Help with hair algae

[pfoxgrover]

There must be a better way than chemical warfare. In my experience that often doesn't end well in a running tank.
I have my nutrients at undetectable and the stupid algae still flourish. The urchins, hermits and snails maintain the clear areas, but don't do much about the existing patches. : headwally:
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I agree it's nice to have critters take care of algae but on a large system I have found that it is best to help them by working with them to get the algae under control and then let them do there magic on what remains. If you can remove the rocks hydrogen peroxide does awesome work on algae. I feel real safe using this approach, just give the rock a little rinse in salt water and put it back in the tank. If there are corals on the rock try you can use a dropper to try to avoid getting the peroxide on them.
The lye treatment is a little more nerve racking and it is hard to keep it off corals and away from the fish.
I don't think I would have ever beat my GHA if I hadn't helped the clean up crew with a little chemical warfare.

I also agree that an ATS will help control nutrients and is a good long term fix. Trying to starve the algae with GFO was causing havoc on my corals. My ATS has been running for more than a year and I now use almost no phosphate remover, just a little from time to time.

Hope that helps. Good Luck!

 

[75mixedreef]

It seems you still have to learn a lot. Algae and coral engage in a quite sophisticated chemical warfare. Each tries to create an environment in which the other struggles to exist.

Competitive interactions between corals and turf algae depend on coral colony form

Chemical warfare on the reef

Chemical Warfare on Coral Reefs: Suppressing a Competitor Enhances Susceptibility to a Predator

Competition Among Sessile Organisms on Coral Reefs

I have heard of these claims before but I thought they had been put to rest in the face of overwhelming evidence that scrubbers are beneficial to our reef tank systems.

The sources you cite are all related to physical contact with the corals. We all know that algae coming into contact with corals can kill the corals, the sources you cite suggest that there might be more to it than simply competition for resources and growing over each other, but they do not provide much for evidence. Their biggest piece of data was the lowered O2 levels around the algae killing the coral, but that could simply be the algae blocking flow and creating stagnant water.

So there could be SOME chemical warfare going on, but I'm not convinced. Even if there was, it appears to only occur when the algae comes in contact with the corals, which is essentially what I was saying about algae growing over corals. This is no reason to avoid an ATS because it keeps the algae well away.

Before you tell people they have a lot to learn you might want to finish your research. You have a lot of half knowledge and outdated points of view. No one argues that algae growing on your corals is bad. Also many people have benefitted from lowering their nutrients using a scrubber, but I have never heard of anyone experiencing any drawbacks like you are alluding to. Any chemical warfare that could be going on between algae and corals that are not in close proximity pales in comparison to the chemical warfare between corals. For hobby tanks that are not trying to live up to lab precision and maintenance, an ATS would have much more benefit than harm.