CeeTee Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 My tank has been up for a little over a month. I have a few corals and a LOT of hair algae. I have dozen crabs (no fish) in the tank yet the problem still persist. Will a fuge help me? Link to comment
Billdemart Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 Great question. I have the same problem and am considering getting the aquafuge, although not for the algae Im still interested in the answer. Link to comment
bamann345 Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 Bill are you already having some hair algae???? Clean-up crew at all in your tank? Link to comment
Billdemart Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 Hey William, My tank has had hair algae for about a week, maybe longer now. I cycled in ridiculous time as you know and after that had considerable nitrates. I did a 50% water change that brought me down from 25 to about 10-15 and then did two or three 10-20% water changes because my nitrates were still high. I got them down under 10 and added 2 scarlet leg hermits and 2 blue leg hermits and 2 bumblebee snails. They seem to be always eating on something on either the sand or the LR but the algae is just going nuts. So I did some research and added an emerald crab this morning. He rocks. He immediately went to work on the algae. I'll try and post some new pics later on. How have you been? Bill Link to comment
bamann345 Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 I have been good. I was in Columbia this past weekend and the the timer for my fan went out.....well, the 3 lights came on and when I got home the water in the tank was...drumrole.....92!!! Everything was looking VERY VERY BAD! But I got that back down and everything is doing very well. I only lost one small xenia thing.. But to got a couple shrooms and a cabbage leather from the tank I take care of back at school in my dorm. I will try and post some pictures soon, my girlfriend is in town for the week! . Are you still planning on going to the next meeting? I wish I could come but I am leaving to Nova Scotia for the 2 weeks!! I have no clue what I am going do with the tank when I leave....eik! Link to comment
CeeTee Posted June 24, 2003 Author Share Posted June 24, 2003 How about an answer to my question PLEASE! Link to comment
Billdemart Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 Have a great trip. Yeah I plan on going as long as its not near Tennessee like the last one Link to comment
FlyGTI Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 CT, in time, a fuge might help. It's not a guarantee, though. What you're basically trying to do with this fuge is localize the macroalgae growth, and get rid of the hair. Put some sand in there and some rock, and let the macro grow over it, and some will tell you that it'll cut your growth of algae in the tank. I'll tell you that I've got a small fuge hanging on my 20, and I've got gobs of hair algae in it, as well as a fair bit of macro, but I've still got some hair growing in my main system. Some of it is decided when you add the fuge. If you've got hair in the main system to start with, you'll have a hard time removing it and replacing it with macro in the fuge. The macro will grow, but the hair algae won't just stop growing and die. You'd best start by scrubbing the snot outta your rock and see where that leads you. Add your fuge, put in some macro colonies to let them take the phosphates and nutrients that hair would normally take. Several varieties of macro will outcompete hair algae for nutrients. I'd recommend a fuge anyway, as it gives you a shot at a safe zone with which you can rear copepods, grow out some coral frags or allow them to attach properly, blah blah blah. If you're using it as a coral grow out area, run your lights the same way you would your tank lights. If you're going to set it up to grow macro (and thus localize the algae growth, both good and bad), keep your lights on all the time. It'll help with alkalinity spikes at night when the lights go out, and it'll keep the algae growing. That's my take on the fuge thing. If you've got the cash to spend, then by all means, do it. It'll provide you with a lot of benefits, but not necessarily the complete eradication of hair algae. Link to comment
Dustin Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 Yes I think it will, I have a ton of cyano...and goop in my fuge, and my show does not a have the darndest spot of anything unsightly. Link to comment
Billdemart Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 I am currently saving up for the Aquafuge and the lights needed for it. I can't wait to get that! Link to comment
FlyGTI Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 I've got the CPR Aquafuge (the smallest one) with a JBJ cliplight (sans clip) sitting on a piece of acrylic shining into it. Works great! Light runs all the time. Haven't figured out how to keep the light from lighting up the rest of the room, though. Any suggestions on how to kill the outside spread of the light? Link to comment
CeeTee Posted June 24, 2003 Author Share Posted June 24, 2003 Does anyone else have any experience battling hair algae with a fuge? Link to comment
Billdemart Posted June 24, 2003 Share Posted June 24, 2003 Nope sure don't GTI However I'm interested in anything you can tell me about the Aquafuge (where did you get it? How much? Best lighting? Setup? What type of macro? LS/LR? What size tank you have it on? Pics? How has it changed your tank?) Thanks! Bill Link to comment
FlyGTI Posted June 25, 2003 Share Posted June 25, 2003 Bill, I bought mine used from a dude in The District who decided against using it about a week after he bought it. Got a great deal, and he was great to work with. Check the feedback forum. I posted there about it. I've got an 18w PC fixture made by JBJ. I pulled the legs off of it, and set it directly on a DIY acrylic lid. I've got a few pounds of live sand in it, maybe a pound and a half of live rock. I put some macro in it, although I can't for the life of me remember what species. It ran for a while on a 28 gal bow front similar to Absolutc's tank (I think?), and now it sits on a 20g long. I can't really tell that there's a noticeable difference, but I've noticed that some of my hair algae growth has been localized to the fuge, as opposed to roughshod in the tank. I'm still fightin' the beast, though, with regard to the hair algae. It's in the main tank too. Sorry...in between digitals. Still haven't found a bank to rob in order to buy a Nikon D100. When I get a cam, I'll post. Hope some of this helped. I'd definitely recommend a fuge. Great little thing to have. Adds a little water volume, a safe place for animals to grow and live, and helps to localize algae growth to where you want it. Link to comment
foo Posted July 8, 2003 Share Posted July 8, 2003 I don't a a fuge but the macro algae will defintely compete with the hair algae. I have hospital tank that had some hair algae in it with a couple of hermit crabs in it and a couple of snails and there was a small clump of hair algae that I noticed was getting larger over the course of several weeks. There was also a plague of flatworms in that tank. I introduced a small amount of grape calupera and after about a month the macro algae had grown quite a bit so I removed half of it. After another month I did the same thing. By this time both the hair and flatworm population were noticibly reduced! Many months later the flatworms and hair algae are nowhere to be seen. This is my hospital tank so it's a closed system where the only thing being introduced is top off water and light. The macro algae will definitely compete with the hair algae with help from the grazing of snails and hungry crabs to keep new growth at bay. It's also important to remove some of the macro algae as a way to export nutrients from the system to reduce new growth of algae. If you're feeding the system and there aren't enough grazers of the hair algae or you don't scrub the hair algae off the rocks yourself, you might not notice any affect. Link to comment
Crakeur Posted July 8, 2003 Share Posted July 8, 2003 ceetee: I had a 7 gallon, with a fuge and horrific hair and bryopsis issues. The only way I got rid of the hair was when the bryopsis grew faster than the hair. nothing worked for me. I tried tangs, chems, algae eating slugs, snails, crabs, a toothbrush, and no lights for long stretches and the stuf just grew and grew and grew. Two things to look into: 1. salinity. you might have an elevated salinity and this would aid the hair algae. bring some water to a lfs that has a refractometer or a pinpoint salinity monitor as those hydrometers tend to suck. 2. check your water for phosphates. They might be high and if so, a bag of rowaphos will rid the tank of phosphates and hopefully help the algae die off. I loved the fuge but I had it set up originally as a means of housing pods and other food sources. I rarely fed the tank, my two fish were always fat and my corals all grew real well so the fuge served that purpose but the algae was a constant nuisance. My end result was to scrap the tank. I simply couldn't pull the algae out fast enough. Link to comment
Korbin Posted July 17, 2003 Share Posted July 17, 2003 Dunno about anybody else, but I added kent phosphate remover for 3 weeks (looks like white flakes). Did nothing. Then I added Kent activated carbon. So I had 2 week old phosphate remover AND carbon in the filter. The hair algae fell off the rock in a couple weeks. Now, this hair algae was on a rock from another tank and was living in the new tank for about a month. It didn't really grow, but only after adding the carbon did it truly disappear. Might be worth trying... Link to comment
Gunfury Posted July 18, 2003 Share Posted July 18, 2003 A good combo for getting my hair algae under control: 1) snails won't go after the hail algae unless you get something to crop it - I added an emerald crab and within 5-7 days he/she/it had most of the long stuff under control 2) I had my LFS verify their RO/DI water that I buy was phosphate free 3) I've let the hair algae and macro stuff grow unchecked in my 'fuge I'm hoping the long term effect of this will control the stuff in the main tank. 4) Had a major attack of cyano - I nuked it with Chemi-clean. LFS recommend I over dose the tank because under-dosing will breed resist strains - cleared it up in like 2 days and have been cyano free for a month 5) physically removed the long heavy stuff and scrubbed the rest off with a toothbrush - tried to suck most of the pieces out during a water change. 6) reduced the time the lights were on by 50% until the algae was under control So far between my one-time physical removal and the emerald/snail combo my tank hasn't looked this good since the first week I set it up Link to comment
kimura Posted July 23, 2003 Share Posted July 23, 2003 Well CeeTee I too suffered like Crakeur did, at the same time as well!!! I did it all.......Checked water parameters, reduced lighting and even no lighting for a looong time, added a fuge and had tons of macro growing, scrubbed, added carbon, phosphate removers, and a protien skimmer along with weekly water changes. AND STILL......hair algae. So far It's been ok, but I still have it growing and I still have to go in a remove the long strands. I've tried all most all of the suggested strategies, but I've had no luck. I'm about to scratch it and start over with new rock. Keep on trying tho, you never know. Not all reefs are the same. Link to comment
southpaw23 Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 Just wanted to find out what y'alls views were on converting an AC300/500 into a fuge...i've read alot about ppl doing that and was just wondering if the volume in the 500 or 300 is big enough to even have an impact on the phosphates and nutrient removal if i were to add macroalgae in there?.... Link to comment
Billdemart Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 My aquafuge arrives today. I hope it helps.... Link to comment
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