hair algae problem

[tripleup05]

Ok so I have done a search on eradicating hair algae, and pretty much everything I find says to bring down nutrient levels and phosphates. Well, nitrates are almost zero and phosphates are zero. And I KNOW I haven't been overfeeding my fish because I havent hardly touched my tank in the last two months due to a broken leg. Nevertheless, the sand bed is pretty well carpeted and even the walls of the walls of the tank are blanketed by thick strings on the stuff. I never had a problem with hair algae until I put on more powerful lights back in March or so, and then when it appeared on the sand bed i would just siphon it out. But since I havent been able to do much in the last two months, it has taken over. WHAT CAN I DO?!? I have already siphoned most off of the sand bed, but it is on rocks covered in Xenia so it wouldnt be that easy to just take the rocks out and scrub them. I tried picking it off the rocks with my fingers, but that pretty much just released it into the water column and it just went around and around the tank. Needless to say, between the coralline that covered the front wall and the hair algae covering everything else, i have a mess. Any advice???? Thanks!

 

[ozz1116]

Do atleased water changes once a weak,ifn you dont want to invest
in fancy equipment

 

[crypticghost]

Get ROWA phos
A tang
UV
Prodibio

These will really help...

Keep in mind, even though your Phos test reads 0, that does not mean they are not there, if there is alot of algae then it takes up the phosphates as fuel, so it shows zero on the test, but they are just in the algae.

 

[crvz]

I've been there too, tripleup. And i agree with crypticghost, my readings were deceivingly low. Some things i'd recommend are;

1) frequent 10% water changes at first (at least once a week)
2) manual removal of algae (try to resist scrubbing rocks with a toothbrush, just pinch it off, rince hand in fresh water, and repeat)
3) skim better (higher turnover rate in your skimmer would be the first step)
4) buy new live rock and sand! <-- alright, this is a crappy plan, but its probably the quickest. It took me nearly 10 months to get rid of the algae. You could easily recycle your tank in that time.

 

[tripleup05]

Crypticghost, sorry for not knowing but what is ROWA phos and Prodibio? And what sort of tang is recommended for a 46? I mean eventually they will all get too big

 

[tripleup05]

Will a yellow tang be a good choice?

 

[Drakis]

I just added a fuge to grow macro algae, and got a yellow tang. But the yellow tang did not touch the stuff. I also cut back on the light to only 6 hours a day. That pretty much took care of it. IMO a tang would be to big for a 46 gal.

 

[GlobaLPimP]

snails, snails, snails and RO/DI water is a MUST!

 

[saltwater2642]

I had a major problem and was told much the same. But I just cut back on my lights and pulled it by hand.

The BIGGIE was I bought a MARINE CLARIFIER at lfs, its much like freash water stuff. Double dose it wait two three weeks and it will fall right off as you suck it up. Its biologicial and won't hurt the tank or animals. I wish I knew the name of it but right now I can't remember what it was called.

 

[tripleup05]

What kind of snails should I get? Any particular ones, or are they all good? I am using RO, but I don't think the Publix and Wally World water is DI. Saltwater2632, can you find out the name of the clarifier stuff? Thanks alot!

 

[outy]

allot of missinformation here being fired with blinders on.

first your not using ro/di water, and you dont know what the tds reading for your water is correct? and you said nitrates are almost 0 well they need to be undetectable so now we know you have plenty of food for algea coming from your tank and possibly from your make up water. even with all the algea growth your tank has not consumed all the nitrates. next you said you added lights, what kind, wattage and kelven... it makes all the difference even with perfect water.

i looked in your sig and it looks like your using a mag filter, if not set up rite this could be a nitrate factory.

i would invest in a ro/di its manditory for a good reef tank with coral. next we need to know more so we can help you and witch direction you should take

 

[tripleup05]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7986147#post7986147 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by outy
allot of missinformation here being fired with blinders on.

first your not using ro/di water, and you dont know what the tds reading for your water is correct? and you said nitrates are almost 0 well they need to be undetectable so now we know you have plenty of food for algea coming from your tank and possibly from your make up water. even with all the algea growth your tank has not consumed all the nitrates. next you said you added lights, what kind, wattage and kelven... it makes all the difference even with perfect water.

i looked in your sig and it looks like your using a mag filter, if not set up rite this could be a nitrate factory.

i would invest in a ro/di its manditory for a good reef tank with coral. next we need to know more so we can help you and witch direction you should take

You are right, I don't know the TDS of the water I am using. But from what I understand, lots of people on this board use it and don't have major problems. I know DI would be better though. Honestly, I would rather just manually remove it than invest in a RO/DI right now. Just bought school books and sorts of other stuff.

My nitrates are below 5, but I thought that under 10 was acceptable for a reef. It would be easy to make them drop though-just do more water changes. As far as the Magnum goes, I only run it with the sleeve on. It gets cleaned once a week or so under the sink in hot water, so I doubt it is a nitrate factory. I don't even run carbon in it.

As far as lighting, the actinic stays on for 11 hours, and the 10,000K stays on for 9. The actinic is a Marine Glo, which is a regular flourecent 20w bulb. The daylight is a compact flourecent 55w in a All Glass cheapy ballast. I honestly don't know who manufactured the bulb as it came in the ballast when somebody gave it to me. Literally though, as soon as I started running that compact flourecent light, the hair algae started. At the time I didn't have any coral, so I removed it and the problem went away. But I decided to try some easy corals, and I put the light back on, and back came the problem. Could a cheap lighting system be the problem? I know I have read in a book somewhere that the wrong lights will cause algae. Also the bulb is probably 6 months old now

 

[davocean]

I've heard of people turning their canisters into phosban reactors.
Phosban needs slow water movement though, not sure how much water yours pushes.
I personally would take rocks out and scrub, zenia will come back.
Rinse rocks in clean salt water.
Electric toothbrushes help,as well as soft bristle brushes.
Buy RO/DI water from LFS until you can afford your own RO.
May want to bump to a better skimmer when you can(coralifes are good/cheap)
Good luck man, many of us have been there.

 

[tripleup05]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7991582#post7991582 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by davocean
I've heard of people turning their canisters into phosban reactors.
Phosban needs slow water movement though, not sure how much water yours pushes.
I personally would take rocks out and scrub, zenia will come back.
Rinse rocks in clean salt water.
Electric toothbrushes help,as well as soft bristle brushes.
Buy RO/DI water from LFS until you can afford your own RO.
May want to bump to a better skimmer when you can(coralifes are good/cheap)
Good luck man, many of us have been there.

I am not worried about the Xenia as I know they would come back, and the button polyps are still attached to their little frag piece which could easily be broken off of the main rock, but what about my mushrooms. I have two mushrooms that have finally attached themselves to their rock. If I ultimately did take out the rocks and scrub them in a bucket of saltwater, would the mushrooms make it through the ordeal? What about the aerobic and anearobic bacteria on the rock...would it thrash and kill that too? Scrubbing the rocks just seems like it would be a huge job and really mess the tank up for awhile

 

[davocean]

I and lots others have done it in extreme circumstances, which sounds like that may be the case.
LR will be perfectly fine.
You may want to pull shrooms, or be careful with them.
Make sure to scrub and rinse in salt water.
Yeah, it's a bummer, took me all day to do mine once, but end result was worth it.

 

[tripleup05]

Hmm...that might just be an option then. I will just have to figure out how to do it and make as little mess as possible. Lets see...

1. Fill up big tub with saltwater (similar to tank water)
2. Maybe another tub to put freshly cleaned rock in.
3. Siphon all loose hair algae off sand and anything else to get as much out as possible before stirring it all up and leaving it in water column.
4. Remove a rock, clean it, stick it in clean holding tub
5. Repeat for all rocks
6. Try and get remaining hair algae out of tank
7. Put rocks back!
8. Oh and pull all the little hermits and crabs and scrub their shells too lol.

 

[davocean]

I did this;
Made water for decent size WC
siphoned old water into several 5 gal. buckets
Made an extra 5 gal. new water
pull rocks and put in a couple buckets and began scrubbing(it comes off fairly easy, but rec electric toothbrush for hard to get to areas)
I did a dunking/ rinsing sequence from dirtiest bucket of water to cleanest, finishing in the new 5 gal. batch of water.
Fill tank back up with water and LR
NOW; I actually took this a step farther by turning off lights and covering tank from all light for 3 days.
This worked for me, but I also did everything I could to find source of phosphates, and added everything I could to keep them away short of a phosban reactor.
New fuge, lots of chaeto, RO/DI water changes etc.
It was a full day with a bit of cursing and several beers when done, but it was so worth it!

 

[outy]

lots of people use what? [kind of water] here on this board.

remember the water here and there are 4 different things, my tds is around 21 [i can get away with allot] others are 250-300 they have to have ro/di.

well from reading more its not only a nutrient thing but as well a lighting issue. to get this straight you have 75w total? 55 +20

if thats the case you can clean all you want the HA will come rite back

 

[tripleup05]

Lots of people use the walmart and publics water. Thanks for the info on the lighting, but uh, thats not helping any. explain it please

 

[jenghes]

Wal-Mart water? Which one? The pre-bottled distilled water or their RO water on tap?

The pre-bottled distilled water is fine.

Their RO water on tap may not be any better than your tap water. You are dependant on their filter change scedule and if they keep it maintained. If they do not maintain it, the TDS may be no better than your tap water. These units do not have DI stage. Therefore, you still have PO4 that is feeding that HA.