OK. So we have this huge hair algae outbreak. We tried cranking Mg, running a phosban reactor, water changes, bought new VHO and MH bulbs, you name it. Nothing worked. We tried close to a half a dozen sea hares, and they all died after a few days. Close to our wit's ends, we finally broke down our 2X2X5 150gal, pressure washed the liverock, and started over from scratch.
Take 2, new live sand, new water, add the rocks back in, cycle a couple months, and everything looks great. We get a new oversized protein skimmer, add in more flow with a Seio Polario (in addition to a vortech and a return pump), and we are back in business.
Once again, the hair algae has slowly taken over our tank again, so we buy a Sea Hare, he goes to lunch and starts mowing down algae. A week later, he is dead, and I am about ready to be done with Reefkeeping.
Our chemistry is good.
Ca 400ish
DKH 9ish
Mg 1550ish cranked up with Tech-M
SG 1.025
Water Temp stays between 75 and 82
All the bad stuff is unreadable on test kits, Copper, Phosphates, Nitrites, Nitrates, Ammonia etc.
What could be the cause of both out of control hair algae, and an inability to keep sea hares alive? Everything else living in our tank seems to do ok, snails, crabs, shrimp (molted 2-3X in 2 months and doubled in size), LPS are growing in size and great color.
The only thing I can think of is maybe our light kits are spewing Ultraviolet for some reason, and it both feeds the hair algae, and is toxic to sea hares without an exoskeleton. Our lights are 2 X 250 watt MH XM10k and 2 X 110 watt VHO 20k. The only thing I "think" we havent replaced on the lights is the ballasts.
I have read every thread on hair algae on Reef Central, and I am at the end. We have been reefkeeping for 6 years, and this last year of hair algae has just taken the will to continue out of us.
Any thoughts?
Take 2, new live sand, new water, add the rocks back in, cycle a couple months, and everything looks great. We get a new oversized protein skimmer, add in more flow with a Seio Polario (in addition to a vortech and a return pump), and we are back in business.
Once again, the hair algae has slowly taken over our tank again, so we buy a Sea Hare, he goes to lunch and starts mowing down algae. A week later, he is dead, and I am about ready to be done with Reefkeeping.
Our chemistry is good.
Ca 400ish
DKH 9ish
Mg 1550ish cranked up with Tech-M
SG 1.025
Water Temp stays between 75 and 82
All the bad stuff is unreadable on test kits, Copper, Phosphates, Nitrites, Nitrates, Ammonia etc.
What could be the cause of both out of control hair algae, and an inability to keep sea hares alive? Everything else living in our tank seems to do ok, snails, crabs, shrimp (molted 2-3X in 2 months and doubled in size), LPS are growing in size and great color.
The only thing I can think of is maybe our light kits are spewing Ultraviolet for some reason, and it both feeds the hair algae, and is toxic to sea hares without an exoskeleton. Our lights are 2 X 250 watt MH XM10k and 2 X 110 watt VHO 20k. The only thing I "think" we havent replaced on the lights is the ballasts.
I have read every thread on hair algae on Reef Central, and I am at the end. We have been reefkeeping for 6 years, and this last year of hair algae has just taken the will to continue out of us.
Any thoughts?
