Green hair algae on sand

[Leslie]

This month marks one year as a reef keeper. I have a 29g Eclipse with a protein skimmer. About 20 lbs. of live rock with a live sand bed - Fiji pink...Water parameters are all great and remain consistent, with the only exception being a tendency to a low pH (7.7 - 8.0). Calcium is always within range, dkh is at 10 - 11 consistently. 0 amonia, 0 nitrates. I use R/O water only and do 20% water changes every week to two weeks, depending on how the weekend goes. I never go more than two weeks without a water change.

Last week (after my sand sifting star fish died) I noticed green hair algae growing on the sand bed. This is the first hair algae I've had since I started the tank. How can I get rid of it?

 

[medic1272]

A red liped blennie should be able to help ! also do you have lots of critters in your sand bed ? it is a good idea to promote a "live" sand bed and that shoud help with that peski algea.

 

[Leslie]

I'm guessing the answer to your question about critters in the sand bed is "no". Could that be because the star fish took care of them, as well as the algae? I have several hermit crabs, red leg, blue leg and some "brownish" leg...and they seem to be active enough, but do they eat the algae in the sand? (Mine aren't if they're supposed to be). The Fiji pink sand I bought was live sand, but from some of my earlier posts, a vast percentage of people seemed to think that a sand sifting star will kill just about everything in the sand, so perhaps it is now "dead" sand. Dunno.

The algae is a deep blue/green, not the "grass green" that I usually see and it's only on one patch of sand (so far?). My tank isn't large enough for a tang and I understand blennies to be difficult feeders. I had a scooter that died of starvation and am reluctant to go there again. Are red-lipped blennies different in their feeding habits/needs? I don't have a large 'pod' population AND I have a small tank at that, so I'd hate to sentence another poor blenny to an untimely death. This may be a dumb question, but can I just scoop out the affected sand to prevent further growth?

 

[danmhippo]

Yes, the goby you referred to should be one of the sleeper goby family. Their destruction to the sand bad fauna is much more efficient than the sandstar with the exception that they do not touch bristle worms.

It's really a trade off, The goby or the sand fauna.

FYI, I have a 150 and have neither goby, hermits, nor stars, and yet my sand looked sparkling white too. The only differences are when you knelt down and put your eye level with the sandbed, you will see tiny chimneys, literally thousands of tiny chimneys on the sand bed....indication of active spaghetti worm mounts.

With minimal nutrient in the water, sand stirring stars/hermits/or gobies are not needed to keep your sand white.

 

[smokie]

Dan can i get some of your sand?
I will pay you for it.
Also i have had this tank running for a year now and i havent been able to get nutrients under control yet.I do water changes every 2 weeks 25 gallons bottled water for top off i use RO water from my RO unit mixed with kalk.
i have a prefilter and 200 pounds of live rock,
A Bullett 2 skimmer with a mag 18 pumping it,a mag 18 returning water to the tank as well,a denitrator that feeds on deniballs,2 inches of what used to be live sand (gobies ate it i guess),
860 watts of lighting halides and PC,2 bulkheads for overflows drilled in tank one on each end (final diameter of pipe 1 and 1/4",2 bulkheads drilled in tank one on each end (final pipe diameter 3/4",and 4 circulation pumps in the tank which im thinking of making a closed loop setup and just run one big pump instead of 4 pumps.
Yet all i seem to grow is algae,i have bubble algae,hair algae,green crusty algae on the glass,and brown diatom algae on the glass.
But i cant get coraline algae to grow worth a hoot,it does grow in places but not so as you would notice.Yet everything seems to thrive.
I have mushrooms,Xenia witch i had to get rid of some cuz its like a weed,2 sponges,2 anenomes,some small star polyps,and my fish...
2 spotted gobies,1 watchman gobie,2 yellow tail damsels,1 domino damsel,1 three striped damsel,1 clarki clown,1 honey damsel,2 scooter blennies.
The tank is 125 gallons with a 25 gallon sump.
I feed them Brine shrimp once a day and thats it.
I add 2 droppers of strontium,iodine each day along with 3 tablespoons of magnesium powder and 3 tablespoons of calcium pellets as well as every 2 days i add Calxmax 2 part calcium/buffer mix.
The ammonia level has never come down since day one according to my test kit and i have tried 2 different kits.PH is right on the money as is alkalinity and salinity.
I dont understand what i am doing wrong but im getting worn out doing constant water changes yet nothing changes. HELP!!!

 

[danmhippo]

Smokie, you got a spare tank around? Put 6" of sand in it and start growing caulerpa in it. Let caulerpa grow all over that tank and keep lights on 24/7. The caulerpa will compete with hair algae for nutrient and periodically harvest 1/3 or the caulerpa by volume either discard them or sell them off back to the LFS. (By the way, if you have small frags of base rocks, and plenty of them, put them into the caulerpa tank as "caulerpa on the rock" is valued much higher and preferred by most LFS).

You need to deal with your nutrient issue. Have you checked NO3 reading from your denitrator output? What does it read? While you are at it, check NO2 on the effluent as well. If the process is incomplete, NO2 will develop from the denitrator. If the NO2 goes back into the tank, it defeats the purpose of setting up the denitrator.

Have you been gut-loading your brine shrimp? Brine shrimp is extremly nutrient poor. Brine shrimp shell is nutrient poor. The only way to enrich them would be to place them in a vessel with aeration and rich in liquid food. Brine shrimp are filter feeder and will stuff anything they can get in their mouth. Breeders use this characteristic of brine shrimp to supplement their fish/coral with vitamins. When they are waiting to be sold at LFS, their gut content are already all used up and render them useless.

Unless you have gut load them (place them in aerating vessel for 24 hours before feeding and make sure the ammonia level they produces is not too high, or they may die of ammonia poisoning), you might as well better feed your fish frozen foods such as mysis shrimp and prime-reef cubes, both of which is high on HUFA which all marine fish need, but is often lacked in flake food and brine shrimps.

I would get test kits for everything you are adding to your tank. Mg, I2, Ca, Alk, and Strontium kits. Unless you are testing them, otherwise how in the world would you know if you have overdosed your tank?

Also, test your source water (bottle water) for NO3 and PO4 as well, not all bottled water are created equal.......

Good luck

 

[smokie]

I gave up testing a long time ago because it didnt seem to matter what i did nothing changed.when i had all the nutrients under control and testing the water every otherday my ammonia level was still high and algae was still growing wildly.
The only one i managed to get rid of was slime algae.
I dont know what test kits you guys use but where do you come up with these numbers most of my kits go by a stupid color chart with the exception of calcium,NO3,NO2.
my silicate test uses a color chart.
my PH test uses a color chart with numbers.
my alkalinity test uses a color chart.
Its all color matching so how can you guys say with any degree of accuracy "My PH is 8.4 or my calcium is 425 PPM ect... its totaly unreliable.
A fraction of a pigment can be several 1000 PPM there is far to much room for error.
Its pointless to test my water because i did it relegiously for so long and nothing changed.Yet i continue to do constant water changes ,i only feed once a day,i blow out my rock with a powerhead every week,the gobies keep the sand stirred so as to loosen any trapped ditrus,I have more than enough skimmer and circulation,more than enough light.I even ran 2 fluval 404 canitor filters on it at one point to assist in cleaning the water in addition to my sump filter and skimmer,with no change.
Finally i took them off and sold them i decided they werent worth the added work and cost.
(by the way when i unhooked the fluvals the stench was unbearable it reeked like someone took a big nasty dump then dropped dead in it.This is not intended to be a joke its true)

 

[smokie]

Oh i forgot i will try shutting off the denitrator for a few weeks its a small one anyway.
Im lost as far as what to do even if i tested the water and found high readings because short of setting up a refugium i have tried everything.

 

[danmhippo]

You are using a fluval? How often do you clean it? What most of us do is not using any sponge or mechanical filter at all. We let the detritus and food particles to float around the tank until it is consumed. This way, it will become very obvious if we overfed our tanks.

In your case, food particles quickly meet their end when they were sucked into the fluval, trapped there and quickly broken down by bacteria and converted into ammonia and follows the nitrogen cycle. Most of these food particles was trapped without even giving it a chance to be eaten by the pods, and microscopic fauna in the LR and LS. In another word, your Fluval IS your ammonia and nitrogen compound factory. Unless you clean them every other day, food particles will quickly become ammonia in matter of hours in Fluval. The stench you mentioned is the best proof.

How about shutting off your fluval for this weekend and monitor your tank's nutrient level, monitor your skimmate volume, and monitor your fishes' reaction to it? If you can maintain your tank without the fluval, it is better if you can do it without.

HTH

BTW, no matter how you feel about your test kits, knowing the current level is better than not knowing at all........

I use all salifert test kits. All test kits are color indicated. I don't think you will find testkits that number will surface instead of changing colors.

 

[smokie]

I got rid of the 2 fluvals 3 months ago.becaus ei was having to clean them all the time and replace the carbon in them.I felt they were a bigger pain in the butt then they are worth so i sold them for 50.00 each which isnt anywhere close to what i paid for them.
One other thing i have tried 3 different protein skimmers as well Turbofloater 1000,RedSea Berlin turbo,and the one i have now PM Bullet 2.My LFS says oh ya its normal for a new system to have that much of an algae problem.Trouble is it isnt new anymore its over a year old now.But i will try testing or shutting down the Denitrator and see if it helps,just one thing i only bought the aquamedic denitrator because i thought it might help fix the problem i still have.

 

[Leslie]

Why am I not surprised to get good info on this site? Damnhippo, I think you've hit it. Coincidentally (?), my flatworms LOVE it on the one side of the tank, where the hair algae is growing. I have two powerheads already, but have thought about the lack of flow on that side, and will readjust them right away. I see lots of room for improvement since you brought it to my attention. I think I can work it so that one powerhead blows through the rocks to aid in pH and the other to direct the flow around the rocks. Additionally, I'm going to scoop out the algae and see what happens.

Thank you so much.

 

[danmhippo]

2 things I would look into, Sally Light Foot Crab and Manual removal. I myself seems to be the only one on this board claiming seeing SLF munching on coral polyps. But since all other members of this board recommend it, you may want to add one to your tank, or 2 if you know how to tell the difference between male and femail by looking at their abdomen.

I myself would go for manual removal since your tank is rather small and the patch in question is well confined. However I suspect your tank may not have adequate flow. Hair Algae tends to congregate at nutrient stagnant area (translation = less flow). Also judging by your Alk reading (10-11) yet you still observes occassional Ph drop, indication there are detritus build up somewhere in the tank and the CO2 produced from the detrivore's bio-activities drag the Ph down from time to time.

I would invest into 2 maxijet 600's, one to blow across the sand in the display area, and another to follow the flow and add additional jets to blow into the liverock to flush out all accumulated detritus. After the installation of the new powerheads, you may want to do a water change too.

 

[danmhippo]

Oh, about your sand star, yes, I am afraid that your sand is pretty much all cleaned up!

Sorry to see your sandstar go, but it's a good news for your pods and worms.

 

[smokie]

I have 2 orange spotted sand sifting gobies in my 125 and the sand looks like i just put it in yesterday.I dont know what they do to the critters in the sand eat them i imagine since sifting the sand is how the find their food in the real world.I tryed different critters and they all failed to do the job or died off.I wouldnt trade the Gobies for anything.

 

[Anonymous]

You need flow everywhere in your tank so you do not have dead spots like your algae patch. The other thing you can do is use a turkey baster to blow the detrius out of the rockwork. The detrius will leach nutrients back into the water unless removed by critters,skimmers or refugiums. If I were you I would even add one of your retired skimmers. The excess oxygen will only help along with more nutrient export.

After removing the CC from my refugium and using the turkey baster two to three times a week I have concured the cyano.