Hair Algae......HELP!!!!

[Fluval Edge]

I need some advice on fixing my hair algae problem. I have a small nano (6gals) and had a sudden outbreak of hair algae. I immediately did a water change and checked my water parameters several days later. Everything is in line with nitrates and phosphates at 0ppm. I have a clean up crew in the tank that consists of three hermit crabs, three snails, and a cleaner shrimp. I do have a few pieces of soft coral in the tank and am afraid that if I leave the lights off too long I will kill them. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!!

 

[Jakef150]

Try light out for 3 days with towel or cloth to cover the tank...It works. it will not effect on fishes or corals

OR

this one http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1595003 it works for me after 3rd dose then i stopped but your tank is way SMALL. so USE SMALLER dose.

 

[amstar]

where are you getting your water for water changes/top off??

How many fish do you have in the tank? Is the filtration the standard fluval HOB filter? is all of the standard media that came with the filter in it? How often do you clean your filter

 

[brandon429]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2082359



In two days your algae will be white and falling off the rocks/dying, and your clean up crew will actually eat it. pm me if you want to kill it without doing anything to your lighting schedule, tank stocking, water changes etc. People don't last 10 yrs posting bad stuff on RC I promise no snake oil.

 

[Fluval Edge]

I am getting RO water from a local pet store. I have been buying water from the same place now for a year and never had this problem before. I do have the stock HOB filter, but change the bio-pellets to Purigen to better remove nitrates. The charcoal and sponge media are stock. I change my filter media every month. I usually rinse my sponge media every two weeks. I have two fish, a clown and a purple fire fish.

 

[Markdiego]

Id reduce feeding vs the lighting, and buy a new cleaning crew. My blue hermits chopped away at my gha.

 

[amstar]

something has to be giving the hair algae the nutrients that it needs. maybe your LFS hasnt changed their RO/DI filters and your not getting 0 TDS water?

How old/what type of lighting do you have on the tank?

Where did you get your live rock and do you "blow" it out every once in awhile (use a power head to push water flow over it or even a turkey baster) to get build up back into the water column for your filter to collect

 

[Fluval Edge]

I do not know how old the RO filter is at my local fish store. I am running AI sol nano LED's. I also blow my live rock off weekly with a turkey baster.

 

[Fluval Edge]

I got my live rock from a very respected fish store called absolutly fish in NJ. Don't think that the live rock is the problem being that it's been in the tank for a while

 

[brandon429]

blowing the live rock is a major cause for your tank.

this is only beneficial if careful siphoning/water changes follow and are consistent. otherwise the action liberates nitrate and phosphate pockets into suspension and they will dissolve faster and become available for algae fixation.

 

[brandon429]

your algae doesnt look atypical though
all nano reefs will start a spot of algae eventually and if you leave it there the outcome is the same across algae threads. going forward it possible to have a perfectly algae free tank if you remove it the instant you see it.

 

[Agu]

blowing the live rock is a major cause for your tank.

this is only beneficial if careful siphoning/water changes follow and are consistent. otherwise the action liberates nitrate and phosphate pockets into suspension and they will dissolve faster and become available for algae fixation.

Hey Brandon, Is there any research to back up this comment ? Not being confrontational either. I only blow off the live rock just before a water change so I can siphon out the waste in the water column. It just makes intuitive sense but I wonder if there's any scientific documentation ?

BTW, You need to sign up the OP for your study .

 

[brandon429]

we can't find any formal work on pico tanks its all just whatever the keeper thinks...nobody is gonna bite on the peroxide thread heh but it was worth a try. it would fix this simple growth two days ago. there are many ways to do it, hopefully the thread will be updated with whatever method worked.

so what are the update pics saying, did you find a route to clean rocks?

 

[brandon429]

I think one way of testing the anecdote would be to find an aged pico tank not registering nitrates above 10 lets say, using whatever care method, and then begin to use a baster to kick up the possible dust clouds daily each day for seven days. just insert baster, puff up the place gray water, let settle, repeat and keep a chart of what nitrate does. I can't bring myself to test that in the bowl but would highly enjoy someone elses null experiment

 

[jong11]

1. Test your RO/DI water for TDS, if you're LFS is selling you high TDS water then you are fighting a losing battle. Find a new source of water.
2. Increase your WC % and/or do them more frequently.
3. What kind of snails do you have? Have you thought about buying turbo snails?
4. Are you overfeeding your fish? This could also be a source of the problem.