Hair algae problem

[nickels]

I've had hair algae for the last year, and have not been able to beat it. Let me start with tank parameters; Salinity =1.026, temp = 80.1, Alk = 3.0 meq, Calcium = 410, mag = 1300, Phosphate = 0, Nitrates = 1.5. I use RO/DI water, and add B-Ionic two part every day. I have a 72 gallon with sump and refuge with a large ball of chaeto. I use a Phosphate reactor, and have a Euroreef skimmer. There is alot of flow in the tank, 3 maxi-jet 1200, and one maxijet 1200 mod all on a wave maker and a pump from the sump. I have only 70 pounds of live rock, mostly tonga branch. I have lots of inverts and a small fish load. Many snails, hermit crabs, emerald crab, urchin, limpets. I feed every two or three days only a small amount of frozen food and formula one flake. I have 2 MH 250 1400k lighting which has been changed recently. The hair algae is long and filamentous. It seems to come out in tuffs, and is difficult ot remove manually. I have tried many times to remove it, even cut it with scissors, and it just grows back. The hair algae is very green, but is covered with a brownish film which may be cynobacteria. My lights are on for a total of 10 hours a day. I have tried mollies, tangs, lawnmower , but they have died and never touched the hair algae. Any suggestion would be really helpful. I have attached pictures to make sure that this is really hair algae and not bryosis, Is this hair algae? What fish/inverts will eat it??

 

[FOREIGNER]

get a tang, will clean up tank in a week

 

[Chad Vossen]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9498676#post9498676 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FOREIGNER
get a tang, will clean up tank in a week

tang will not fix the problem. the hair algae isnt the problem, but a result of a problem.

you can:
reduce photoperiod
run a phosphate remover
install a refuge
cook rock
do water changes
upgrade to an oversized protein skimmer
and more, i think.

a tang will help keep the algae in check, but you should attack the source of nutrients for the hair algae. otherwise the tang will eat the algae, produce waste, waste breaks down to fuel more algae growth, tang eats regrown algae, and so on.

 

[Chad Vossen]

i just noticed you have tried many of what i suggested. in this case im not sure what to do. what is the phosphate/nitrate levels of your NEW saltwater.

 

[Lpabsolute]

I would try taking out the LR and scrubbing with some type of brush to get as much off as you can. Then i would get about 10 nice size emerald crabs. After a few weeks they should mow it down. Then just set traps to catch the crabs if you want to take them out, or leave like 2 in there to help out if it trys to come back. i know that some people have luck with mexican turbo snails eatting it, you could also toss in a handful of them. Good Luck

 

[PSam]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9498676#post9498676 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FOREIGNER
get a tang, will clean up tank in a week

Adding more bioload is never the solution.

I see a number of fish in the pics. How much / often are you feeding?

Are you changing water with RO? Is your skimmer sufficient?

 

[piercho]

I think your hair alga may be Bryopsis, which can be tricky to control. There is a long thread on Bryopsis stickied to the top of this forum. Do some searches for images of Bryopis and see if you find any pictures that resemble your alga.

I have not had an effective large grazer for Bryopsis when it has appeared in my tank. If your alga is Bryopsis, its generally not that palatable to many fish herbivores. Rabbitfish and Zebrasoma tangs would be the most likely to pick at it, IMO. Bryopsis is a siphonous green algae (like Caulerpa) and some sea slugs are specialized to graze siphonous green algae. But sea slugs are not that easy to get. It won't be a preferred algae, IMO/IME, of urchins including Diadema. A large Diadema might graze it incidentally, but will prefer that nice coraline algae on your rocks.

Bryopsis spreads readily by fragmentation so I don't like dealing with it in tank. For hand harvest I would remove and wire brush the rock, rinsing it before putting it back into the tank. I think light deprevation (rock cooking) may clear the rock of algae for a while, but in the case of Bryopis IME it can survive long dormant periods and then pop up again. So if the conditions are right for Bryopsis, IMO it will come back after scrubbing, "cooking", or both.

You might attempt to improve productive capacity of the vegetative filter/rfugia. More water flow through the filter or stronger light over the filter may shift nutient uptake from the hair algae in the tank to the algae in the filter.

If it were me, I would wire brush it off fairly frequently and look to up the intensity of light over the filter/refugia. IMO persistent hand harvest and improved nutrient uptake in the filter are the best bets to beat this one.

 

[nhlives]

That is the problem with "hair algae". Every kind of algae kind of goes by that name. As a newbie I was unsure what I had. There are different pictures of Bryopsis on the web that looks like about anything you could have in your tank. I scrutinized every picture and I was still not sure. However, I understand most algae other than Bryopsis are controllable by a number of herbivores. At least the two flavors I had in my tank were. If you can't get anything to eat it, in my not so expert opinion you may have Bryopsis.

 

[piercho]

There are different pictures of Bryopsis on the web that looks like about anything you could have in your tank

A key for Bryopsis is attention to how the alga filaments are branched. If you remove a filament or two and place it in a clear glass of water you may be able to further identify the alga. Without going through all the keys for those genus that could be “hair” algae, the characteristics of Bryopsis are as follows:

• Plant obviously filamented.
• Filaments obviously branched.
• Filaments NOT anastamosing; NOT mat-forming; NOT spongy and clump-forming; NOT forming a flattened frond; NOT club shaped. This seems to be the case from the pictures.
• Cladophora is then distinguished from siphonous hair algae like Bryopsis and Derbesia by having complete cellular cross-walls. You need a microscope for that determination. However, Cladophora is fairly distinct from most Bryopsis to the naked eye, IMO. I don't think that this is Cladophora.
• Filament with central primary axis and numerous radial, short, lateral branches, often present in clusters…Branching pinnate (feather like), secund (comb-like), or radial; reproductive structure produced in portions of vegetative branches. -> BRYOPSIS
• Plants subdichotomously or irregularly branched, without central primary axis…constrictions absent from all parts of vegetative filaments.->DERBESIA

Adapted from Huisman, Abbott, and Smith; 2007.