Im with Rob Reefkeeper, Im sick of the Hair Algae!

[ratherbediving]

... IMO astreas out live turbos and since they can right them selves when they fall upside down they dont get stuck and die.

Do you have that backwards? My 2 "Mexican" turbos have no problem righting themselves that I have seen. I've heard astreas generally live in rockwork, so don't usually have trouble righting themselves in nature. However, if one falls on the sand in the aquarium (after cleaning some off the glass) they can have trouble.

 

[Anonymous]

Well the hermits arent gonna eat the hair algae..I have several types of hermits and none of them touch hair algae..

 

[Anonymous]

Well the hermits arent gonna eat the hair algae..I have several types of hermits and none of them touch hair algae..

Agreed!

I may try a tuxedo urchin if I can find one locally.
_________________
Honda Prelude

 

[sediener]

Well the hermits arent gonna eat the hair algae..I have several types of hermits and none of them touch hair algae..

If the micro-hermits I have aren't eating the algae, then they sure are tricking me... they could be eating detritus but I see them in the middle of some algae munching away at something.

 

[Anonymous]

I think both of you especially Rob (with no fish in the tank) should give male mollys a try.

 

[Anonymous]

BTW - The tank of the month that is absolutely stunning has no refugium.
_________________
Ferrari TR

 

[Anonymous]

BTW - The tank of the month that is absolutely stunning has no refugium.

I must have missed something. let's see 100g with 2 tangs and 3-4 angels. and

Tank dimension : 3.5 ft by 2 ft by 2 ft
Sump with refugium : 2.5 ft by 1.5 ft by 1.5 ft
Tank and Sump volume : 100 gallons

looks to me like the system has a sump/refugia approximately 40.1785714% of the display and roughly 28.6624204% of the total total.

 

[Anonymous]

BTW - The tank of the month that is absolutely stunning has no refugium.

I must have missed something. let's see 100g with 2 tangs and 3-4 angels. and

Tank dimension : 3.5 ft by 2 ft by 2 ft
Sump with refugium : 2.5 ft by 1.5 ft by 1.5 ft
Tank and Sump volume : 100 gallons

looks to me like the system has a sump/refugia approximately 40.1785714% of the display and roughly 28.6624204% of the total total.

I think you have missed something. :lol: I'll fill the rest in:

 

[Anonymous]

BTW - He has a nice skimmer. CA reactor, tons of flow.

Main filtration is through a DIY Single Beckett Protein Skimmer run by an Iwaki MD 55 pump. Chamber diameter is 8 inches and height of the chamber is 30 inches. I use small quantities of Rowaphos in a bag for Phosphate removal and changed monthly.

_________________
BMW S1000RR

 

[Anonymous]

BTW - He has a nice skimmer. CA reactor, tons of flow.

Main filtration is through a DIY Single Beckett Protein Skimmer run by an Iwaki MD 55 pump. Chamber diameter is 8 inches and height of the chamber is 30 inches. I use small quantities of Rowaphos in a bag for Phosphate removal and changed monthly.

Yep that is true.

And he has a refugia.

Awesome tank.

lotsa plant life in the corals.

lotsa fish.

awesome skimmer

uses small quantities of Rowaphos

does water changes.

and has a refugia untalked about. un discussed, un photographed.

therefore you and I know nothing about the refugia.

And noone can do anything other then speculate as to how much of the fish bioload is being taken care of by the skimmer, dsb, corals, or whatever is in the refugia.

My speculation is simply that the system would look just as nice with a larger refugia with plant life and no skimmer. His speculation seems to be the refugia is not worth discussion and the skimmer is the main thing.

Whatever is happening is he has an awesome tank with tons of corals, loads of fish, skimmer, dsb, refugia, and what appears to be little to no hair algae.

 

[Anonymous]

Bob, do you realize that there are tons of nice healthy tanks out there with no 'fuges?

 

[Anonymous]

Bob, do you realize that there are tons of nice healthy tanks out there with no 'fuges?

Sure. some even put plant life in the display. so fuges are not mandatory.

I just haven't seen any tanks with fish in them for over a year that was not teaming with plant life. Just easier IMO to have a fuge to protect that plant life.

Just as mods like thomas712 at SWF.com fuond out. And all the locals here and lfs's have found out.

but then there are locals who have awesome sps tanks and do all the work like ro/di water, water changes, dripping kalk or calcium reactors and so on. And they don't have hair algae either. Just tons of sps and corralin algae. And no fish.

Meanwhile we have the robs and lords here wondering why fish die and hair algae is such a problem.

 

[jordanphulet]

How many snails do you have in your tank? A bunch of astreas are cheap and they go a long way towards reducing algae populations.

 

[ChrisRD]

I just haven't seen any tanks with fish in them for over a year that was not teaming with plant life.

If this is true, you can't have much experience in this hobby.

but then there are locals who have awesome sps tanks and do all the work like ro/di water, water changes, dripping kalk or calcium reactors and so on. And they don't have hair algae either. Just tons of sps and corralin algae. And no fish.

...and of course there are plenty of people who run tanks like that with lots of fish in them. They don't bother with "plant life" because they're running the system so nutrient poor they couldn't grow macros if they wanted to...

Meanwhile we have the robs and lords here wondering why fish die and hair algae is such a problem.

Which of course has little or nothing to do with "plant life".

 

[Anonymous]

Bob, do you realize that there are tons of nice healthy tanks out there with no 'fuges?

Sure. some even put plant life in the display. so fuges are not mandatory.

And some don't put 'plant life' in the display and still have healthy tanks.

I just haven't seen any tanks with fish in them for over a year that was not teaming with plant life. Just easier IMO to have a fuge to protect that plant life.

Yes you have - they have been posted in most of the long threads you have been involved in. Click the link at the bottom of my post and you'll see one (and the 'fuge has been removed from my system and things have never been better).

Just as mods like thomas712 at SWF.com fuond out. And all the locals here and lfs's have found out.

Meanwhile we have the robs and lords here wondering why fish die and hair algae is such a problem.

And you are wondering the same thing. As has been pointed out, your ideas is not all that new, and has been tried to deal with problem algae with the same results as basically everything else that has been tried. Regardless of what you say, there are lots of people with massive 'fuges that still have algae problems.
I am more and more convinced that the problem is caused by nutrients in the rock itself, which would mean that all the 'plant life' in the world wouldn't make a difference.

 

[steveweast]

Bob, do you realize that there are tons of nice healthy tanks out there with no 'fuges?

Sure. some even put plant life in the display. so fuges are not mandatory.

I just haven't seen any tanks with fish in them for over a year that was not teaming with plant life. Just easier IMO to have a fuge to protect that plant life.

Just as mods like thomas712 at SWF.com fuond out. And all the locals here and lfs's have found out.

but then there are locals who have awesome sps tanks and do all the work like ro/di water, water changes, dripping kalk or calcium reactors and so on. And they don't have hair algae either. Just tons of sps and corralin algae. And no fish.

Meanwhile we have the robs and lords here wondering why fish die and hair algae is such a problem.

Bob's statement has got to be the most laughable ever. I'll start with my 3 yr old 850gal tank that has over a hundred fish....no fuge (I pulled all the macro it had over a year ago since it did little for nutrient export and turned it into an eel/angler tank).... and no algae problem. There are many methods of nutrient export....just few as inefficient as macro harvesting.

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Steve,

:welcome:

Love your tank and site!

 

[Fastmarc]

I had serious hair algae and got on top of it by tracing down the source first. In my case it turned out to be the commercial food I was feeding at the time (pellets, granules, etc.) and I tend to feed liberally. I then switched to making my own food from fresh ingredients, one for the corals and one for the fish.
I then took the time to remove the rocks and give them a thorough scrub with a firm tooth brush. A rinse in fresh NSW and then back into the tank.
From there I allowed the algae to grow long enough and remove them by hand with the pumps off so as not to leave any floating around. I did this routine for a few months, but I eventually saw the reduction in hair algae. I no longer have any hair algae.
It takes a lot of patience, but as long as you are not feeding the algae and removing it from the system, it will eventually go away.

 

[Ben1]

Very nice Steve!

 

[ChrisRD]

For those who aren't already familiar with Steve's amazing setup...

http://www.oregonreef.com/sub_gallery.htm

Nice website too!