Hair algae again

R

Reefist

Member
Ive been battling hair algae again. Ive been in the hobby since 1995.
I've tried everything. Large GFO changing every month,new RO unit, you name it. Piles of 44G water changes($$$) sometime 2/week. Phos stays a .05. Nitrate less then 10. So I go and try Phosphate RX and POW in 2 days there is so much more hairalgae. I dont get it. Ive scrubbed and scrubbed my life away.Again not a complete novice here. Not an expert either.I use Hanna testers.I just changed my radiums and my actinics about a month ago,so what am I missing? I was thinking biopellets but Im afraid the hair aglae will come out and grab me. I'm all ears.
300G total system
All parameters inline
Bi weekly testing
Thanks
Tom
 
How stocked is the tank?
What lighting?

Pellets work, but are more efficient at pulling nitrate. Once nitrate is gone, you'll have to add it to continue to pull out po4.
 
Not really too much. I'm trying to clean it up and restock. It's nothing like it used to be. I lost a bunch of corals from Sandy. It's never really recovered. I'd say lightly stocked fish and coral . I was going to tear it down even bought some new rock but even that grew algae on it. Yeah I know about biopellets and mostly nitrate still plan on using GFO but 5-6 cups a month can get expensive. My skimmer is a MR3 Beckett style with a 2000gph pump . Kinda old .No room in sump for new type.Everything seems pretty healthy . I even have a 20 yo large gorgonian. Tank is 210 My lighting is 3-250w radiums and 2-72" VHO Actinics .
I figured my sump had a lot to do with it so I scrubbed it up and tried to remove as much debris as I could . There's a large mangrove root system in there. But flow it mostly from a reeflo barracuda. I tried carbon dosing but then I got a red slime breakout. Just got rid of that. It's a battle but I have a picture in my head of what I want to see. And I'm not stopping till I get there.
Thanks for response
Tom
 
Yes RODI and it's a new one( year old) . I was changing filters and membrane on old one (6 yo) and figured I was missing something so I just bought a new one TDS always reads zero. Just checked probe last week. I'm going to change DI even though there's no color change. Water coming in is only 17.
Thanks
 
I swear by carbon dosing. I buy the cheapest bottle of vodka I can, Within only 2 weeks I saw all my Hair algae begin to disappear. I have also stopped using GFO completely. My nitrates read zero and my Po4 is .04 so that I get some quick growth out of my new SPS additions. I have to tell you everything in my tank looks clean. My skimmer pulls out some nasty stuff now. Im even starting to experiment with a Algae Turf scrubber and hopefully be able to control it completely naturally. Did I mention I do water changes only about once every month if I have the free time.

Did you follow the Dose recipe Exactly, and monitor the Po4 as you went up in mL dose till you saw a reduction and cut it in half? http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-08/nftt/

Will
 
No I didn't I should have . Maybe I'll try it again. Be honest I'd love to get rid of GFO. One thing I really detest. I have my out flow into a filter sock and it need to be changed almost every day .
Thanks
Tom
 
Reefist said:
No I didn't I should have . Maybe I'll try it again. Be honest I'd love to get rid of GFO. One thing I really detest. I have my out flow into a filter sock and it need to be changed almost every day .
Thanks
Tom
Click to expand...

I also only use filter socks if I'm stirring stuff up in the tank. Moving rock, pulling out Chaeto from my refugium. Also, I'm one of those strong believers of not cleaning the refugium. Just leave it alone. We keep it out of sight because It grows all the stuff we don't want to see in the main tank. When you mix it up you can see huge spikes in No3 and Po4 .

If you need help understanding the steps of vodka dosing just send me a PM. I know it can be confusing at first.

Just my 2 cents

Will
 
Hi Tom
I have had good success using Rabbitfish for the long hair algae and then throw in snails once it is cut back. If it is Bryopsis then it's a whole different problem. I have attached a picture of bryopsis
 

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+1 on the rabbitfish. I bought a one spot foxface (pretty small one too) few months ago and no longer have any HA or bryopsis, though I didnt have much of a problem with it, just some here and there. Few mexican turbos or turbo snails are very helpful as well I find.
 
rtecanoe said:
+1 on the rabbitfish. I bought a one spot foxface (pretty small one too) few months ago and no longer have any HA or bryopsis, though I didnt have much of a problem with it, just some here and there. Few mexican turbos or turbo snails are very helpful as well I find.
Click to expand...

The one spot fox face was the best fish I ever purchased to control algae. This guys is always eating. Even eats bubble algae (small size). It does however freak me out every morning when I see it sleeping. His weird sleep colors and blotchy color looks a little scary until you get use to seeing it.


Will
 
do you have a sand bed? if so what kind of fauna is tending to it?
what do you feed?
whats your flow rate like? not just sump to tank turnover but circulation within the tank?
how do you clean your filter socks and how long do you keep them in use?
 
Last edited:
I have been dosing 1 mil per gallon of peroxide for a 10 days no effects on anything so far. Did a water change after 7.I had it in my overflows and they are spotless now. I have been using 17 mill on my 150 gallon. I had some on sps and used a feeding tube to hit them directly and they are cleaning up also. Read up on it on line before you do it.I was scared at first but do see the results
 
I will only chime in on the fish and crabs for algae control, 'cause I can't speak to carbon dosing- I've never done it.
I do have a Foxface Rabbitfish, Scopas Tang, and Tailspot Blenny along with a LOT of snails and blue and red leg hermits working on my tank; along with the critters in the sandbed (worms, etc.) to work on bio waste.
The Rabbitfish, Scopas each eat any kind of visible algae I've had show up. The Tailspot Blenny works on the tiny surface algae they can't get... The snails do the same. Crabs and critters I guess eat mostly food bits, some algae on the part of the crabs.
I do use GFO.....
My sump is unlighted- no algae or anything in there now except some white sponges that like the dark.
I had a problem with Caulerpa in the tank from the sump, so I shut down the lights in the sump, got the Scopas and Foxface and.... Gone.
Brian
 
What about a sea hare? They will eat the hair algae, then use the fox face or dwarf angel, tang to keep it under control.
 
That's true.... I had one in my tank about seven years back. It did a great job eating algae and was kind of fun to watch.
However, when it finally died (somewhere in the rocks) my tank water turned completely green!! I was changing water quite a bit.
Luckily, I use a 55 gallon drum as my reservoir for my R.O. unit, so I can change about 45 gallons of new water at a time and my unit will refill the drum overnight.
Brian
 
DeepSeaBeauti said:
Sea hares are great until they eat all the algae, then they starve to death.

Will
Click to expand...

That's when you send it on to someone else in the club with the same problem. Pass them around.

That fish place here in PA had like five of them in a tank.

I have to say miss the stores in NY, you guys get all the good stuff.
 
So I am going to assume that you are doing all the usual in your tank, good clean up grew, algae eating fish, good water going in and you do water changes.

So with that said, I think the main thing that is going on is that your tank is not processing enough nitrates. Which is why you see N at 10. When the tank is unable to keep up with the nitrate production, you will also see elevated Phosphates. Both of these can lead to excessive hair algae.

Basically you want to get those nitrates down, as they get lower you should also start to see less Phosphates, and less hair algae.

So that is why it is happening, to fix it you have a couple of options, better skimming, more rock, less feedings etc. GFO will work to pull some P out but you still have the N and that is what is the main problem. So work on pulling down your Nitrates. I had great luck with carbon dosing (vodka) for over 6 years, it will rapidly pull down your nitrates which in turn will lower your Phosphates. I ended up having issues with SPS corals that were carbon dosing related and switched to using Chaeto for Nitrate reduction. So you can also use that to bring down your nitrates.

HTH, just work on pulling those nitrates down and the rest should fall in line.
 
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