Preventing HA in the Refugium?

[d2mini]

I had a really nice display refugium that ended up getting completely taken over by hair algae. I even tore it down at one point, scrubbed the rock, dipped some surviving items like mangrove roots and gorgonians in peroxide and it came back. I'll be redoing some things in my fish room including a completely new refugium, starting from scratch. How do I make sure I can grow macros but not HA???

One thing I can not help but suspect is the substrate I used... Fiji Mud. Maybe that was the cause? Either way I won't be using it again. May even go bare bottom.

 

[Subsea]

When you get it figured out, tell me. For certain proactive is required. Why didn't the h2o2 work. It should have. A spore in the bulk water could easily allow it to come back. How did you do your peroxide sterilization. A friend that does my business cards, treats dispay and refugium bulk water with good results. I did not have the balls to do that.
Patrick

 

[FinzAquatics]

I had a hair algae problem a while back. The issue for me was direct sunlight. I was leaving the blinds open during the day figuring it would help my macro grow... Needless to say it did but along with my macro growing so did the hair algae problem. From there I eliminated any and all direct/indirect sunlight that the tank was receiving.. Then I added the anti hair algae crew

- Spiny Astreas Snails
- Dwarf Certith Snails
- Cerith Snails
- Nerite Snails

Since then I saw the problem go away and not come back what so ever..

 

[d2mini]

When you get it figured out, tell me. For certain proactive is required. Why didn't the h2o2 work. It should have. A spore in the bulk water could easily allow it to come back. How did you do your peroxide sterilization. A friend that does my business cards, treats dispay and refugium bulk water with good results. I did not have the balls to do that.
Patrick

The peroxide seemed to be a temp fix but it came back.
I didn't treat the water, just individual items.

I had a hair algae problem a while back. The issue for me was direct sunlight. I was leaving the blinds open during the day figuring it would help my macro grow... Needless to say it did but along with my macro growing so did the hair algae problem. From there I eliminated any and all direct/indirect sunlight that the tank was receiving.. Then I added the anti hair algae crew

- Spiny Astreas Snails
- Dwarf Certith Snails
- Cerith Snails
- Nerite Snails

Since then I saw the problem go away and not come back what so ever..

Maybe I need more crew.
Mine happens to be in my garage so there is no natural light unless I open the garage door.

 

[FinzAquatics]

Yeah try beefin up the cleaner crew within the fuge. Especially if your running full spectrum on it which promotes the hair algae. Gotta combat it with some snails n hermits

 

[d2mini]

Ok, thanks! Will try that next round.