hair algae - why now?

sillygoose

sillygoose

New member
:wavehand: hey everyone - I missed ya! Hope you are all happy and reefin'

I have a pretty bad hair algae thing going on. Last fall, I got struck by a horrible case of dino. Well, we did some chemistry tweaks and after a while - yay it went away. But slowly, insidiously, it got replaced by hair algae. We woke up one day and it was freakin' everywhere! Nothing had changed in feeding or bioload. Our nitrates are 0, we have tons of chaeto in the fuge, our algal turf scrubber is growing vigorously.

So we've gotten 2 sea hares - both chowed down and died. We can't seem to keep snails alive - they munch and die. We bought a Sally Light foot and have seen it once. I can't physically remove it fast enough.

Has anyone run into this problem with AIs? It's weird, the algae doesn't grow where the light is the brightest but actually grows better on the fringes of the lighted areas.
 
Do a search for kent marine tech M, it's said that at certain levels it will knock out hair algae. It's not so much the high levels of mag but some byproduct within it.

IMO, the Dino's going away and the hair algae replacing it is a sign that your going in the right direction. I'd run some GFO, continue manual removal and keep up on water changes. Turkey baste your rocks daily. Give it some time and things will turn back around.
 
yeah you are suppose to keep the mag lvl at 1500-1600 with kent marine tech m for about a month and its supposed to kill the hair algae off...
I will find out how 2 weeks of keeping it at 1600 works for me.... if its not looking any different... I am going to up it to 1700... its currently on a BM doser daily
 
GHA has been an issue for me and I am finally winning the battle. This is my experience.

Phosphate.

A good read
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php

I believe gha is primarily a p04 problem. The gha is basically the excess po4. I battled gha for a year. My gha levels never were over .07 but I still had gha. Your levels can test low and the gha is absorbing the extra po4. I finally tried adding twice as much gfo as I normally do(thanks Jeff) and bam, I starting winning the battle. Its slow going because there is a lot of po4 in the gha and it is released as it dies but it is working. I see a po4 level of .01 with new gfo and when it edges up I change it. Generally it stays at .01 until the gfo is exhausted and will shoot up to .05 rapidly.
 
Last edited:
see if you have GHA you tank is actually SUPER CLEAN... its the only positive spin I can think of GHA... i am dealing with the same thing... my phosphates and nitrates are zilch... and the bryopsis grows well... I turned off my reactors and need to throw some good cheato in the sump to fight for the phosphates that do get produced....

With my new pico I am making sure i never see the light of day with gha!!!! bleached my rock... using dead sand...eevrything is brand new.... when i get corals...I'll probably take them off the plugs and throw the plugs away... god forbid i get anything from them.... I know part of my aptasia problem came from a frag of phil's granulosa
 
I would thin your chaeto out if it is massed..and make sure to pull it apart and turn it every so often to make sure it isn't dying on the bottom, or middle layers, where it isn't getting any light. Die-off will re-introduce the bad stuff into the water column. I thin mine out every 4-5 months, giving it a good turn-over every month. I also run 1lb of GFO in a reactor for my 200gal (total volume) and that has seemed to work wonderfully. Not willing to experimentally pull the GFO to see what effect that has. ;)
 
Thanks everyone - it's also good to know I'm not the Lone Ranger on this one. Do lawnmower blennies like this stuff?
 
Check your RO, what salt mix, water changes, % and how often? Phos reactor will kill Hair, but be careful, sometimes will have bad effect on SPS
 
We have a RODI and TDS is zero. Haven't done a water change in a while - we were just discussing it and deciding on a volume. We've got about 200g in our system - any thoughts on volume? We typically do about 30g.

We aren't running any Phosban or GFO yet. Is it worthwhile to get a bag in even if we don't have a reactor set up yet?
 
We aren't running any Phosban or GFO yet. Is it worthwhile to get a bag in even if we don't have a reactor set up yet? Haven't done a water change in a while

Water changes per your organic load, if heavy load then high vol WC, on a 200 can get pricey, but I would do what I could afford. If you can't afford much do high volume and just get good temp match, try to get a large reactor. It will take the Phos down and kill the HA, but as I said be careful, watch your SPS. Just putting bag in IMO is a waste, it needs to gently tumble to keep from clumping and get good exposure to absorb the PO4. Get advice on powerhead/flowrate for reactor you get, a nice gentle tumble, no roll it will clump, to hard it will pulverize
 
I've heard a few people complain of Dino's while using redsea salt lately. Maybe something to look into.

GFO in a bag is better than no GFO as long as you put it in a high flow area where water can run through it.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
Phosphate flow out of live rock
Replies
0
Views
787
SantaMonica
S
Paul B
Think like a fish
Replies
1
Views
403
Vinny Kreyling
Vinny Kreyling
K
Serious tank algae issue
2
Replies
24
Views
2K
OldReefGuy
O
M
Another Reefer back from a 13 year Hiatus
Replies
9
Views
674
EchoVetEcho
E
R
Red tufty algae - Asparagopsis - any expert advice for removal?
Replies
14
Views
2K
rallibon
R
Back
Top