What alk do you guys keep your tanks at?

[mharris7]

Hi guys.

I was wondering what you keep your alk at. I was maintaining a dkh of about 9, but I've been having hair algae problems. (I've tested water quality - nitrates are below 5ppm and phos isn't detectable. Using RO/DI water, ect.....). Someone recommended that I raise my alk - saying it might have a positive impact on the hair algae. I've raised my alk to 12 so far, and low and behold my hair algae does SEEM to be retreating (some of it is turning a yellowish brown). I was suprised that alk could have an effect on hair algae, but it seems to be working.

Sorry to ramble - back to the alk question. I've noticed my leather corals don't seem to be too happy. None of them are polyping out since I started with the higher amounts of buffer (Kent pro-buffer). So, I wanted to see what you guys keep your alk at and if you had any comments on the leather coral issue.

[GaryP]

I've heard that about Leather's as well. What's your pH and calcium? Your calcium is going to have a tendency to drop as your alkalinity goes up. I somehow doubt that keeping your Alk. high is the long term solution for your hair algae problem. Grazers or a refugium are probably a lot better long term solution.

Don't trust the info you get from your phosphate kit. They are notoriously inaccurate and lack sensitivity. There are basically 2 kinds of phosphate, ortho and meta. The kits only detect ortho and the majority of phosphates will probably be present as meta. Hair algae will not grow unless there is phosphate present, so do some deductive reasoning.

Gary

[mharris7]

Gawd, I hate testing calcium. I haven't tested in a while, but it was usually up there between 400 and 450. I'll test PH when I get home.

I've also added the Mark Weiss Phosphate sponge to my cannister filter - that could be having an effect as well. It's an iron based media - not aluminum based like phosphsorb (the aluminum based products have been know to be harsh on certain corals - particularly leathers).

[GaryP]

Hair algae is just a fact of life in most aquariums. I fought it for years before finding the right critters to graze it. Now I have almost none. The other factors to look at are whether you might be overfeeding, if your skimmer is operating correctly, how often you are doing water changes, and the source of your water. These can all have a potential impact on phosphate levels.

Good luck,
Gary

[jng3]

Hair algae is just a fact of life in most aquariums. I fought it for years before finding the right critters to graze it.
Good luck,
Gary

What critters are you grazing?

[dan]

yellow tangs are great grazers

[mharris7]

I have a yellow tang but he really hasn't touched it. I've also tried a fox face. I've also tried various snails, hermit crabs, emerald crabs, and urchins..... although someone said to trim it first. They said a lot of animals will eat it but won't touch it if it's too long. Haven't really tried that yet.

[Instar]

If you jumped your alk from 9 to 12 and didn't take many weeks to do that, there are lots of things that die when changes like that are made suddenly. Stress reactions and bad things start to happen if the alk changes more than 0.4 over the course of several days. Also, the calcium comes down fast when you do that unless you also have a source for calcium.

[mharris7]

I did it over the course of a couple days but if that's the case I didn't go slow enough.....well, it's at about 13 now (tested at lunch). I'll try to maintain a holding pattern and keep an eye on everything. So far, it's just the leathers that are po'd. Everything else looks good. I'll test calcium as well and adjust if necessary.

[dan]

ya yellow tang don't care for the long stuff. they like as it's starting to grow out of the rock