OK, so My fathers tank is OVERGROWN with hair algae. I have been trying to help him get rid of this problem for quite some time now by teaching him not to feed so much, replace 2-3 year old bulbs to which he couldn't understand..LOL, Phosban, more frequent maint, new ro/di filters and membrane, Etc etc, and hair algae is now coming out of the sand with a vengeance.
He and my brother started this 75g bow which is built into the living room entertainment wall unit about 10+ years ago and had a pretty big hair algae problem for the first 2 years, and I didn't think he would ever rid the system of it. I was not into reef/fishkeeping at the time so I didn't know anything except loved to sit and watch the beautiful fish for long periods of time. Miraculously the hair algae died out and he was algae free for about four years or so until he had a fire in the hand me down diy HO (T-12's?)installed 2 weeks earlier. The damage was luckily confined to the entertainment center, electronics,sooty carpet/ceiling and tank with no structural damage to the house. Miraculously all fish in the tank lived, but the tank was destroyed.
I am now finding out that when they switched out the tank They used not only the old sand from the tank, but also a five gallon bucket of old sand that had been sitting in the cold garage for months that had come out of an old saltwater tank that was broken down earlier. Needless to say he now has the biggest Hair algae farm I have ever seen and I have pretty much tried everything I could to no avail. I know that this bothers my father to sit and watch TV in a nice entertainment center that he custom built(radius and all) and to see his HAIRY fishtank directly beneath it and would like to end this problem Once and for all! Hopefully.
He is on vacation right now for 2 weeks, I would like to go over there in the next day or two and empty the entire tank. I will save approx 55 gallons of the water and house the 3 fish in an appropriate QT type tank while I work on the tank. I plan to suck all of the sand out and yank the live rock out. Clean out the sump Approx 20g to get any sediment/particles of HA that has made it in there over time. I will then place 60 lbs of araganite sand in and 20 pounds of the carib sea wet sand with bacteria on top(all they had left). I am going to replace the current liverock with rock that has been in a sump of an established system for a number of years. I also bought a bottle of Turbo start 900 bacteria which I have seen and heard good results with(I know usually controversial as it and other products being snake oil and if it really works or not.) I'm going to add the 55 of existing water back and any makeup water necessary to be at running level and add the Fritszyme turbostart. Then at the end of the day probably 2 hrs after everything has been added and running again I will re introduce the fish and say a prayer! LOL
Sorry for the long post and thank you for reading, but I thought a little background would answer some questions and explain why I am resorting to these drastic measures. Please let me know of any questions, suggestions, or concerns. I do appreciate any input and would like to surprise my parents when they come home to a "new" tank.
Taz
He and my brother started this 75g bow which is built into the living room entertainment wall unit about 10+ years ago and had a pretty big hair algae problem for the first 2 years, and I didn't think he would ever rid the system of it. I was not into reef/fishkeeping at the time so I didn't know anything except loved to sit and watch the beautiful fish for long periods of time. Miraculously the hair algae died out and he was algae free for about four years or so until he had a fire in the hand me down diy HO (T-12's?)installed 2 weeks earlier. The damage was luckily confined to the entertainment center, electronics,sooty carpet/ceiling and tank with no structural damage to the house. Miraculously all fish in the tank lived, but the tank was destroyed.
I am now finding out that when they switched out the tank They used not only the old sand from the tank, but also a five gallon bucket of old sand that had been sitting in the cold garage for months that had come out of an old saltwater tank that was broken down earlier. Needless to say he now has the biggest Hair algae farm I have ever seen and I have pretty much tried everything I could to no avail. I know that this bothers my father to sit and watch TV in a nice entertainment center that he custom built(radius and all) and to see his HAIRY fishtank directly beneath it and would like to end this problem Once and for all! Hopefully.
He is on vacation right now for 2 weeks, I would like to go over there in the next day or two and empty the entire tank. I will save approx 55 gallons of the water and house the 3 fish in an appropriate QT type tank while I work on the tank. I plan to suck all of the sand out and yank the live rock out. Clean out the sump Approx 20g to get any sediment/particles of HA that has made it in there over time. I will then place 60 lbs of araganite sand in and 20 pounds of the carib sea wet sand with bacteria on top(all they had left). I am going to replace the current liverock with rock that has been in a sump of an established system for a number of years. I also bought a bottle of Turbo start 900 bacteria which I have seen and heard good results with(I know usually controversial as it and other products being snake oil and if it really works or not.) I'm going to add the 55 of existing water back and any makeup water necessary to be at running level and add the Fritszyme turbostart. Then at the end of the day probably 2 hrs after everything has been added and running again I will re introduce the fish and say a prayer! LOL
Sorry for the long post and thank you for reading, but I thought a little background would answer some questions and explain why I am resorting to these drastic measures. Please let me know of any questions, suggestions, or concerns. I do appreciate any input and would like to surprise my parents when they come home to a "new" tank.
Taz
