algae

Green hair algae is one of the most common problem algae in the marine aquarium and can always be tracked back to water quality for a solution.main causes are high nutrient levels, high nitrate levels, high phosphate levels poor water flow (dead areas in the tank) and improper lighting (old bulbs or sudden up grading of lights) older bulbs lose their higher spectrums and the reds and yellows remain these spectrums are ones that encourage plant growth. bulbs should be changed about every 8 months or so for the best performance. Just changing the bulbs should not be much of a problem if all of the other tank parameters are in balance but if not, a hair algae bloom is almost a certainty.Phosphates are a major factor in algae blooms. Phosphates are found in tap water, flake foods and fish waste but tap water is the worst offender. to reduce phosphates use Ro/Di water for water changes and top off water. place a phosphate remover pad of some type in your filter and try to avoid feeding too much flake foods. High nitrates, the end by- product of the nitrogen cycle is too much of a good thing there are several ways to reduce nitrates. Water changes which include gravel or sand sifting, nitrate remover products(not to be used in place of water changes but to aid in reduction if levels are extremely high) In very high cases where a wet dry filter is used some or most of the bio balls may need to be removed to get levels down to acceptable levels(10 ppm)reef tank (20 ppm) fish only tanks. High nutrient levels are most commonly caused by over feeding and not enough clean up crew in the tank to eat up the waste also to graze on the algae growth and keep it in check.. Reef janitors work best if put in to the tank in the correct amounts before the problem comes rather than trying to catch up to an algae explosion! recommended amounts are equal to the number of gallons = 55 gallons 55 blue leg hermits, 55 snails etc don't overlook the critters that you never see they can be the ones that do the most important jobs nassarious snails eat detritus and stay buried in the sand most of the time (that's a good thing) sand sifting stars and sea cucumbers work to clean waste that would other wise turn into nitrates. Sand sifting gobies work to keep the substrate clean. Filtration and protein skimming are two very important factors, over stocking of livestock and poor filtration can be major causes of poor water quality as can the lack of a protein skimmer to remove waste and organics and phosphates from the water which other filters can not do. Last but one of the most important WATER FLOW WATER FLOW WATER FLOW! so many times I ask customers with algae problems if they have enough current in the tank and they start to describe big filters water movement on the top of the water and so on that's nice but there should be water movement through out the tank, low levels across the bottom of the substrate inbetween live rocks, across the back of the tank etc. there should be no dead areas the best way to spot dead areas is to look where the algae is growing first ! once it spreads all over the tank it can be difficult to tell. Dead areas are places where co2 levels raise to high levels creating plant food for the algae growth and lowering ph levels in the process! One last consideration is alkalinity and calcium levels which need to be in balance to encourage coralline and macro algae to grow and starve out the problem algae . This can easily be solved with the addition of a 2 part balancing additive to control ph calcium and alkalinity and adds all other supplements at the same time this is a daily additive and works extremely well,we recommend Oceans Blend and we use it in all our tanks with great success.