HELP! Fighting algae for 5 months!

[vetteguy53081]

Not to be a butthole,
But did you read my entire post?
I have used fluconazole
I have lowered white lights
I also stated that i am using RODI water Have posted the ICP results from the RODI as well

Also will add i have changed ALL my RODI filters since battling this problem and i stil have GHA .
i am running 3 stages of DI
canton, anion and mixed.

Read entire list , not really as I’m at work but still trying to help out and since you reduced white lights with no results, you may have to do a 3-5 day blackout

 

[Saltysav96]

Read entire list , not really as I’m at work but still trying to help out and since you reduced white lights with no results, you may have to do a 3-5 day blackout

i am on day 2 of no lights.

 

[Treefer32]

My question on fluconazole is how long did you use it? For GHA it works, but it's not in 2-3 days like the bottle says. GHA is tougher to kill. Fluconazole works by blocking photosynthesis processes of algae. The science indicates it will work because the algae can no longer absorb light, which is it's food, therefore it will die. It can't not die from it.

The problem is it takes time on macro algae. Dosing the full amount and waiting 4-6 weeks, is what it took for me. It may take more or less for you. But, it's not 2-3 days. If you did water changes 3-5 days after dosing and put carbon back in etc to remove the fluconazole, then what happened is a couple branches may have died, then it was able to start absorbing light again and started growing again. 3-5 days is not long enough to starve GHA. It's much more resilient.

I don't know what your process was. But, there's no scientific reason for it to not work to kill micro and macro algae.

 

[Saltysav96]

i put in all 10 pills of the reef flux last monday ( jan 18th) and have not seen any different

i took the cup off the skimmer and removed carbon,
Only thing I forgot to do was pull out the polyfilter which i did the next night (january 19) the polyfilter was already several weeks old so I highly doubt it removed the medication that quick or if even since it was already a couple weeks old . I actually have more reef flux on the way

today makes 1 week since adding reef flux. ( see above )

 

[Treefer32]

today makes 1 week since adding reef flux. ( see above )

Sorry, I missed that. If I were you I would dose more just in case the poly filter did remove it. Unfortunately I don't know the impact of that. Then give it a good 10 days. Try hand pulling. It may turn gray or brown and lose it's green color. That's a sign it's slowly dying. At that point it may be easier to hand pull, brush off, etc. It will die, it just takes time. It sucks to have to wait weeks for this to occur!

 

[vetteguy53081]

My question on fluconazole is how long did you use it? For GHA it works, but it's not in 2-3 days like the bottle says. GHA is tougher to kill. Fluconazole works by blocking photosynthesis processes of algae. The science indicates it will work because the algae can no longer absorb light, which is it's food, therefore it will die. It can't not die from it.

The problem is it takes time on macro algae. Dosing the full amount and waiting 4-6 weeks, is what it took for me. It may take more or less for you. But, it's not 2-3 days. If you did water changes 3-5 days after dosing and put carbon back in etc to remove the fluconazole, then what happened is a couple branches may have died, then it was able to start absorbing light again and started growing again. 3-5 days is not long enough to starve GHA. It's much more resilient.

I don't know what your process was. But, there's no scientific reason for it to not work to kill micro and macro algae.

I dosed twice over 12 days

 

[Saltysav96]

 

[Treefer32]

Maybe it's just the picture, but to me the top 25% of the algae looks like it's starting to yellow / brown. First stage of dying is to further discolor and look uglier.

Over the next two weeks you may notice strands making it into your overflows or gathering up on powerheads, etc. That's when you'll want to start hand pulling and hand scrubbing the rocks, when the roots start releasing. Do this in a water change bucket or something so as not to let the rock dry out. I've been there done this more than I care to admit on a 125 gallon tank I took over from someone else.

It took me a year of scrubbing, running GFO and changing it religiously, and lights out periods, to kill this amount of hair algae. Now with things like reeflux / fluconazole, you can kill it faster than a year... took me 4 months to defeat Bryopsis in my 340 gallon display I have now. Reeflux took care of it, just took time. Once a lot of it is gone (and even now) you will need to plan out how you're going to deal with nutrients going forward. The algae is a symptom of too much nutrients and no way to export them. I don't know if it's more water changes, GFO, phosphate removing resin, an algae turf scrubber, refugium, etc. You'll need a long term plan or it will come back in a few months.

 

[GeoSquid]

ATS + Tubo snails

 

[Silent]

Maybe it's just the picture, but to me the top 25% of the algae looks like it's starting to yellow / brown. First stage of dying is to further discolor and look uglier.

Over the next two weeks you may notice strands making it into your overflows or gathering up on powerheads, etc. That's when you'll want to start hand pulling and hand scrubbing the rocks, when the roots start releasing. Do this in a water change bucket or something so as not to let the rock dry out. I've been there done this more than I care to admit on a 125 gallon tank I took over from someone else.

It took me a year of scrubbing, running GFO and changing it religiously, and lights out periods, to kill this amount of hair algae. Now with things like reeflux / fluconazole, you can kill it faster than a year... took me 4 months to defeat Bryopsis in my 340 gallon display I have now. Reeflux took care of it, just took time. Once a lot of it is gone (and even now) you will need to plan out how you're going to deal with nutrients going forward. The algae is a symptom of too much nutrients and no way to export them. I don't know if it's more water changes, GFO, phosphate removing resin, an algae turf scrubber, refugium, etc. You'll need a long term plan or it will come back in a few months.

I don't know, unfortunately that algae looks pretty healthy to me.

 

[Saltysav96]

Maybe it's just the picture, but to me the top 25% of the algae looks like it's starting to yellow / brown. First stage of dying is to further discolor and look uglier.

Over the next two weeks you may notice strands making it into your overflows or gathering up on powerheads, etc. That's when you'll want to start hand pulling and hand scrubbing the rocks, when the roots start releasing. Do this in a water change bucket or something so as not to let the rock dry out. I've been there done this more than I care to admit on a 125 gallon tank I took over from someone else.

It took me a year of scrubbing, running GFO and changing it religiously, and lights out periods, to kill this amount of hair algae. Now with things like reeflux / fluconazole, you can kill it faster than a year... took me 4 months to defeat Bryopsis in my 340 gallon display I have now. Reeflux took care of it, just took time. Once a lot of it is gone (and even now) you will need to plan out how you're going to deal with nutrients going forward. The algae is a symptom of too much nutrients and no way to export them. I don't know if it's more water changes, GFO, phosphate removing resin, an algae turf scrubber, refugium, etc. You'll need a long term plan or it will come back in a few months.

Its been collecting in my overflow wier and mp40 for several weeks now . i have to take a toothbrush to the wier everyday to get the algae off or it will mess up the drain rate and cause the ATO to kick on..

 

[t5Nitro]

Its been collecting in my overflow wier and mp40 for several weeks now . i have to take a toothbrush to the wier everyday to get the algae off or it will mess up the drain rate and cause the ATO to kick on..

Your situation is the same as mine. Almost sounds exactly the same. Im waiting on an algae scrubber from a more known company. Otherwise I might start a refugium if thats far away on their ETA for production yet.

 

[Saltysav96]

Your situation is the same as mine. Almost sounds exactly the same. Im waiting on an algae scrubber from a more known company. Otherwise I might start a refugium if thats far away on their ETA for production yet.

if dont mind me asking, where are you getting the Algae scrubber from? i am limited on space with that kind of stuff.

 

[Treefer32]

Its been collecting in my overflow wier and mp40 for several weeks now . i have to take a toothbrush to the wier everyday to get the algae off or it will mess up the drain rate and cause the ATO to kick on..

That's progress! I have H20 Overflow boxes from customaquariums.com, it's very similar to a wier overflow. Those teeth were covered in crap so much that water just started flowing over the top of the teeth. I get hardly anything on my teeth now! I had even asked the manufacturer if there's anything with wider teeth.. They sent me a second set of overflows so I could just swap them out and clean them. Lol.

That's progress though when things are uprooting... It's a very slow painful process. I would recommend a scrubber or Refugium. Turboaquatics scrubbers are expensive but well built with really good quality LEDs for growing algae. The owner is awesome and will answer any questions you have. He has youtube videos of how the scrubbers work.

 

[t5Nitro]

if dont mind me asking, where are you getting the Algae scrubber from? i am limited on space with that kind of stuff.

Turbo aquatics. You can get on his waitlist now for the updated version he plans on producing this spring.

 

[mrrealmadrid]

Sea hare....... they put in WORK on hair algae. That and a refugium and you should be golden

 

[t5Nitro]

You guys have any recommendations on reasonably priced fuge lights for red ogo gracilaria? Would love to have that for the tangs and also remove nutrients.