fighting the hair

[pwilson]

Any ideas out there?
I have hair of all types -derbesia , bryopsis and others I am sure. The tank has been set up over 15 years. I have more than 25 years in the hobby and have done extensive reading and have run out of ideas. 120 gallon reef with a recent (4 mos.) 20 gallon refugium. 5in sand bed and plenum in refugia about 3 in in tank. Quite a bit of live rock of various origins Figi, Marshall, Kaelini, and other. Nitrates less than .5 ppm, no phosphate, no silicate
ph 8.25, dkh 8-9.5, calcium 380, doc low to mod.
I have a calcium reactor, euroreef skimmer , now 400 watt xm halides and vho actinics. Did have older 175 watt halides 10,000k prior for about a year. I have been aggressively changing water (30%week) for More than 8 weeks. Also changed 25% water daily for 6-7 days on front end. I have been manually removeing hair and up front did a removal scrubdown and it returned. Tank has about 5-6 fish mostly small and multiple snails and crabs. I have restatred tank with garf grunge etc to no benefit. Now I am on day 6 of trying az no3. I do have some rock (very old) which appears sedimentary with shells in it and brownish in appearance and flat. I am wondering if this rock could be leaching silicates or some other nutrient. No silicates detectable with salifert kit. I am at a total loss to what nutrient is fueling this growth. Any ideas? I have two doctoral degrees,a lot of experience and have put a lot of energy into this problem and I am losing the battle. I have approached it as scientifically as I can and am out of ideas other than continuing on my present course. Maybe the az no3 trial or getting rid of the questionable rock ? It should'nt be this hard. Save a long time hobbyist. Thanks

 

[Jamesurq]

Try this: worked for me.

Transplant as much of the offending weeds to a 24/7 lit refugium. With increased growth in the fuge fueled by the constant supply of light, it should choke and starve the 12 hour lit main tank weeds...

Worth a try.
Good luck

 

[GACDIVER]

Thats an intresting approach Jamesurq. I have fought the battle and lost as well. Like fighting fire with fire. I like it.

Sean

 

[mada]

i have the same problem until i started a ecosystem filtration system under my 125 gallon reef tank. I have a huge mass of caulerpa growing in the ecosystem and i also purchased Miracle Mud for the caulerpa to grow in. I keep a two mini compact lights lit 24 hours a day. The ecosystem is almost more interesting than my main tank< except for all the hair algae in it but that's the point in having it. The algae grows out of control in the ecosystem tank but the main tank remains almost hair algae free. I also dont have to scrub my glass for algae as often. I think everyone should try this. I have had every filtration method in effect you can think of. Also i do not need to run my protein skimmer anymore.

 

[wally100]

After alot of reading I decided to set up my 55 with a fuge like mada. The calulerpa should starve the hair by sucking up all the phosphate and nitrate in the main tank.. if hair grows in the fuge so be it just sucks up that much more nitrate and phosphate. I plan on setting up the lighting on my fuge opposite on the main tank so there in no ph drop when the main lights go out, also not planning on useing a skimmer, If the info i read was correct that would defeat the purpose, want the fuge to keep pho and nitrate down and the critters in the fuge will help feed the main tank..if this info is NOT correct PLEASE let me know...Have set up my system on this info if its wrong i have wasted alot of time and money....

 

[evermann]

I have heard from several places that live rock should be changed out every 10 years,,,Soooo, you could sent me some of your bigger rocks covered in that nasty corraline and worms and in return I'll send you some fresh brand new rocks just waitin to be occupied........maybe that'll work 8)

 

[rnsmith]

Your situation sounds similar to mine as of this past June - nitrates in the 60+ ppm range. I really could not get my corals to flourish. ââ"šÂ¬Ã‹Å“Did the AZ-NO3 thing over the summer. Did the trick! Now on "maintenance" dosage while establishing a refugium.

Stick with the AZ-NO3 treatment for now ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å“ which requires a good skimmer - and keep pre-filters, etc., clean, as per instructions.

Get a 'fuge going.

 

[Paul B]

pwilson
As you know I have the same problem as you. I am still working on it and we do not have the same problem as the people with new tanks. As I have said before my tank was relatively algae free for the first twenty years except for an algae bloom every year or so. Those cycle blooms would last a few months then disappear on their own, thats why there are so many "cures" to this problem. People try something and in a week the algae disappears so they feel they found the solution. I don't know what it is yet but I do think it does have something to do with an old tank. It is a difficult problem because when the rock is in the ocean it still gets old. And it is also a natural thing not a disease. If we remove all the elements that grow algae the corals would also die. On a reef it is the urchins and algae eating fish that clean the rock. There are many more hungry fish in the sea than we could keep in our tanks and in the ocean the reef is only a small part of the sea bottom so fish come from miles around just to scrape rocks of algae. I am not saying that we should live with this ugly looking stuff but that we will find a soultion (hopefully ) soon. I see my reef as an experiment, I do not keep it to see how long I can keep something alive but to learn from it. If there were no problems it would be like stamp collecting. Anyway now that I am rambling I will get back to work. I have been working on this problem for a long time and I think I am close to something. I will let you know if it works.
Good luck.

 

[wasp]

A 15 year old tank. Is the DSB also this old? If so, I'd have a look at that. Maybe thorough clean or replace (section at a time of course)
Also, a DSB cleanup can further fuel an algae bloom in the short term, as nutrients are released. Only short term though.
Other than that a refugium is the way to go, however 20 gallons is a little small, 40 to 60 would be better.

 

[Doppler]

Paul B,I would also be very intrested in your solution

 

[thedogofwar]

My hair was getting pretty crazy. The lawnmower Blenny eats the heck out of it but couldn't seem to keep up. I turned off the circulation pump in my fuge so just the exchange pump was running it. Blam less than a week later, 90% is gone from the display tank and the fuge is crawling with it. I just removed a bunch manualy from the fuge yesterday.

It seems to love the low flow. Maybe you've lost some power from your pumps and/or ph's and lost some circulation, just a thought.