Hair Algea Help

[craftedpacket]

I know this has been posted about a billion times but I still cant get it resolved. Here is my setup.

140 gallon tank with 55 gallon sump/fuge.
2-250w Halides 2-140w vho actinic.
Tunze 6000 with Single Controller and Modified maxijet 1200.
around 150 pounds of Live Rock...Cheato in the fuge.
Run filter sock on overflow from main.
Octopus DDNW-150 Recirculating Protein Skimmer
Mag 18 return pump.

current Inhabitants include:
Misc Snails and crabs
2 cleaner shrimp
1 coral banded shrimp
1 naso Tang
2 False perc clowns
1 Scooter Blenny
1 Lawnmower Blenny
1 Pink spotted gobby
2 spotted cardinals
1 striped sweetlips

Green Mushrooms
pulsing Xenia
green star polyps
1 Green Brain
1 unknown acropora
1 green slimer
1 unknown clam...sold as crocea at LFS.
Lots of hair algea

I feed every other day a small mix of Formula one and formula two flake. Frozen Mysis/brine (rinsed off).

All of my top off water is fed from an RODI system. Fresh Filters and DI changed about every other week. (we have really bad water here around 700+ppm range on a TDS meter). Water from my RO reads 0 TDS.

It is really hot here...the temp of my tank in the summer is around low 80's. I use a fans in the hood blowing across the water to control temp.

I change around 25 gallons of water every week.

I have tried running rowaphos in a phosban reactor with little to no impact on hair algae.

My water tests clean...no testable amounts of Phosphates or nitrates. I only add Kalk...no other additives. Since my Stony coral load is not very much i don't use very much kalk.

Coraline grows on my glass but not much on my rock, at least not nearly at the same rate. Hair algae grows on everything...rocks, glass, plumbing, snails, power heads.

2 months ago I removed all of my rock and scrubbed it with a tooth brush...within a month it was back. It grows on my back glass very very fast. I try and scrub my rock with a tooth brush in the tank before doing water changes. I clean my filter sock which collects a lot of it. I have about a 6" deep sand bed filled with small grained sand from home depot. This stuff was deemed OK in some past forums...(i don't remember the name of it).

The only thing I can think of is my sand is possibly the culprit. But if that was the case it would be leeching silicates and i would be having more of a bubble algae problem, correct? I am not sure what else to do...my skimmer works great, i don't feed excessively, i change water.

Is flow a problem? Do i need more hair algae eating critters? I watch my lawnmower eat the stuff...but he is small compared to the amount of algae I am fighting. HELP!!! I have had this tank for a little over a year now. The hair algae is really starting to beat me down and I am getting discouraged...I don't find myself enjoying it any longer and I don't want it to be that way. I have considered going FOWLER but I see all of your reef tanks on here and it keeps me somewhat motivated.

i can get pictures tonight...but just imagine a tank with lots of rock and sand and green sh*t everywhere...

 

[corbett_n]

It could be your phosphate test kit. I know as soon as started use Ro/Di water my green hair algae went away very fast.

 

[uscharalph]

I take some of the smaller rocks I have that have hair algae on them and pick / scrub the HA off them and them place them down in my sump for a couple of weeks. I have no lights on the sump. After a couple of weeks I return them to the display. So far this has been helping. I hate Hair Algae! LOL!!!

 

[craftedpacket]

Even if phosphates are the source of my problem...i dont understand where they are coming from.

 

[Æonic]

Wow, that's some bad water. I read somewhere 400 ppm was the cutoff for drinkability I think. I know it would be a major pain, but could you possibly try topping off with distilled water? If it were me it would be something I'd really concentrate on. Or maybe find a way to run the water through the ro/di twice? It's just some really bad water, and sticks out as a possible culprit.

You do a TDS test on your ro/di output, but did you ever do a full test on it? I had a problem with this once. TDS read 0 but had ammonia. Ammonia didn't show up in tank readings, presumably because the cyano and algae ate it

Are you absolutely sure the temperature maxes out at the low 80's?

What's your light cycle? I didn't see it in the post (might have missed it). Try cutting it down some? Make absolutely sure it's actually turning off Don't laugh, mine's stayed on all night before by accident.

Good luck, keep trying, eventually you'll find the problem!

 

[JimKelly12203]

I can only recommend what i have read in the past.

Load that bad boy up with blue leg hermits, and then turn your fuge into a macro-algae infested haven! That's a good two prongued attack against the hair algae. You'll have crabs eating the stuff up and you'll have macroalgae in the refugium sucking the nutrients out of the water.

I'd run the lights on the refugium 24 hrs a day until the problem is resolved.

Maybe go to Dr. Fosters & Smith's website and order an algae attack pack. In a 140 Gallon tank my goal would be to have 200 to 250 algae eating critters in there (snails, crabs, etc... a nice mix).

 

[craftedpacket]

I have not tested my water coming out of my RO/DI except with the TDS meter. I suppose I could add more stages of filtration. I definitly do not have 100's of crabs and snails...maybe like 20 crabs and 20 snails.

I have decreased my lighting to about 6 hours a day on the halides and 7 hours a day on the actinic. I just don't want to hurt any of the livestock I have by decreasing the light too much.

 

[barrysalt]

hair algae problem

hair algae problem

I've had this problem on and off. Here's how I resolved it.
1. Make sure your lighting is not overdoing it. My MH are on no more than 8 hrs/day.
2. Put a large hunk of chaeto in your fuge under some lighting. That stuff is a phosphate sponge.
3. I use Phosban every 6 months. It works.
4. Buy yourself at least two Seahares. They look like green snails, but soft bodies and large. That's all they eat, and they will absolutely wipe out the algae. LOL.