Help With Beard Algae In A Saltwater Aquarium?

[stephy6679]

I'm somewhat new to owning a saltwater aquarium. Everything was going great, until I became overrun with green beard algae, I believe. I'm not sure how I got it but I would love to get rid of it. I've tried treating it with Algone, which helped in clearing the water, however I still have the algae on all of my rocks. I've attempted to remove it from the rocks but I can't get rid of it. I also have a blenny that's attempted to pull it off but can't. I'm not sure if there are any other chemicals that I could treat the water with or just any methods that aren't too expensive. I have a blenny, a chromis, a coral beauty, cleaner package(snails, hermit crabs, shrimp) and a clam. So I will need something that won't affect them. I have a 90 gallon tank with T5 lights. Thanks.

 

[Aquascaper]

You should never, ever resort to adding chemicals to eradicate algae from your saltwater tank, you have no idea of the damage you may be doing to the beneficial elements in there.

Look for the source of the algae rather than a cure

Do you use tap water or RO/DI?
Do you regularly test for Nitrates & Phosphates?
What are your Nitrate & Phosphate levels in the tank?

Something is feeding the nuisance algae, once you remove that source (or at least control it) then you can look at ways of removing it. Red leg hermit crabs are good for eating hair algae along with some snails and a few fish.

 

[Navarre]

Aqua is right, nevr resort to using chemicals as it wont treat the problem at heart so it will only return again at a later stage.

Hair algae requies a couple of things to grow and this indicates immediately 2 areas you need to look at in detail.

Lighting (an energy source)
Nutrients (A food source)

If both of these are handled properly thenthe algae will dissapear over time.

First of all then lets handle the lighting. We need to know how old the lights are (I mean the bulbs) What type are they? Colour spectrum and wattage etc.
This will give us an indication as to whether you are running the correct lighting for you tank. Most algaes like the red spectrum whilst marine lights usually move towards white and blue so if the spectrum is wrong then the algae can gain a foothold

Now come the next and probably the most important part. Nutrients...

What are your Nitrate and phosphate levels? Algae thrives onthis as its primary food source. If you are using standard tap water then you are mearely adding more nitrates and phospates into the system and thus the algae will continue to grow. RO Water and DI water is free from this and by adding it the algae will be starved out of exsistance providing you can keep the nitrates and phosphates donw in the system by not overfeeding and overstocking.

Hair algae is not very nice tasting to fish and cleanup crew. When its short the algae blenny will eat it but when long it simply wont touch it. Same applies to the cleanup crew so unfortunately you wont get much satisfaction from the algae being eaten when its still long. You could pull large amounts of f the rock and shorten it in the hope the crew will do the rest but its not a perfect solution to the problem.

 

[stephy6679]

You should never, ever resort to adding chemicals to eradicate algae from your saltwater tank, you have no idea of the damage you may be doing to the beneficial elements in there.

Look for the source of the algae rather than a cure

Do you use tap water or RO/DI?
Do you regularly test for Nitrates & Phosphates?
What are your Nitrate & Phosphate levels in the tank?

Something is feeding the nuisance algae, once you remove that source (or at least control it) then you can look at ways of removing it. Red leg hermit crabs are good for eating hair algae along with some snails and a few fish.

Yes we use tap water. I'm not sure what RO/DI is. I'm thinking distilled water? I test my Nitrates & Phosphates regularly. The last time I tested the levels were 0 for my phosphates, and 5.0 for my Nitrates.

 

[Navarre]

I would ask you to test the nitrates and especially the phosphates again but this time, take the water to be tested from right next to the hair algae. You might be suprised at the true reading of your tank. If youe readings are still 0 then get another test kit because its wrong Nitrates of 5 is enough to give algae growth. You need to aim for 0. Not easy i admit but the lower you can get them then the better chance you have of other forms of macro algae taking root and outcompeting the hair algae.

RO/DI water is close to distilled water. You should be able to purchase this water fro your lfs. If you prefer then you cna also purchase RO units and connect them to your house. Probably one of hte best purchases you will make in the long term.

 

[stephy6679]

Aqua is right, nevr resort to using chemicals as it wont treat the problem at heart so it will only return again at a later stage.

Hair algae requies a couple of things to grow and this indicates immediately 2 areas you need to look at in detail.

Lighting (an energy source)
Nutrients (A food source)

If both of these are handled properly thenthe algae will dissapear over time.

First of all then lets handle the lighting. We need to know how old the lights are (I mean the bulbs) What type are they? Colour spectrum and wattage etc.
This will give us an indication as to whether you are running the correct lighting for you tank. Most algaes like the red spectrum whilst marine lights usually move towards white and blue so if the spectrum is wrong then the algae can gain a foothold

Now come the next and probably the most important part. Nutrients...

What are your Nitrate and phosphate levels? Algae thrives onthis as its primary food source. If you are using standard tap water then you are mearely adding more nitrates and phospates into the system and thus the algae will continue to grow. RO Water and DI water is free from this and by adding it the algae will be starved out of exsistance providing you can keep the nitrates and phosphates donw in the system by not overfeeding and overstocking.

Hair algae is not very nice tasting to fish and cleanup crew. When its short the algae blenny will eat it but when long it simply wont touch it. Same applies to the cleanup crew so unfortunately you wont get much satisfaction from the algae being eaten when its still long. You could pull large amounts of f the rock and shorten it in the hope the crew will do the rest but its not a perfect solution to the problem.

I have a 90 gallon tank, with T5 lights. I believe the wattage is over 400. The lights are about two months old. I have cut the lights back to 8 hours. As for the color of the lights, I have four blues and four whites. I'm not sure what exactly you mean about the color. The first set turns on with the blue lights and they turn off last. Then the whites would with the blues and mix. They would turn off first one hour before the blues turn off. Then I would have the moon lights turn on after the blue went off. I've thought about turning them off completely however I have the clam and I'm not even sure if 8 hours will be enough for the clam.

I check my nitrate and phosphate levels regurlary. My phosphate level is at 0 and my nitrates are at 5.0. I have been using tap water. Does RO and DI stand for distilled water. I can definitely start adding that water. Is that what you use when changing your tank water?

 

[stephy6679]

I would ask you to test the nitrates and especially the phosphates again but this time, take the water to be tested from right next to the hair algae. You might be suprised at the true reading of your tank. If youe readings are still 0 then get another test kit because its wrong Nitrates of 5 is enough to give algae growth. You need to aim for 0. Not easy i admit but the lower you can get them then the better chance you have of other forms of macro algae taking root and outcompeting the hair algae.

RO/DI water is close to distilled water. You should be able to purchase this water fro your lfs. If you prefer then you cna also purchase RO units and connect them to your house. Probably one of hte best purchases you will make in the long term.

I checked the water next to the algae and it came back with my Nitrates being 0 and Phosphates 0. I will have to get a new test kit and try that to see if it gives me a different reading. I will also check for the RO/DI water when I get the test kit. Thanks for the help. I was also wondering is it worth the money to spend on purchasing a refugeum?

 

[Navarre]

Very strange that you have readings of zero. If your algae is grwoing it must have these nutrients to do so.. I asked you to test near the algae because many times its been proved that the algae is removing hte nitrates and phoshpates as soon as it enters the water. Only by testing near the plant can you really see the true level of these nutrients.

Your lighting seems in good order. 8 Hours is good so cutting it back will help with the algae/ RO/DI water is not distilled but its very similar. RO Water is called Reverse Osmosis.

 

[SkiFletch]

the end product of de-ionized (triple distilled) and RO water is the same... Pure H2O with no trace elements