like legos

[leaffish75]

Im taking all my corals and LR out of my 20 tonight. Plan is to cut out the spray foam on the back wall and scrub all LR to get the Hair alage off. I cant get it under control. I feed once a week yet it blooms and blooms. I have changed out all my lights to. All my macro in my sump died off. I cant seem to keep that stuff alive. I have use 3 different types of caulerpa and even cheato. If I continue to see a downward spiral Ill be tearing this tank down for good and just wait till i can put up my 90. Any opions on what I should do to help battle this problem?

 

[sadielynn]

Leaf do you think that it is the spray foam causing the blooms? Reason I as is I was looking into using "greatstuff" spray foam to attempt to make live rock from . Was there any thing to the curing other than allowing it to dry ? Sorry I dont have any help for the problems that you are facing :sad:

 

[Dickie52]

hair algae is a nightmare... :sad:

here is what I have done and it seems to work for me, might not be for everyone....

I add 3 emerald cabs...

1 lawnmower blenny.....

10 Hawaiian Zebra Hermit..

Keep up with your 10% water changes...EVERY week...

Try and get your fuge running, stick with the Cheato and make sure you have good light.

I feel your pain....we all hate the dreaded hairballs!!!! :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

just a side note - sadie may be on to something - this is purely anecdotal and i can't suport it with true evidence but i have found that aragocreat (sp?) the stuff many dealers use as artificial rock to put frags on grows algae like crazy. There may be something in that stuff or in your case the spray foam that leaches into the tank causing trouble???????????????? good question though?????

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Leaf, are you using RO/DI?

I considered using that GS foam, but read several posts stating the Dow claims that it will break down over time, plus I know someone who has used it and cannot keep a snail alive in his nano. Apparently it leaches something.

Dickie's suggestions are good. Be careful with the LMB though, as some will not eat prepared foods. I'd also suggest tossing in a couple of Mexican turbos. They mow down hair algae. Sally lightfoots eat it up too, but they get really aggresive as they get bigger and they grow quick.

 

[sadielynn]

Sugar
Dont they make an aquarium grade of that stuff in black ? Do you think that it would break down as well as salt is a bit on the harsher side? this is the stuff I was thinking of but I am pretty sure I saw it some where else that said it was aquarium safe but I can not find where I saw it at
http://www.aquaticpondsupplies.com/foam.htm

 

[leaffish75]

Im using RODI water. No i dont think the spray foam is causing my problems. I took it out due to the fact it wasnt sticking to the back wall any more and I was afraid my fish would wonder behind it and get smashed. the foam allowed for my pods to really breed. when i took it out I had literally hundreds of pods in the foam. I have scrubbed all rocks and siphoned out some dirt off the sand. Two days later my sand is covered in cyano...WTH is happing? I added a maxi 600. the cyano is growing fast and very thick. I took out all macro but the cheato. Im not running a skimmer due to the amount of micro bubbles getting back into the tank and not being able to stop them. I tried bubble trap and filter floss over the exit but nothing helped.

on the Foam stuff. its completly safe for aquariums. make sure it attaches well the the glass though. they make it in black for ponds. NO matter what type you get it will break down into harmless stuff. This proccess takes years. UV light causes its break down. So if you are using MHs and alot of them you could expect it to break down faster than some one using pcs, vhos, or t-5s. Now how long before it breaks down??? Dont know. I do know there are some commercial aquariums that have had it in their displays for a few years. I would say for the life of your tank you really wouldnt see any break down.
oh and the black stuff cost twice as much as the yellow stuff. I just dusted mine with some sand and added some LR before it dried.

 

[leaffish75]

I dont want a emerald in my tank. my last one killed my shrimp and tried for the fish. He went squish. :twisted: . I was thinking lawnmower blenny but my last one almost starved when the alage was gone. It wouldnt eat nori. right now i have 1 mexican turbo, 2 margarita snails, 6+ blue legs, 6+ scarlets, nassauris snails, cerith snails, tiger tail cucumber, sand turtle conch ( think its also called a fighting conch) and some trochus snails.

oh yeah. I cant seem to get any macro to grow not even cheato. my fuge is a 10 gallon tank. IN all its actually about 5 gallons with 20watts of 65K light over it.