Hair Algaepocalypse - Help Requested

[FFish]

I'd be grateful for any suggestions for what i may be able to do to reverse a nearly complete overhaul of GHA in my 120 gallon tank. Ive read all of the forums and researched and am still puzzeled as to what may be the variable that is off with my tank.

- 120 gallon mixed reef / 3 years old
- 40 gallon sump w/ Reef Octopus 150SSS Protein Skimmer, BioPellet Reactor, Chaeto Refugium, and 302 Aquatics Algae Scrubber.
- Lighting: Coralvue 8 x 54 watt T5 + Aquamax Edge LED

- Livestock:
- Koran Angel
- Yellow Tang
- Blue Hippo Tang
- 2 Occealaris Clowns
- 1 coral beauty
- 1 scarlet dottyback
- 3 small pincushions urchins and a clean-up crew from reefcleaners.


Water source: strictly R0/DI that test for 0 phosphate before added to tank

Water changes - 10-15% biweekly

Feeding schedule (at most, 1 cube of Formula One/Two) a day

Lighting Period: 8 hours for T5 / LED is on for 10

8 weeks ago, i systemmatically removed all LiveRock and did peroxide dips, etc and scrapped rocks to clean off the GHA. Algae returned within 2-3 weeks and now has completely overtaken.

I dose Prodibio every 2 weeks.

Lastly, i changed t5 bulbs about 8 weeks ago as well. All new. 6 BluePlus and 2 CoralPlus ATI. Should be in part of spectrum least attractive to GHA.

Will upload pics soon. I'm at my wits end after 6 months of constant battle. Debating tearing tank down and restarting.

 

[sde1500]

Try fluconazole, tons of success stories out there. Suggested dose is 20mg per gallon of water. Some say GHA may take a second dose after two weeks. Turn off your skimmer and remove any carbon.

 

[Mishri]

2 of your fish will be getting too large for that tank... seriously, they wont be able to properly turn around/swim once they get full grown. -removing those 2 fish and reducing feeding would help a lot. (hippo needs 200 gallon and koran close to a 300 gallon)

how is your algae scrubber working? getting loaded up? do you clean it regularly? high nutrient load needs to go somewhere..


are you not feeding nori? hippo tang needs daily nori.. i'd also switch to half a cube twice a day.

also, I wouldn't dose Prodibio... -it clearly isn't doing anything.

 

[mcgyvr]

What are the nitrate and phosphate test results of your tank water

 

[Mishri]

What are the nitrate and phosphate test results of your tank water

I forecast 0! just like my hair algae tanks always had

-edit one thing i forgot to mention is your rocks could be leaching phosphate into the tank... another 6 months and you might have it all cleared out.

 

[BrandonFlorida]

fluconaze. I only did one dose and all the GHA is gone. 20 ml per gallon and I left it for 4 weeks. amazing.. My tank is a 180 gallon with five fish and easier corals

 

[LuizW13]

Why not try some GFO?

 

[MondoBongo]

i would probably add GFO if possible.

start blowing off your rocks real well during water changes, and make sure whatever is picked up is caught in filter socks and removed. hair algae is really, really good at trapping detritus, so blowing things off with a turkey baster or powerhead helps get that stuff in to the water column, then in to a filter sock, and down a drain somewhere.

look around for anywhere detritus might be unexpectedly collecting. in the sump, in media bags, in reactors, in overflows, under rocks, behind rocks, etc.. etc... make sure it isn't piling up anywhere it shouldn't be.

upsize your clean up crew. more snails and hermits specifically.

step up your water change regimen and make sure your filters on your RODI unit are making 0 TDS water, not just 0 po4. perhaps consider larger percentage and more frequent water changes.

manual removal too. i have spent many hours with a siphon hose running through a filter sock plucking out bunches of GHA with tweezers under suction. i just run mine right back in to my sump so i can siphon forever if i like.

rinse and strain any frozen food you're feeding with RODI. (i've heard varying opinions on this, but i do it. i think it helps reduce the amount tiny stuff that the fish can't really eat).

what does your sump turnover look like? are you getting good skim?

 

[kupadupapupa]

2 of your fish will be getting too large for that tank... seriously, they wont be able to properly turn around/swim once they get full grown. -removing those 2 fish and reducing feeding would help a lot. (hippo needs 200 gallon and koran close to a 300 gallon)

how is your algae scrubber working? getting loaded up? do you clean it regularly? high nutrient load needs to go somewhere..


are you not feeding nori? hippo tang needs daily nori.. i'd also switch to half a cube twice a day.

also, I wouldn't dose Prodibio... -it clearly isn't doing anything.

Hippo tangs grow so slow. I used to have one in my 55 then moved to a 125 where it spent 7 years and by then it was still only maybe 4 inches long. Unless he's planning to stay in the hobby for 10+ years then the fish is probably ok.

 

[Gweeds]

You say you did peroxide dips... what strength and for how long?

If it was the 6% stuff and you diluted it down further, it wouldn't have killed the gha, just knocked it back a bit. Follow the same process again, but use pure 6% h2o2, not diluted and soak each rock for an hour. If yoh can get hold of stronger, then do, but be aware youll have a mini cycle after putting the rock back in. This will kill the GHA for sure.

Pointless checking no3 and po4 at the moment, you'll get a false reading, but check again once you've cleared the GHA with h2o2... I'll bet po4 is leaching from rocks somewhere.

Get a shed load of GFO and run it in a fluidised reactor, swap it out every 2 weeks.

On the assumption you have a sump... clear a section and stick chaeto in with a cheap grow lamp... once you've cleared the GHA this will soak up your nutrients and stop it returning.

You might want to consider dosing microbacter7 for a few months after clearing GHA too... it'll use up the nutrients before the algae can and then gets skimmed out.

Good luck and don't give up... if you don't fix it and strip down and start again, you'll likely have the same problem... persevere and find the balance, you'll thank yourself in the long run and it'll be fixed forever [emoji4]

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[Gweeds]

Sorry, missed that you have algae scrubber and cheato fuge already... my bad. Your readings are likely to be off the scale with that much export and still GHA growing... those fish are a pretty big bioload... can you upgrade the sump to get more volume and space for the chaeto to grow?

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[jayball]

manual removal too. i have spent many hours with a siphon hose running through a filter sock plucking out bunches of GHA with tweezers under suction. i just run mine right back in to my sump so i can siphon forever if i like.

I would do a big round of this, like a solid hour of work. follow this up by reducing lighting in your display for a while (like run just 2 bulbs for 4-5 days) to shift the algal growth to your ATS and Chaeto. If this does not work your rocks probably have a lot of bound PO4 and it will be worth it to just wait it out.

 

[cklayko]

Check your sand bed too, make sure it hasn't bricked

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[Crush Coral]

Fluconazole fluconazole fluconazole fluconazole.
Get my point?
Maually remove what you can.
Do a big water change.
Remove skimmer.
Remove carbon.
Start feeding light.
Treat with fluconazole.
After a month do a big water change, run carbon and skimmer for a couple days and then remove them.
Treat with fluconazole again.
Wait a month and you are done.
Fun watching it die die die!!!

 

[FFish]

Thanks all for your assistance and insights! I have run Fluconazole for 3 weeks (albeit for first few days i still had carbon and filter socks in place.) So i redosed after a week and have skimmer cup off, ATS removed, and carbon reactor off. I still have my biopellet reactor going. Minimal signs of change with GHA but my Monti is looking really ruff so I have done a WC at the 2 week mark and will redose to see if we can go for full three weeks before further water changes.

I do have a sump and i believe that perhaps the 2 contributing factors to the build up were (1) the build up of detritus within and between liverock rubble in the sump and (2) the switch from a MH + LED combo to a T5 & LED system.

MondoBongo - I think the idea of running a syphon from the sump is GENIUS to get a continual flow for further suction. In the past, i had performed manual scrubbing with a stiff horsehair brush and then dip in peroxide and tank water mix (33% peroxide of the 3% variety, and 2/3 tank water).

I will look at further peroxide dips after the next 21 day treatement of Fluconzole.

Should i be concerned of running w/o skimmer cup off for that length of period?

thanks again to all!

 

[FFish]

Er- and I need to update my profile as my current skimmer is a Reef Octopus 150SSS. I also run an Octopus BioPellet Reactor and a 302 Aquatics ATS. For GFO, i had been using a 2LF reactor with limited success. I might look to switch the biopellets for GFO.

Thank you

 

[yellow_tang2009]

Biological remediation has always worked well for me. As you know, the GHA must be surviving by the presence of some abundant nutrient even if it isn't measured.

I have had luck just buying copious amounts of macroalgae and letting it grow for a couple weeks. It will eventually starve out the hair algae.

I always make a point to throw out the macroalgae as it will likely absorb the nutrients and can recontaminate the tank.

 

[karimwassef]

Your scrubbers are not running properly or sized appropriately.

Get (or make) a bigger better scrubber, reduce your photoperiod and add more herbivores. Works every time.

 

[wooglin]

Biological remediation has always worked well for me. As you know, the GHA must be surviving by the presence of some abundant nutrient even if it isn't measured.

I have had luck just buying copious amounts of macroalgae and letting it grow for a couple weeks. It will eventually starve out the hair algae.

I always make a point to throw out the macroalgae as it will likely absorb the nutrients and can recontaminate the tank.

This has always worked well for me. I have a very high nutrient load 90 gallon and keeping plenty of macroalgae going in my sump handles undesired algae. One the you can do if you have a sump to work with is use a sump led bulb (I am having crazy good luck with the sPAR38 - Fuge lamp that was only 50 bucks or so). A sump light is mostly red light with a small amount of blue and it grows my macro twice as fast as the previous light that was 5500k. I run it 24 hours a day.