My Kingdom for a Hair Algae Solution

[slavearm]

Never ever had a problem with hair algae until after my crash in february.

Tank is completely healthy now, and the hair is the only remaining issue from the crash.

Here is what I have tried.

1. Manual Removal
2. Green Emerald Crab
3. Starry Blenny
4. Ozone
5. Skimming Wet as Hell and replacing salt water daily
6. Lighting Refugium 24 hours instead of reverse cycle to help the cheato compete.

My water is supa clear now though hahahaha I mean really clear. I mean I can see through all 6' of the tank to the other side and it is still....... clear.

So uh... I hear naso's or tuxedo urchins do the trick... anyone want to trade a taeneti tang for a naso, or what other options should I consider? Better lighting for the refugium? Help please... I beg of you... no really I'll beg... seriously.... this sucks... 3 months battling and reading.... so... yah... help.... please... thanks.

 

[Mchava]

here is what I would look into to start. How is your RO/di unit doing. When I first set up my 90 I had lots of problems with hairy algae. What I noticed was that my ro/di unit was not working correctly, once I got it working againg it started to go away little by little. Now it all gone.

 

[pledosophy]

High nitrates lead to hair algae.

You could trade your macro's to one that is more fast growing to consume more nutrients. Chaeto i great for pods but nothing beats green grape caulphera for nutrient export.

You could cut down your feedings.

Increase your flow.

Look into different biological situations. Herbivorous tangs are great, as well as seahares, and nudibranches.

You can also cut back your light cycle.

 

[bergzy]

hmmm...hair algae...

one word...yuck!

here is what i did to combat my outbreaks of hair algae...

- use nothing but ro/di with zero tds for fw top off.
- make sure bulbs are not too old and putting out, what i call, the algae spectrum
- rinse off any frozen food before feeding
- yeah, why not, water changes with ro/di for salt water mix
- max out your refugium macro growth (ime chaeto grows the fastest)
- tangs, urchins, crabs etc will remove the hair which is great but it doesnt solve the underlying problem why the hair is growing. the critters that eat the hair, ummm, poop out stuff that makes hair grow.
- very wet skimming is also a big plus
- ozone helped me a lot with nuisance algae

but the biggest thing to abate hair algae and other nusiance algae is to get your phosphates low....wayyyyyyy low!

phosban, rowaphos...are good methods to lower this nutrient.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/sept2002/chem.htm

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/august2003/chem.htm

now...

about that kingdom!

 

[smoney]

My hair algae got out of control, mostly because of neglect one time. But here is what I did:

- Water changes frequently, like 50% weekly when I had the hair algae
- lights were on for about 3-4 hours
- scrubbed the rock with a touthbrush(not mine, but a new one just for the tank)
- Hermit crabs, I got a bunch of them to take care of the places I missed, then when the problem went away I took out the hermit crabs.

It is because of high nitrates, maybe not good enough filtration, possibly a better skimmer would help.


Nowadays, I have two tangs, hippo blue and yellow tang, and two urchins, pink pincushion and a longspine to take care of my algae. I also have like 6 zebra hermits and 6 margarita snails. My 50 gallon reef looks like the best it has ever been.

 

[slavearm]

I am using AWI's neptune and monitor the RO/DI output weekly... never goes about 0 TDS.

Skimmer is a recirc modded ASM G4x.

Do 30 gallon water changes bi-weekly (~180G Total volume)

Dosing Kalk from Kalk Reactor nightly

Bulbs are Phoenix 14K about 8 Months old
2 T5 Giessman Actinic Bulbs 1 month old each.

Flow is Panworld 50 PX-x for return and 2 tunze 6100s (if this is a problem I need to be shot)

Okay so here is my plan then:

1. My nitrates show really low, but I will try vacuuming the sump and sand next time I do a water change.. (probably this weekend)

2. Restock my hermit crab/margarita snail population

3. Update my refugium lighting (anyone got cheap 24" T5s for sale? 6500 bulbs baby!)

4. Can't lower lighting... my SPS would shoot me

5. Phosban.... yah why not... its cheap and good ? Anyone got a spare reactor lying around they want to sell?

6. Add second chamber to Ca Reactor to increase PH level

7. My final super mega attack break down and put an urchin or sea hare in my tank. Meh.


Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[JenDub]

I would recommend:

New MH bulbs
Blow your rocks off twice weekly with a turkey baster
Rabbitfish (hair algae is toxic to other fish)
Certh snails (eat detritus before it fuels algae)
Reduced feedings with frozen foods thawed in a tea strainer/ball in DI water--throw away water
Rowaphos--(phosban sucks)
Turbo snails-yeah they suck and are clumsy but they eat this stuff fast!

Thanks to gcarroll for most of these suggestions--helped me tighten up my reef!

 

[NicoleC]

Great advice above, but add to it get your pH up. Low pH creates great growing conditions for hair.

You may also want to clean all your pumps and powerheads and tweak the flow -- even a small reduction in flow can make more detritus settle in the rocks and grow algae instead of getting skimemd out.

 

[omeg]

okay, here's one you haven't heard before. I got a pair of mollies that would love to get a buffet.

 

[slavearm]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7508103#post7508103 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by omeg
okay, here's one you haven't heard before. I got a pair of mollies that would love to get a buffet.

Could they handle the insane flow in my tank?

Great advice above, but add to it get your pH up. Low pH creates great growing conditions for hair.

Ph currently sits at around 8.2.... I can buffer that up a bit, it was 8.3-8.4 before the Ca reactor, so I am thinking the second chamber should increase it a bit as well.

New MH bulbs
1. Blow your rocks off twice weekly with a turkey baster
2. Rabbitfish (hair algae is toxic to other fish)
3. Certh snails (eat detritus before it fuels algae)
4. Reduced feedings with frozen foods thawed in a tea strainer/ball in DI water--throw away water
5. Rowaphos--(phosban sucks)
6. Turbo snails-yeah they suck and are clumsy but they eat this stuff fast!

1a. Currently use a Seio 820 on a magnet for blowing rocks, but only use it weekly... I can add another day in.

2a. Scribbled rabittfish is an interesting possibility. Anyone know of one that is available in OC? Although, I would have to live a zooless life, I suppose there are worse things no?

3a. I will add more of these buggers I currently have a bunch of nassarius (my spelling sucks... sue me)

4a. Current frozen food feeding is fairly limited except for Marine Plankton and Coral Plankton (each 2-3 times/week) Mysis Shrimp will be washed from now on.

5. Ok Rowaphos it is then.

6. Come to think of it, Turbos were one of the major casualties of the crash... time to stock up... I hate the bulldozers, but they do a good job of cleaning up in a hurry.

MH Bulbs... you know I checked my ReefGeek order, and those bulbs are only 6 months old... is it really time to replace them already?

Thanks Guys/Gals.

Shane

You know my Turbos did almost all perish after my crash... time to run to Jeff's.

 

[gcarroll]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7507737#post7507737 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JenDub
Rowaphos--(phosban sucks)

Charles, check this out.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/june2004/review.htm

Shane, There are many good suggestions here. If you use any animals that consume the hair algae, keep in mind that the animals waste is loaded whith the phospate and nitrate that the algae consumed. Just make sure your filtration is prepared to export those nutrients.

 

[omeg]

How crazy is your flow. I think I'm running 6x tank volume, but then again, my tank is pretty small so that's not much (about 400 gph), I also have a spray bar.

 

[JenDub]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7508388#post7508388 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gcarroll
Charles, check this out.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/june2004/review.htm

Shane, There are many good suggestions here. If you use any animals that consume the hair algae, keep in mind that the animals waste is loaded whith the phospate and nitrate that the algae consumed. Just make sure your filtration is prepared to export those nutrients.

That's interesting!

My beef with phosban is it's dry nature and how easily it breaks up and gets the tank murky. I like the snuff texture of rowaphos and that it doesn't seem to breakup/disintegrate in higher flow.

Good point about the snail poop!

 

[Wilafur]

rabbitfish and turbo's will have it all cleaned up within a month assuming you keep the water params within check.

 

[riotj]

What about a sea hare?

 

[slavearm]

Shane, There are many good suggestions here. If you use any animals that consume the hair algae, keep in mind that the animals waste is loaded whith the phospate and nitrate that the algae consumed. Just make sure your filtration is prepared to export those nutrients. [/B]

I am thinking that my Skimmer is oversized as is, so I am hoping I wont have an issue. Thanks for the advice and words of caution.

How crazy is your flow. I think I'm running 6x tank volume, but then again, my tank is pretty small so that's not much (about 400 gph), I also have a spray bar.

Accounting for head loss

Panworld 50PX-x ~700GPH
2 Tunze 6100 on multi controller (so 130% x 1 Tunze 6100) = ~4125

So around 4825 GPH in a 135 = 35x tank volume... my corals love it.

 

[omeg]

that's pretty crazy flow ! do you have any fish in there now?

curious why you have such flow, isnt flow important to bring food and also to clean corals? Seems like overkill.

 

[slavearm]

My tank is long.... and not that wide. So it is hard to get flow to everywhere... I just remembered, and I turned the 6100s down quite a bit so they are probably putting out about half that or so, so my flow is probably right around 20x tank volume.


I could have gotten away with a couple of 6000s, but I know I am going to get looking at a 300G+ system in a couple of years when we remodel the house. I am hoping to be able to reuse at least those tunzes. I am using this 135 as a learning experience so I can mess it up on a smaller scale =).

I have quite a few fish actually...

The tangs seem to love it, the fish that don't care for it as much stay in lower flow areas.

 

[CW from the OC]

I've never found using things that eat algae to be effective, because the phosphates and nitrates are still there. The algae eaters reduce the amount, but it remains at a constant level, never really *gone*. Not to mention that many fish/inverts don't graze like they are supposed to.

If this was caused by a tank crash, nitrates are likely the main cause, along with some phosphates.

My solution is to get rid of the source. So do what many people have said and use Rowaphos in a reactor. That will handle the phosphates.

For the nitrates, use a deep sand bed in a bucket. If you have room in your sump, put it in there. Here is a great thread on it: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=595109

IT appears you are already skimming agressively and doing water changes. By adding Rowaphos and a remote DSB, along with 2-3 months of time, you should be back on track.


Edit: I see you have a refugium, how deep is the water in there? What I'm going to do with my tank this weekend is add a 5-6 inch DSB to it, and have the chaeto on top of that. For the new tank I'm building, I'm going to make the refugium 24 inches deep, so I can have a 10 inch deep DSD in it with chaeto on top. I'm convinced the DSB in a refugium is more powerful than chaeto alone.

 

[slavearm]

Refugium has about 16" of water it it and a volume of probably 20-30 gallons.