Brown hair algae help!

surffer227

surffer227

New member
I am having a pretty decent algae outbreak that I'm having trouble keeping under control, I get brown hair like algae all over my rocks and almost like a mat of brown algae across my sand, witch is black so it's kind of an eye sore. I have a sand sifting star, that doesnt seem to do much for it, I have 3 turbos that mainly stick to the glass, and very few other snails and hermits because I have a wrasse that goes after almost anything I put in the tank. My water quality is almost perfect, testing with API kits. And I do a 5 gallon water change just about weekly in a 60 gallon total volume tank. I just cut about a hour or so off of my lighting schedule, but the schedule now is blues come on at 1pm and off at 11pm and whites on at 4 and off at 7. So I'll see how that works on controlling it. Now how do I get rid of it? My hippo, kole tang, and foxface will nip at the stuff but no where near control it. Should I try mabey a sea hare or algae blenny? Any help is appreciated guys!
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Added some phosban in the sump to see if it helps, even though my phosphates read zero and I do a lot of water changes I hear it absorbs silicates and other types of phosphate not normally tested for


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Help!!! This problem is not gettin any better, every couple of days my black sand is COVERED in brown algae I brushed all the rocks vacuumed the sand and did a water change a few days ago but now it's all back on the sand and coming back on the rocks HELP!!!


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I had this issue when I was feeding too much and my rodi water had 10 tds...

If you haven't already, try feeding less and do a black out for 3-4 days as suggested above.
 
I'm having this same problem right now. I do 25% weekly WCs, feed a minimal amount once per day (2 small fish in a BioCube 29 so it's not much), I run ROX carbon and recently started running GFO. GFO has helped but it's still everywhere. I have a Tunze 9001 skimmer, I change filter floss every 3rd day, my RODI TDS meter has been calibrated with factory solution so I know the 0 TDS reading is accurate. The only thing i've been slacking on lately is sand vacuuming. If thorough sand cleanings doesn't fix the problem, then i'll be at a loss for words. The craziest part is my Dad also has a BioCube 29, no skimmer, no carbon, no GFO, changes floss like once a week, 2 water changes a month, feeds 3 times the amount I feed but also only has 2 fish. And yet you have to go full on Sherlock Holmes just to find algae in his tank. I'm baffled.
 
I had very similar stuff soon after setting up my tank. Have had experience with diatoms and ruled that out. I believe my Phosphates were around .15+ so started phosphate reactor. Also changed intensity of my LED lighting (my first) by reducing intensity and raising blues, lowering whites. Lights start at 7AM with 5%blue no whites and gradually ramp up to 60% blue 50% white at noon for 4 hours then ramp back down to lights out at 9 PM. I used a brush to remove as much "hair" as I could in tank and kept other parameters stable. Over time the hair has disappeared and the hard brown crust has begun to change to very dark purple ( or be covered by?). I have very little livestock right now with only a few fish and corals. Don't know if this info will have any benefit for you, but know that there is hope!
 
Can you please post your water parameters? It looks to me like one of the clean water cyano spp. If it very easily brushes offor easliy is removed by syphoning it's not one of the hair algae or turf algae spp which should take some scrubbing with a brush to remove it. The most safest way long term I've found to remove it is to frequently siphon it off. Most algae eaters won't touch it. (If it's a Lungbia spp cyano it has toxins which make it unpalatable.) Corals and algae are literally conducting very sophisticated biological and chemical warefare in their competition for the available nitrogen and phosphate. If you are stripping out your inorganic phosphate (PO4) and nitrate and not feeding your fish heavily on a daily basis to provide ammonia and urea and phosphate your corals will have problems with their zooxanthellea making sulfer compounds which ultimately gives any nuisance algae in your system the upper hand.
 
Timfish said:
Can you please post your water parameters? It looks to me like one of the clean water cyano spp. If it very easily brushes offor easliy is removed by syphoning it's not one of the hair algae or turf algae spp which should take some scrubbing with a brush to remove it. The most safest way long term I've found to remove it is to frequently siphon it off. Most algae eaters won't touch it. (If it's a Lungbia spp cyano it has toxins which make it unpalatable.) Corals and algae are literally conducting very sophisticated biological and chemical warefare in their competition for the available nitrogen and phosphate. If you are stripping out your inorganic phosphate (PO4) and nitrate and not feeding your fish heavily on a daily basis to provide ammonia and urea and phosphate your corals will have problems with their zooxanthellea making sulfer compounds which ultimately gives any nuisance algae in your system the upper hand.
Click to expand...



So my water is to clean causing an algae outbreak? I don't have current test results but last time I tested with the API kits, I read almost 0 nitrates, almost 0 phosphates, 7dkh alk, 400ppm calcium, 8.0 ph. So what's my fix? Stop weekly water changes?


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ph BUMP lol I'm saying your pH is on the low end. With where your calcium is at your magnesium is likely circling the drain too. Your parameters are pretty far off. Makes me wonder what your salinity is? Although your parameters are just straight low. Usually when you see something dropped like that, just pretty much all around, there's too much fresh or something sucking it all out.
 
Honestly I was using redsea salt with the elevated calcium, alk, and mag levels but my LFS ran out so I used live ocean water for my last change, not sure how much that would dilute it. My salinity stays between .023 and .025 and I do have an ATO could that be diluting it more? I don't see how since I don't THINK that calc. And what not would evaporate.


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surffer227 said:
Honestly I was using redsea salt with the elevated calcium, alk, and mag levels but my LFS ran out so I used live ocean water for my last change, not sure how much that would dilute it. My salinity stays between .023 and .025 and I do have an ATO could that be diluting it more? I don't see how since I don't THINK that calc. And what not would evaporate.


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Click to expand...

Unlikely your ATO is doing it because of how much they actually top off.

But your params are low too. Something is causing that. On the LOW end I like to see my calcium around 425. You probably know how all this stuff equates to pH level though.
 
Well I didn't want to really get into dosing but it seems like it's going to be necessary if I can keep my levels stable doing weekly water changes, I picked up some two part from Brightwell aquatics called reef code a and B, I'll give that a try and see how my levels do


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surffer227 said:
Help!!! This problem is not gettin any better, every couple of days my black sand is COVERED in brown algae I brushed all the rocks vacuumed the sand and did a water change a few days ago but now it's all back on the sand and coming back on the rocks HELP!!!


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Click to expand...


I spent years battling brown algae, GHA, and cyno in my 180. I believe that the cause of the scourge was my adding dry rock to tank without acid washing it to remove phosphates. I say "œI believe" because I have no idea whether that was really the cause.

Here's what did not work for me:

AlgaeFix Marine

2-3 day blackouts

Chemiclean

Overdosing vinegar

Algae eating animals including snails, Tangs, sea hares, etc.

Before, during, and after outbreaks I ran efficient skimmer (SRO 3000INT), ¾ cups each of GFO and GAC in TLF reactor changed weekly, and did 9-10% water change weekly with 0 TDS RO/DI water and IO salt.

In 2/16, I installed reliable pump (Eheim 1260) on my Turbo ATS and started scraping screens every other week -- prior to this I used crapacious RIO and Jabao pumps that died without warning and allowed lights on ATS to cook screen, requiring months to recover. https://www.algaescrubbing.com/

In 3/16, I started removing cyano covered substrate with weekly water changes. As a result the front half of my tank is now BB.

In 4/16, I resumed dosing vinegar but at very low level (10 ml daily increasing to current level of 40 ml daily).

In 5/16, I installed 40 watt in-line Ultralife UV sterilizer on return line because what did I have to lose?

In 7/16, the algae/cyano receded and eventually disappeared. For now.

Wish I could say that one of above moves defeated the algae, but I can't. The UV sterilizer was a last ditch "œHail Mary" (consensus on this forum is that UV sterilizers do not prevent algae infestations and I tend to agree but when you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose so I tried it).

My money is on the Turbo ATS "“the mass of algae I scrape off screen every other week is ridiculous "“ which with skimmer and GFO/GAC reactor turned the tide I believe. But who knows?

So good luck and I hope you find your own solution to your scourge.

Mike
 
I used a product called vibrant aquarium cleaner by underwater creations ( google it ) I was battling a small bha outbreak. all water params were on point yet I still had bha. I am not one to endorse many products but this stuff cleared everything out in about 3 days. there was another thread on here posting it was snake oil. my experience with it was just the opposite here is my post on that thread " i rarely comment on a product or even participate in many discussions but i have to say i tried this product and it killed off a mild dose of hair algae in 3 days. i have been reef keeping on and off for over 15 years. i recently set up a 60 gallon tank to use as a quarantine system for a much larger system that is in the works. i was getting some brown hair algae around some frags, pumps, and various other items. i dosed 3/4 of the recommended dose Wednesday night and i can say today the tank is algae free. one concern i did have was how my chaeto in my sump would respond to the treatment. i contacted the manufacturer and was told it would have no ill effect on my chaeto. well it appears that a patch of chaeto has died off. there is still plenty of chaeto in the sump so i am monitoring it closely right now. since adding vibrant i can testify the water is clearer and all the brown algae is gone. it worked for me. they do list most of the ingredients on the bottle now
 
Thanks guys, I just bumped my calc, alk, and ph up last night so I'll see how this works, I haven't tried a blackout yet but I did cut my lighting schedule back. I also have a small algae scrubber that does pretty well and I have a uv light plumbed in my manifold. I haven't tried chemicals yet because I don't really want to get into that.


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I know this is an old post but did the upgrade in alk work for you or did you resort to other methods? I am writing mine down as a new tank issue for now but it is ALL over my back glass and waving in the wind of the powerheads
 
KCSUMPS said:
I know this is an old post but did the upgrade in alk work for you or did you resort to other methods? I am writing mine down as a new tank issue for now but it is ALL over my back glass and waving in the wind of the powerheads
Click to expand...

Algae is a common issue in new tanks and those with nutrient level problems..
Alkalinity plays little/no role in that..

Typically algae problems will go away after 8-12months in tank provided nutrient levels are kept low,etc...

Just like weeds in your yard the algae seems to come up first/strongest but after a while other organisms can out compete it for available nutrients
 
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