looking for Sea Hare

[MIOR6485]

I am almost enbarressed to show thes pics of what my tank looks as of last night. I have been fighting Hair Algae for 6 months. I have lowered the fish count from 14 to 5 and removed the plenum with no significant change. I use windmill express water (TDS 9-11). I am setting up the 200 gallon and I hate to transfer this mess into it. I realize a good cleaning is needed but it is somewhat a waste of time if I am going with the large tank in a week. any advice is welcome

[samiam_orami]

do you have a large snail population ?

[ratboy]

Ive been there before. The only way I successfully recovered from this is to pull all the rock out and scrub the algae off with a toothbrush. Dunk the rock in successive buckets of tank water until its hair-free. Get some more snails and cut your lights WAYYYY back.. since it looks like you have all softies you can get away with just a few hours of light per day (actinics can run normal time) until things get under control. If you are transitioning to a bigger tank that would be the perfect time to do it. Also Id drop some of your power heads lower in the tank to make sure you arent accumulating junk.

[MIOR6485]

Joshua

That sounds good. Blowfish has the Bali version sea hare for $16.00 + $48.00 shipping flat rate. I spoke with them this morning and they have 99 coming as we speak. From what I was told, there is two known kinds they sell, the large (1.5-3.0") and the Carabean (much smaller).


I dont have much of a clean up crew other than some astrea red legs, and blue legs. For the price they dont seem to last in my tank

[MikeP]

Aqaudome has them regularly. I got mine from there and he has pretty much wiped out my bryopsis problem. I could probably loan you mine - I really don't want it to starve - they eat a TON of algae.

[Sunhutch]

I too had severe hair algae problems. At the time I was using the Windmill Express water as well. After investing the money and getting a Kent RO/DI my situation improved drastically. I believe the windmill water is just RO and no DI since it is primarily drinking water. During that time I tested for phosphate and it was always 0, but from what info I have read/seen the phosphate test is pretty much useless since undetectable levels can still cause a algae bloom. You can probably ask 10 different people and get 10 different responses regaurding hair algae but for me getting my own filter was worth its weight in gold.

[MIOR6485]

This brings a good point regarding water quality. I bought an air,water and ice 5 stage rodi unit for the new tank but my question is this: Ideal ppm is 0 but what is the ppm needed to get in trouble. I think there is way too many other possiblities out there to have to worry about a TDS of 5-11ppm (the difference between RO and RO/DI assuming 99% rejection). West side SA tap water shows a TDS of 285ppm. water from Windmill express is only RO and reads 9-11ppm, My new home in Beorne Tx water well reads 240ppm, 2ppm @ RO and 0ppm after DI. Is the DI (which is the most expensive cartridge) really needed?

I have always fought nitrate problems due to high fish load etc but I think the cause was the four year old 2" crushed coral bed which due to live rock I was unable to siphon and keep clean. I decided to go with max of 3/4" oolite sand. Bar botton is cool and makes sense but starboard is expensive unless someone nkows of a place to get it.

[JimD]

I just checked with James at Aquadme, he has one sea hair left, $19.99. If you want to save the shipping charges, I suggest you call them and see if theyll hold it till Sunday, that is if you intend to be here for the meeting.
Any TDS above zero is considered algae food, you have to have DI to achieve zero TDS. The DI cart is not the most expensive, the RO membrane is way more expensive, I recharge my DI twice a year at 12 bucks a pop.

[mharris7]

I had the same problem - I solved mine by scrubbing with a toothbrush, doing a 50% water change with ro\di, adding rowaphos and carbon to power filter, and upping my snail population. I also removed my sand bed. I tried snails, rabbit fish, urchins, and a sea hare before all this and none of them made a dent. IMO, removing the sand bed, scrubbing with a toothbrush, the water change and rowaphos were what made the difference.

[mharris7]

Here's a pic of my tank now (actually right after the cleaning - about a month or two ago).

http://www.maast.org/modules/PNphpBB2/files/whole_tank_800x600_119.jpg

[mharris7]

Thanks! It was hair algae - I didn't have to remove my rock to scrub it with the tooth brush - I just did it in the tank. It seemed like once the hair algae was removed from the rock it died. I did syphon as much out as possible though when I did the water change. Also, my sand bed seemed to really be driving my hair algae. I haven't had anywhere near the problems now that I'm going bare bottom. I don't even have to wipe the glass down every day - I usually go 3 or 4 now before it needs it.

[::pete::]

I just removed my sandbed last weekend, the whole tank looks so clean now it's amazing. I love it!Pictures ... pictures !!

[MIOR6485]

Looking at the work required I have decided I will leave all the rock in and just siphon the crushed coral out. I will have to remove all corals from the sand bed but thats easier than a full teardown. I guess I rather deal with the problem in the 58 than in the 200. I will then siphon the rocks clean in their place by using a tooth brush that way I wont need 5 tubs and have to remove my fish. I have to bite the bullet and remove the root cause. the sea hair is cool and I appreciate that PeeJ called aquadome for me and spoke with James but I'll try this before the sea hare.

[JimD]

errrm, lol

[MIOR6485]

sorry meant JimD called Aquadome