Hair algae outbreak.

[JRWOHLER]

Maybe THR are penguins fans....got mad at your avatar....HAHAHAHAH!

Where do you think he got the hair algae I took it from my tank and snuck it into his.:barbershop_quartet_

PS my team sucks

 

[fatoldsun]

well, it sort pains me to trash 25g of new salt water but i guess I knew and was in denial. there's a fair amount of precipitate in the new water drum and when I get down to the bottom it's pretty dirty looking. I guess this weekend I'll be starting that over and on Jim's advice I'll be adding that to my schedule - clean the drum after every 6-8 water changes.
Actually, the GFO seems to have knocked the HA back a bit but hopefully if this is the catch I can continue to operate in the "sunroom" with all of the natural light and get the HA fully under control. Ironic that I thought I was working to fix the problem and with every water-change I reenergized the outbreak.

 

[fatoldsun]

I've also noticed that while mixing the make-up water seems to drop in dKH, so I always add a little buffer to bring it back up. I keep my Alk a little closer to NSW, but your reading @ 9.58dKH, is within acceptable limits.

any thoughts why the dkh might have jumped? last week I tested (see post above) and it was 7.17 dkh. NSW was 6.5 so it seems all over the place.

start at the beginning, starting with checking both your RO/DI and make up water, needless to say using a decent test kit/meter. How is your skimmer working? Obviously eliminating the DOC's before they can be broken down into PO4 and NO3 will go a long way in helping to solve your problem.

I'm dosing vinegar - it's a carbon source - you mentioned eliminating DOCs - could I be adding too many DOCs by dosing the carbon/vinegar?

Are you inoculating your tank? i.e. adding any type of bacteria like BioDigest or Microbacter7?

No, should I be?

 

[panmanmatt]

Before you trash it make up a small batch and test that. It may not be your container but rather the salt mix itself. If that's the case then dumping the 25g and making more with the same salt will yield the same test results.

 

[fatoldsun]

Before you trash it make up a small batch and test that. It may not be your container but rather the salt mix itself. If that's the case then dumping the 25g and making more with the same salt will yield the same test results.

yep - saw your suggestion I guess I forgot to add that but it's a big part of the plan I'm going to do a a 5g container tonight and let it sit until tomorrow. but like I said, I have been in denial of how dirty the inside wall of that container is, not to mention the heater, pumps, etc. Event the air-line hose is dirty. I HOPE it's not the salt - just bought a brand new bucket in the GB and I opened it on saturday. I'd hate to just waste $75

 

[fatoldsun]

well, the small batch was an epic fail - it read 0.07 on the trusty Hanna Phosphate meter. Any thoughts? I used a new/clean bucket and fresh RO/Di to make it. The salt is Aquavitro Salinity. It is litterally a brand new bucket (so the other tests of my drum and all the problems were with an older bucket of AV Salinity) - so either all of their salt has this or it's coming in my RO/Di
Anyone else using AV Salinity? any chance you've tested it for PO4?
Can I use the Hanna checker on RO/Di? or does it need the sg to read properly. (oh, for what it's worth, my TDS is reading zero on the output side - not sure if that would miss the cause of the PO4?
This sucks - now I have no idea how to fix this.....
GFO on my make up water?

 

[Mike S]

I bought two buckets of it. I'll be mixing some up this weekend and will test it.

 

[duijver]

I'm tailing along due to my HA outbreak for about 2 years now..

I never thought of testing the NEW salt water as a potential culprit and I just started moving over the reef crystals from a really expensive pharmaytical brand I picked up years ago in bulk (trop something). Anyway, since my DI has not been on for awhile, I wondered if a TDS of 1-2 would cause major problems that I have seen? I picked up some new resin and it actually read 1-2 out of the RO side and 12-18 out of the RODI side.. so the resin is bad I guess.

 

[fatoldsun]

I bought two buckets of it. I'll be mixing some up this weekend and will test it.

Awesome Mike. Thank you!!

 

[howze01]

Ever consider adding some Macro Algaes? In my freshwater planted tank days you could get rid of nuisance algaes by adding more plants. I have 5 different kinds in my sump (Red Titan, Flame Algae, Blue Otchodes, Chaeto and Caleurpa). Not only do they help soak up some nutrients, they are quite nice looking too. Adding competition for the Hair Algae never hurts.

 

[fatoldsun]

Ever consider adding some Macro Algaes? In my freshwater planted tank days you could get rid of nuisance algaes by adding more plants. I have 5 different kinds in my sump (Red Titan, Flame Algae, Blue Otchodes, Chaeto and Caleurpa). Not only do they help soak up some nutrients, they are quite nice looking too. Adding competition for the Hair Algae never hurts.

I have a large ball of chaeto -I also have a pending reef cleaners order with a few other varieties. Before the outbreak I was thinking the addition of bio pellets would hurt the chaeto so I help off on adding others until I fully observed. Well the HA is all the observation I need I suppose.

 

[fatoldsun]

wait, stop the presses Did my effort to use the Hanna checker in a practical way screw up my results? before I jump to any conclusions (not to be mixed up with the Office Space: Jump to Conclusions Mat) I just read on the Sponsor's page on "that other site" that some people don't recommend using the "two vial method" (why the H.E double hockey sticks do they give you two then - they don't even give you a 10ml syringe to fill the cuvettes and the damn thing times out before you can dissolve the reagent but I read in the words of the GREAT Randy Holmes-Farley that using 2 can be risky and can lead to a margin of error slightly above the already problematic .02-.04 so I ask, is my .07 just a reading error. Why do I need to purchase tests and back-up tests for my tests. I have almost 2 versions of EVERY chemical tester now and well, that’s a little frustrating. So I guess before I start tossing any water or any new salt buckets I’d better re-test EVERYTHING going back to the old fashioned 1 cuvette/vial for the whole test with a trusty times at my side to be sure I don’t wait too long and waste a precious envelope of their reagent powder

 

[downbeach]

I use both cuvettes, but I only use one for taking the reading(s). I make sure the one I start with is the same one I'm using for both C1 and C2. I use the other just to mix the reagent, and once I've taken the first reading, I empty the cuvette of the sample water and refill it from the one I used to mix the reagent in.

 

[fatoldsun]

Retested the same new water twice with 1 vial and it was zero. Yippie. Now I have to retest the big bucket to see if it was the method and not the water. Drum's duue for a cleaning either way this weekend.