My tank is about 4-5 months old and this problem seems to never go away.
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My tank is about 4-5 months old and this problem seems to never go away.
I’ve had the same issue around frags when they aren’t flourishing.
At 4-5 months old, you're early with the "never" stuff. Patience!!
It does look like green hair – at least underneath what's growing on top of it.
Tell us more about the tank.
Dead rock?
Carbon dosing?
GFO?
Extra bio-media?
CUC?
Fish load?
All test results?
If you shake a sample up in a vial really well and then leave it under the lights, does any of it re-form into a snotty mass vs just settling to the bottom?
Same cause probably....N or P starvation is likely.
Mine seems to not flourish from the algae.I’ve had the same issue around frags when they aren’t flourishing.
It stays floating.If you shake a sample up in a vial really well and then leave it under the lights, does any of it re-form into a snotty mass vs just settling to the bottom?
50g total w/ 5 fish. Fed once a day.
Started with live rock. Also have live rock from a mature tank in the sump about 20lbs.
No carbon dosing.
Dosed nitrates to get rid of my dinos.
Nitrates at 10ppm.
Currently running GFO and phosphates are ~.07.
I have a lot of hermits, no snails at the moment as they died from a fenbendazole treatment.
Ill have to try the sample. How long do I leave it under lights?
5 is a lot in a brand new tank, so that's part of the issue....too many nutrients, too quickly for an immature tank.
Excellent that you started with live rock.
Strange that this has to be asked, but hey "modern times" so: was it live from the ocean, or "live" as in someone bought dead rock and cured it for a while?
Did you mean to say nitrates for dino's? (It's ok, just confirming.)
Speaking of confirming, how did you know it was dino's before?
You should take down the GFO if there's been any presence of dino's.
Hermits are opportunists, not herbivores, so keep that in mind when you start rebuilding the CUC.
Whaaaaat the heck is fenbenda-whatever? That sounds like it nuked your tank...definitely not great for your live rock – what happened?????
Not long...hours or less.
Im pretty sure I got the recommendation from Reef2reef. It did solve my hydroid problem.Crazy!! Def. stay away from any further chemical/medicinal treatments for any reason. Out of curiosity, where'd you get the recommendation for that?
I think for our purposes (politics and marketing aside) I would not consider your "real reef" rock to be live.
If the sump rock was not "live from the ocean" then I'd probably consider it the same way.
Plus, I'd consider it all nuked at this point.
It's great/no harm-no foul for the tank if we're wrong, of course, but it could be a little dangerous (at least to livestock) for you to assume things are fine if they aren't.
I think I'd stick with the basics/natural method on your recovery. Could take a while.
Don't remove nutrients anymore....if there's an imbalance where either N or P are trending to zero or where one of them but not the other is building up, then add nutrients to keep the balance rather than trying to establish a balance by removing "excess".
Maintain the tank by hand along with help from your CUC. Pulling, siphoning and plucking should be your only tools to keep the long algae down. The CUC should then keep it down. If they can't, then you need more or different members on the crew.
Make sure you slow down livestocking and all other activities to all way more time for the tank to mature in between changes. E.g. if you add a fish, wait at least 1 month before adding the next. 2-3 months wouldn't be too long.
Yes for the first three months I wasn’t using anything but a skimmer.Have you tried running your tank without GFO? For many a skimmer plus a small mesh bag of carbon is enough for a lot of people. GFO is a problem solver not a tank starter.
Yes for the first three months I wasn’t using anything but a skimmer.
Was planning on removing the gfo once this outbreak clears up. Just wasn’t sure if it’s algae or dino’s.
Im pretty sure I got the recommendation from Reef2reef. It did solve my hydroid problem.
I'm going to drop in my most referenced article here, which might help...My tank is about 4-5 months old and this problem seems to never go away.
^^ good adviceBefore the algae came out dino was dominant in your tank and sucking all the nutrients. Slowly though I would expect hair algae to be controlled once everything dials in and your pods reproduce to consume them
No I don’t. I have a long spine urchin but he doesn’t seem to do much.Have you tried a sea hare ? They love algae.