Its war.

[gozetec02]

I am battling with hair algea its brown to redish brown in color.

Its all over the substrate and it seems to have bubbles trapped under it.
I have switched from using tap water to buying purified spring water for top off.

I have 2 Blue leg hermits and 1 Turbo snail.

What causes those bubbles?

What can I do to get rid of the algea?

 

[RMPD109]

check the readings on the spring water. You might be better of with distilled water which will be zero in nitrates and phosphates. At least mine tests zero. I have heard that the spring waters and the drinking waters are not as good as the distilled for the tank.

 

[klam]

Sounds like you are describing cyanobacteria to me. I would also use distilled over spring water. Or you can find a water dispensing machine and buy ro/di water out of them, cheaper than buy bottle water. These machines are usually located in or outside of super markets.

Buying distilled and ro/di water has it's own issues and should be taken into consideration. It has been mentioned during the distillation process the water comes in contact with copper piping if the factory still uses copper piping. I used bottled distilled water for over 6 months and didn't have an issue with it. When getting ro/di water out of those machines you sometimes don't know how long ago they changed the filter and done maintenance on it.

You can always buy a ro/di unit to make your own water. I go to this liquor shop and they make their own ro/di water, i pay $0.25/gal. Some places have these water stores and they sell water. LFS sells water also.

eeeedit i totaly forgot about answering the question.
do a search for cyanobacteria and should come up with a bunch of threads about it.

 

[loganj]

Cutting nutrient levels in the water and increasing flow will usually help get rid of cyano. You'll want to siphon as much as you can out when you do water changes. If it's cyano, it should lift off the substrate and rock easily. I agree that spring water isn't much of an improvement over tap water in most cases...I would go with RO/DI or distilled.

 

[lando]

All wonderful info and advice. Keep in mind that you have two goals here. 1). Figure out what is causing the cyno and eliminating the source and 2). Getting rid of the exsisiting cyno from your tank. As logan mentioned, try to suck most of it up, but be very carefull not to break it apart too much. It can spread rather quickly. AFTER you have identified the source of the cyno you can also use some Chemi-Clean by Boyd Enterprises to clean up what is left in tank. Good luck in the war...Lando

 

[JG]

Best of Luck - I like chemi -clean ! It helps you to get on top of the problem.

JG

 

[[ryan]]

whats the difference between RO, distilled, and artesian water? can all be used in tanks?

 

[gozetec02]

Will a UV sterilizer help too?

 

[lando]

Will a UV sterilizer help too?

I do not believe a UV ster. will help with cyno. Just need to get a handle on where the extra nutrients are coming from.

 

[gozetec02]

So i found the problem. YAY. I was doing what you guys suggested and was cleaning off every surface i could. I removed the skimmer and started cleaning it. There were tons of stringy clear stuff. So I proceeded cleaning the skimmer removing all the sticky film inside. When i started claning the powerhead and the sponge filter there is a horrible smell coming from it. I flipped the sponge inside out and there it was the darn Oscilleris Clown that went up missing over a month ago. I was testing and ammonia was testing at .5 or higher and I tried everything to bring it down. I did weekly 20% water changes and it never fixed the problem then the algea started coming in full force covering the entire floor of the tank. So I added a powerhead and also replaced the carbon filter on the HOB. Lets see what happens now. I am going to order a cleaning crew from liveaquaria.com to help remove what is left.