[Rp Marine]

i have a 20 h with a 250 watt de. it have been running for 7 months. there are about 40 lb of lr 2 inch of sand bed, a maxi jet 1200, mushroom, xenia, and gsp and 3 yellow tail damsel. what is the minimum amount of light should be left on. i'm trying to fight hair algea and i'm not doing to well. any recommandation to beat the battle?

[scubadude]

Originally Posted by Rp Marine

i have a 20 h with a 250 watt de. it have been running for 7 months. there are about 40 lb of lr 2 inch of sand bed, a maxi jet 1200, mushroom, xenia, and gsp and 3 yellow tail damsel. what is the minimum amount of light should be left on. i'm trying to fight hair algea and i'm not doing to well. any recommandation to beat the battle?

Light is not the issue, nutrients are. But if you want to decrease photoperiod I wouldnt do it for no less than 6hrs. How bout snails? got any? astreas work for me sometimes I have to put them right on the patches of algae to eat it though, also make sure your using good clean ( RO or RO/DI water) and do some water changes, testing your nitrates, phosphates etc. Put non problematic algaes that you can control better like sargassum or calerpa (has problems too) to outcompete the problematic algae. Do you have a skimmer, if so what kind? is it producing enough skimmate? how often do you clean it?

[Sueet]

Originally Posted by Rp Marine

i have a 20 h with a 250 watt de. it have been running for 7 months. there are about 40 lb of lr 2 inch of sand bed, a maxi jet 1200, mushroom, xenia, and gsp and 3 yellow tail damsel. what is the minimum amount of light should be left on. i'm trying to fight hair algea and i'm not doing to well. any recommandation to beat the battle?

Maybe the bulb lost its color prematurely? Bad lighting will definitely cause hair algae to grow...my other suggestion is to get a longspine urchin, cuz they'll eat any kind of algae... 'course it will knock everything in your tank over to get to it..... but it will get to it, lol ..... Also you have to control your excess nutrients, and another thing that will cause hair algae to bloom is heat.

[ick sucks]

you will never completely get rid of algae. only way is to use chemicals. but algae are good. they are very efficient at what they do-remove pollutants. they need fertilizer to grow(fish waste). istead you need to get herbivores in your tank. but this will not correct the problem.herbivores of any kind produce wastes also. you first need to add a refugium or small tank where you can let it grow peacfully.

once you get this set up somthing amazing will happen. your nutrients will become depleted. what i mean is near perfect water quality. the only way of doing this is to throw away the algae once it grows long. by doing so you also throw away the nutrients the alga absorbed.

here is a really bad exsample but should help to get an idea-

fish poop in water

algae start to grow

1 fish poop(lol)
=
1 algae growing

1 waste(1gram)

1 algae(1gram)

somthing like this but thats how it works. the algae need poop to grow.when they grow they remove the poop.but only when you are removing the algae that used the poop to grow.lol sorry for the poop anology.

[Samper]

algae does not need poop to grow.

If you set up a system and it's fallowless eventually it will still grow algae.

Also please don't advise someone who is new to the hobby to use chemicals. The ocean doesn't use chemicals, there is always another way.

[DTR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rp Marine
i have a 20 h with a 250 watt de. it have been running for 7 months. there are about 40 lb of lr 2 inch of sand bed, a maxi jet 1200, mushroom, xenia, and gsp and 3 yellow tail damsel. what is the minimum amount of light should be left on. i'm trying to fight hair algea and i'm not doing to well. any recommandation to beat the battle?


Use a Phosphate Sponge and Lotts of Turbo Snells! I had the same problem
and my Tank, Pulling out the Phosphates will Slow the Growth
of Hair Algea, And the Turbo Snells will eat the long hair.

I run my light 12 hours.

Change lights every 6 months, and Skim, Skim, Skim.