Big water change?

[Krish]

Ugh.. It's all back again.. I just don't understand it all. Lots of dark green hair. I might just mix up 40gallons of new water and drain the tank t.t and hold the two fish I have in a 10gal for a few days. And redo the sand bed. Can you dip the hair in hydrogen peroxide like you can freshwater hair algae?

Any chance to get a picture of what you are dealing with? If algae is growing then something is fueling it. It can't grow if its food supply isn't there. Could be from a number of things, but water changes over and over won't fix the problem. It will only dilute it temporarily (granted your make-up water isn't the problem) and after a while come right back. You mentined changing your sand bed...Tell us a bit more about it. What type of sand? How deep is your sand bed? Do you clean it and if so how often? GIve us a bit more info so we can see if we can help you find the source of your problems to deal with it that way.

 

[dtd87]

its the carribsea live sand i think it was 20lbs now its only probably 13-15lb. i think food and stuff is getting burried under the rock and is what is feeding everything.

 

[Frankie]

Hello dtd87,
It is too soon to notice much change in HA with just one water change. Basically your flushing out N03, P04 by doing water changes and bathing the corals in fresh nutrients.
As stated, the beneficial bacteria is on the surfaces in the tank. Not in the water column. There may be some but not enough to interrupt the biological filtration going on in there.

So keep doing water changes for the next month or so weekly and then you will start to see some thinning out and dissipation of the Ha.
It took months to build up the N03, P04 in the system and it will take months to remove it now.


Water changes are your best bet in this situation. Every time you perform a water change your N03 and P04 reduction is directly proportional to percentage of Water Change. (basically this means you can starve out the Ha)
So don't give up and see this as a battle your going to win over time. Nothing happens fast in this hobby. Except crashes due to human errors that is

I would like to see some pictures of your filtration system please. That is more important then the display tank.

 

[tat2z_21]

What is the chance that his rock itself has has nutrients leaching from it. I am not sure of the feeding cycle, but if feeding excessively then that definately is going to cause this to continue the cycle.

 

[dtd87]

I feed once a day, not very much though because i only have two fish. i only have a swc bh100f hob skimmer, no refugium. i have a 50b in the garage with a 20l i planned on using as a sump refugium but i dont have a way to drill it. should i pluck the rock and try aand scrub the hair off? or put the rock in a tub and try and do a good sand vac. trying to find the power coord to my point n shoot

 

[user 2204]

I've done the scrub a rock before. But it will continue to grow back if you do not find what is causing the hair algae growth. IF you do have it under control and you pull as much out as possible and scrub a few rocks here and there when you do your wc, then you should be able to rid yourself of hair algae in a matter of time.

 

[dtd87]

Making a crapload of water ^.^ currently

 

[the6goat6man6]

if debris is pileing around and under your rock sounds like you need more flow, and maybe less feeding. and remove as much algea as poss. use it for export as well as water changes. I only feed once a day, one pellet a time(new life spec.), till each pellet is gone

i have a powerhead behind my rock work, pushing across the back

 

[ReefLogic]

Not a problem at all. Good way to get rid of some nasty stuff and dilute some water quality issus . I know a member here who over the course of a week use to do a 100% water change. Not a problem once the temp, salinity etc are all the same.

All things matching, 50% is perfectly safe. I typically do 20-25% water changes, on a regular basis. Every 3 months or so, I try to do a 50% WC.

Yep... ive done 80%+ at times... several times a week, as long as your using good salt.. and you have your levels right... its on

The niced sized water change should dilute some of the excess nutrients in the water column so should help some (granted you are using ro/di water). Good luck with the algae issues! I've been there and know how it can be a nuicance!!!

Imo its important to let the salt mix for a greater period of time when mixing that much, so the salt doesn't irritate anything.

Can't count the times I've seen tide go down and reefs come out of the water here. Should be fine.

I am no professional here. But I have done a constant water change. More like a transfusion I guess we can call it. I pre mixed about 150 gallons of water. Let sit made sure all parameters are within tolerance. And slowly drained from one side and filled from the other. I did this process in a little over 3 hours and it worked like a champ. I was told the perfect solution to pollution is dilution.

I agree with all of these

 

[OldFishMan]

Unless the kids spilled something in the tank --- wow --- it is your tank, do what you want.

What is too high, nitrates or phosphates ? The water should be able to stay for at least a month with a good sump. Track the problem down.

OFM

 

[dtd87]

Sadly I won't have a sump until I get my 50b drilled, Tank currently has a swc bh100f skimmer and thats all.

 

[Scooterman]

Sadly I won't have a sump until I get my 50b drilled, Tank currently has a swc bh100f skimmer and thats all.

Nothing wrong with that, don't rush it, just might have to do more WC's in the mean time but you can do well as is.

 

[dtd87]

Doing 5g a week usually, been tough after surgery. For some reason my knee is still VERY WEAK. Even though I was told 3-4weeks I should be back to normal. Oh the lies