Help with hair algae/ diatoms

[Trx237]

Hi i have had a reef tank for about a month now and i have struggled with hair alage and diatoms since. It was a fowlr tank before. The tank is 30 g sumpless, My nitrate js between 0 and 5 ppm, ph is about 8.3 based on API test. I have AQ 50&70, in addition to eshopps hob skimmer which i clean 2x a week. I dont have a phosphate test. I have been doing 10% water changes weekly, I try to remove whatever hair algae there is when I change water. I have a clownfish, six line, alage blenny, cleaner shrimp various snails and corals. My lights are on like eight hours a day. I have even tried using GFO in filters. I cannot get rid of this annoying algae. I try not to over feed. Here is my lighting schedule maybe it is what is doing it because I dont know what else to do!!!!

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[bertoni]

How much and what types of food is going into the tank per day?

 

[Trx237]

A day i will feed like 10-20 sinking pellets for fish, snails shrimp. Every few days some garlic enriched mysis, less than 1/4 of a cube.


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[bertoni]

That might be too much food for the system to process. You could try cutting back or perhaps adding a macro algae to the system, if you like the look. Something that doesn't attach, like Chaetomorpha, is comparatively easy to remove, if need be.

 

[five.five-six]

I’ve been killing hair algae with 12% H2O2. I shut off all flow an apply it at the base of the algae with a Salifert tritiation syringe. It’s amazingly effective. Don’t exceed 3 ml/gal per day.

 

[Uncle99]

Your tank is young, check phosphate remains between 0.03-0.07.
Bet you it's high.

 

[Soryu]

Due to my work lifestyle I had a massive GHA outbreak. I started using Vibrant reef and dosing once a week. Works like a charm, we're about 6 weeks in and all of the GHA died but this caused a Cyano outbreak due to high nutrients. Now I'm dosing vinegar and doing 30% weekly water changes with filter sock changes every 3rd day and wet skimming to get my nutrients down. Vibrant was a godsend but it almost works too well, I was completely unprepared for how fast my nutrients were going to rise. But overall, I couldn't be happier with it.

 

[reeftanknewbie]

Any updates on your GHA outbreak? I suspect that it should be close to over by now unless you have something adding nutrients to the tank.

 

[Oldreeferman]

Hi i have had a reef tank for about a month now and i have struggled with hair alage and diatoms since. It was a fowlr tank before.

You said it was a fish only with live rock before but did not say how long it was a FOWLR tank before adding corals ..............

How long was it up & running before adding corals?

Only diff between a FOWLER tank & a coral tank usually is a skimmer & additional minerals(Reef salt verses reg salt) & special lighting, that being said, it looks to me like the usual algae cycle from a tank still maturing.

Have you considered adding a CUC consisting of only algae eating creatures yet? Snails, Scarlet crabs, etc...

 

[Trx237]

This my tank today. Maybe not as much hair algae as before but still quite significant. Somewhere before winter i took out all rocks and doused them in hydrogen peroxide and that killed off most, if not all. I have always had snails and then they end up dying on me. Currently there may be 6 in there right now. I never had hermits but I recently got a sally crab. After purging my rocks i re stacked them and started adding in more corals.
Long story short, it came back so i decided to use gfo in mesh bags in my AQ filters and turned out it was seeping all over the rocks.

I had an algae blenny to try to help the situation but he never touched the hair alage and starved to death. I had a small bristle tooth angel to try and combat the algae also and he was bullied by clownfish or other tank memebers and died (but still never touched the alage growing).
Im thinking it was maybe cause there was the gfo all over it. But now rocks are no longer coated brown and i never found the bodies of either of those fishes.

I have a little bit of cyano on the bottom right of my sandbed which i have been trying to get rid past few weeks, but its such a pain esp cause tank is tall.

Otherwise the corals seem to be growing well except for my bubble coral .

I have a clown, midas blenny and six line wrasse & i do 1/3 water changes every other week but ill be honest sometimes i am late a week.
Also, i recently got irritAted by my eshopps hob skimmer and need to order and new one ASAP, any suggestions?

 

[Trx237]

Also, the tank was a fowlr for at least a year before coral and i had had the eshopps skimmer during that time as well. I think thr tank just gets sunlight, although not directly theres lots of windows around.
I was considering also converting one Awua clear filter to a HOB refugium, however im not sure it would help and am debating it.
Thoughts as well?
& happy new year !!


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[bertoni]

I never found a good, reasonably-priced skimmer solution for a smaller tank. The refugium might help. They seem to be hit or miss for algae control, but can generate live food for the tank.

 

[Oldreeferman]

Ive been using HOBs on both my tanks and they are only good as water flow devices & filtration, not large enough to serve as a refugium of any usefulness. Necessary evil tho on tanks with no sump or filter socks.

Ive had very good success with my skimmers but my tanks are 20 gal & tho the skimmer states rated for up to 30 its dubious and best to get one rated higher then what you have in gallons. Mine is the AquaticLife internal mini skimmer. Id google 10 best skimmers for 2019 for 40 gal up & research what pops up, most have pros & cons except the most expensive models & that is their con price....

Ambient light might be an issue does not have to be direct light to promote algae i have my drapes closed 24/7 and it seems to help.

As bertoni mentioned i added Cheato to my tanks & it did completly help to clear up my nutrient issues & my cyano prob so it does work well, maybe a large ball in a basket attached near the top to get good lighting & no mess? I trim mine back once a month.

Due to you tank shape was wondering what lighting sys you are running? Im on T5HOs that need changing at least once a yr. min, but im guessing your on adjustable LEDs?

 

[Trx237]

Yes i have been looking at aqua maxx but so much $, i hadnt thought of having the chaeto in the tank itself, does it look bad ?
I am running AI prime

 

[bertoni]

I liked having macro algae in my tank, but esthetic opinions vary a lot. If the tank is very large, algae can be hard to remove, but a 30g is easy to manage in that regard.

 

[Trx237]

I dont understand what you mean by managing it? You just put it in display and let it outcompete the other alage ?

 

[bertoni]

I just meant that if you don't like having the macro algae in the display, you should be able to reach all of it and remove it fairly easily from such a small system.

 

[Trx237]

Where do you find it ! Any recommendations??

 

[bertoni]

I bought Chaetomorpha online, but that vendor is out of business. Places like algaebarn.com have it advertised, and there likely are more vendors. A local fish store might have some, too.