Red hairy algae

[nineteen]

Notice many small patches of red furry algae on the sandbed after I came back from a short business trip yesterday. Currently I'm on week 3 of zeovit with 4 drops/twice weekly of zeobak/zeofood and 1ml twice weekly of start. This is based on 400l of zeolith. However, some algae on the live rocks are slowly weaning off.

Did water test this afternoon:

Ca: 420 (no change since last week)
kH: 8.6 (one week ago, 8.0, so I am pretty concern )
Mg: 1230 (one week ago, 1300)
Salinity: 1.025 (no change since last week)

Should I bring down my kH and bump up my mag? Will this have a negative effect since there are new patches of red furry algae?

I am suppose to do the second dosing today of bak/food and start. Should I postpone the dosing today?

Thanks guys.

Abdul

[fkadir]

Abdul, wats the flowrate thru the reactor? Can you confirm that it is about 400L/hr for every L of zeoliths u r using pls?

Zeostart should be dosed daily instead of 2x weekly. Can you try dosing 0.5ml of Zeostart 2x daily (1ml total daily). This will help the zeovit starve the algae of nutrients needed to survive.

MG is ok at 1230 but try lowering down the KH to below 8.0 slowly? Are u using a CR?

Bob and the rest will fill in the rest if i have overlooked some but the above should get u going in the right direction..

[nineteen]

Farish,

I'm using 1000l aquabee pump but have ball valve to control the flow rate. Currently I turn about half as there is some head loss due to elbow joints etc, so that should be roughly around 400l/hr. Any suggestion how to measure this flow rate?

Thanks for pointing out that I need to dose start daily. Anyway I can't do this last week since I was outstation for the most part. Will dose this today.

I'm using Deltec CR. Should I continue dosing bak/food today or hang on for a while.

[fkadir]

Cut back on the Deltec CR Ph or flowrate so that your KH doesnt go up. Try to tune it to get a constant kh.

Get a 1L container and time on how long it takes to fill it up. Should be about 9 secs to get 400L/hr.

Bac/food doesnt contribute to the algae that you are experiencing so no need to skip the dosage today. Just up the zeostart to 2x daily at 0.5ml and report back after a week or so. Im sure Bob will jump in as soon as he is awake to add further.

hth

[nineteen]

thanks Farish

[Aged Salt]

Hi Abdul, Farish, thnx for the perfect instructions The zeo's do not cause the red turf algae. Start will be more effective if you proceed as Farish has outlined. Bob