The best way to get rid of Phosphate is NOT TO PUT IT IN YOUR TANK TO BEGIN WITH. That being said I added snails, cleaned the sump, new bulbs on the lights, and started a Vodka dosing regimen. Together this seems to bringing the HA into check. Here is a link on the Vodka if you are interested. Vodka Dosing by 'Genetics' and 'Stony_Corals' - Reefkeeping.com

 

[nicks387]

They are right, Tech M is the only magnesium supplement that kills off bryopsis but not hair algae. Its something else thats in the Tech M that kills it not the magnesium itself. This is why other brands of Mag do not kill it. I know this is not about bryopsis but I figured I would explain a bit. The rumor about Tech M changing the formula is not true. I have used it recently on bryopsis and it melted it right away. As for hair algae I would do a water change and check my ro membranes and filters to be sure I am starting with good quality water in the firs place, and if you added any new eggcrate to the tank pull it out. It fuels hair algae big time. It should be soaked in water for a month before going in to a tank as it leaches phosphates and causes serious algae blooms. If that doesn't work, I recommend using some type of biopellets, They kick butt on hair algae........

 

[dtpollard]

You learn something new every day. I had to google "Bio Pellet". lol. The one at my fav online retailer had a good description of how it works and if you compare it to the Vodka information on the link, it seems to work about the same way. You do need a good skimmer to get the best results from either because of the bacteria by-products. The cool thing is my Aristocrat Vodka was like $6 and at the very small rate you use it it should last me a year. For $6 thats a pretty good deal. I can probably still afford to dose myself a few times.

 

[mfinn]

How 'bout we revisit.....

I've been battling HA for months now, I have a dozen Turbos, run GFO through a Reactor, kept my MAG levels high, and only feed everyother day --- recently my lights were off for about three days straight unbeknownst to me at the time. I still have tons of HA in a 4' frag tank --- I've come to look at it sort of like Chaeto...i.e....I harvest it for nutrient export. I think it has something to do with the frag plugs because some get HA much worse than others......my LFS promotes high MAG to be rid of all nuisance algae.

One product I have found to be very effective against HA is ALGAEFIX made by API.

 

[lazyreefer]

I think I discovered the reason for my HA just last night. Its been weird, over the last few weeks the water pressure in my house has increased quite a bit. I work 7 days a week so I never put 2 and 2 together until I noticed last night my top off water tank started to fill up in 1/3rd of the time it usually takes. I discovered that my Watts pressure regulator connected to the main water line coming off the street needs to be rebuilt as its allowing 130 psi ~ to flow through the house. Not good for plumbing but really not good for my RO/DI unit which was setup for 45-50 psi

I took the time to watch my TDS meter and seen it go from zero on up to .35 and beyond before I shut it down. (the membrane can't work properly under that kind of psi) I never noticed over the course of the last few weeks, or possibly even more, given my hectic schedule. I've been dumping TDS smack dab into my tank via top off all the while trying to combat other factors for HA.....whodathunkit ??

I think I'm gonna buy a handheld TDS meter and check my fresh saltwater before it goes into the tank from now on too. Live and learn.....

 

[beaslbob]

I think I discovered the reason for my HA just last night. Its been weird, over the last few weeks the water pressure in my house has increased quite a bit. I work 7 days a week so I never put 2 and 2 together until I noticed last night my top off water tank started to fill up in 1/3rd of the time it usually takes. I discovered that my Watts pressure regulator connected to the main water line coming off the street needs to be rebuilt as its allowing 130 psi ~ to flow through the house. Not good for plumbing but really not good for my RO/DI unit which was setup for 45-50 psi

I took the time to watch my TDS meter and seen it go from zero on up to .35 and beyond before I shut it down. (the membrane can't work properly under that kind of psi) I never noticed over the course of the last few weeks, or possibly even more, given my hectic schedule. I've been dumping TDS smack dab into my tank via top off all the while trying to combat other factors for HA.....whodathunkit ??

I think I'm gonna buy a handheld TDS meter and check my fresh saltwater before it goes into the tank from now on too. Live and learn.....

I wouldn't hold your breath too long. :bigsmile:

IMHO the nutrients feeding the algae come overwhelming from the bioload in the tank not whatever is in the replacement water.

So I don't think the ro/di fix will help with the algae.

IMHO what you need to do is add nitrate/phosphate consumers to keep up with the bioload. Like macro algaes preferably in an external refugium.

get the macros thriving in the refugium and kill the display lights until the display algaes die off.

This will balance out the tank so the refugium is in control along with the corals and corralin algae in the display. and hair algae in the dipslay is staved.


my .02

 

[lazyreefer]

I grow and harvest Chaeto in a 40g refugium ---- I've got an 18 gallon bucket full of the stuff. I run GFO in a BRS reactor and my last phosphate reading with a Hanna meter was .06 so that's not bad. Lights were off for 3 days or more when the electric went out and my digital timer program was deleted. Obviously the reason for an RO/DI is to attain zero TDS which helps to limit algae growth --- I might as well be putting straight tap water into my tank as top off. Not good....