Dinos and Hair Algae

[smd189]

Good afternoon. A few weeks ago I dealt with hair algae using Flux Rx. I cleared the tank of the algae after 3 weeks and really worked to make sure my nutrients were controlled. They might have been too controlled with PO4 at 0 and NO3 below 1.
Now I have Dinos due to the low nutrients, but the hair algae is coming back too. I don’t understand how the algae can be back with such low nutrients and how can I increase nutrients to combat the dinos without the GHA going crazy?
What else could be causing this. Calcium is right around 450, Alk is 10.5, pH is 8.15, temp is 80.2. Running skimmer dry and refug with chaeto. Refug light is only on 8 hours at night now to help increase nut. for dinos. Light is Kessil APX9 and on for 8 hours per day. Blues max at 50% and whites only on for 3 hours each day at 20-30% max.
Thank you for any help anyone can provide in understanding and figuring this out.
Shawn

 

[Eric Cohen]

Thanks for using the Flux Rx....I am glad that worked out well for you....Im continually amazed by that product (Yes I own Blue Life USA. Anyway.....just curious how your phosphate and nitrate levels are if you are seeing algae come back.

 

[Reffetsevla]

I did exactly what you did a few months back.

Setup the new tank, waited on the bloom, ended up with huge hair algae outbreak.

To combat that I did a bunch of changes and popped in GFO to pull the PO4 down. Of course I subsequently bottomed that out. Yay dinos!

To beat the dinos, I did a few things. I do not know the age of your tank but these were done in a newer tank.

No GFO, ran Carbon only
Added a UV sterilizer
White lights off for a week, then only a couple hours a day for a week. I ran blues at about 75% of what I normally did the first week too.
I dosed apex pods then about 5 days later I did Tigger Pods.
After which I dosed live phyotplankton over 3 days
I fed heavily, 3-4 times a day, flakes and pellets 3x's and some days I'd do frozen too. Effort to bring up PO4 and NO3 naturally, it worked.

It took all in all about 3 weeks to really see progress with the dinos going away. I DID get GHA back though, expect it. But I used Mexican Turbo's, Margarita snails and scissors to keep it in check. I actally had to greatly reduce my CUC the past two months as it's really establishing.

Disclaimer that not every method works for every type of dino or every tank, this was just my experience with it. GL!

 

[smd189]

Thanks for using the Flux Rx....I am glad that worked out well for you....Im continually amazed by that product (Yes I own Blue Life USA. Anyway.....just curious how your phosphate and nitrate levels are if you are seeing algae come back.

Thanks. As mentioned, after finishing the Flux RX the nitrates were below 1 and the phosphate were 0. No algae so nothing tied up. Then the dinos arrived. As soom as I let the nitrates get up to 2.5 amd phosphates still at 0, the GHA started back too. Now I have both dinos and GHA.

 

[smd189]

I did exactly what you did a few months back.

Setup the new tank, waited on the bloom, ended up with huge hair algae outbreak.

To combat that I did a bunch of changes and popped in GFO to pull the PO4 down. Of course I subsequently bottomed that out. Yay dinos!

To beat the dinos, I did a few things. I do not know the age of your tank but these were done in a newer tank.

No GFO, ran Carbon only
Added a UV sterilizer
White lights off for a week, then only a couple hours a day for a week. I ran blues at about 75% of what I normally did the first week too.
I dosed apex pods then about 5 days later I did Tigger Pods.
After which I dosed live phyotplankton over 3 days
I fed heavily, 3-4 times a day, flakes and pellets 3x's and some days I'd do frozen too. Effort to bring up PO4 and NO3 naturally, it worked.

It took all in all about 3 weeks to really see progress with the dinos going away. I DID get GHA back though, expect it. But I used Mexican Turbo's, Margarita snails and scissors to keep it in check. I actally had to greatly reduce my CUC the past two months as it's really establishing.

Disclaimer that not every method works for every type of dino or every tank, this was just my experience with it. GL!

Thanks. My tank is about 1.5 years old. I do have UV also. I will try eliminating the whites completely for a week. I was running whites heavy until recently. Thanks and glad you figured it out.