seahorse safe hair algae removal?

[Duddly01]

What is safe to combat hair algae in a seahorse tank? I am having a somwhat severe problem with hair algae (brown, not green). It is growing like crazy on the red grape kelp and blue berry gorgonian. I have the back chamber turned into a refugium run on an opposite light cycle with cheato. My parameters this morning and current cleanup crew are:

ammonia, nitrite, phosphate: 0
nitrate: 20ppm
ph 8.0 ( a little low, added 1 tsp of kent ph buffer)

cleanup crew:
2 - turbo snails
2 - nassarius snails
3 - cerith snails
+ some stomatella snails, bristle worms, etc. that hitchhiked on the live rock.

 

[cmsargent]

Well your problem is the 20ppm nitrates. That's fueling the growth of the algae (btw are you sure it's hair algae...I've only ever seen it in green).

You need to do some water changes to get the nitrates down. Seahorses are messy critters and need a larger volume of food that other fish so the standard answer "don't overfeed" is not going to work for you. However you might see how the seahorses do on a slightly reduced meal plan. How much are you feeding? Also are you rinsing the mysis well before you feed. The juice from the mysis is pretty foul so its best to rinse them before they go in the tank.

No matter what you do, you'll likely going to have to keep up with large frequent water changes in a tank this small.

The macro in the fuge will help but it may be too small of an amount to make much difference. A larger fuge with more macro would help. Or you can try adding some macro to the display area. There are a variety of non-invasive macros that won't take over a display. Dragon's tongue and codium are two that come to mind.

Also HA likes lower pH so try to get that pH up to 8.2. This'll help stunt it's growth.

Also how old is this tank. Newer tanks often go through this and if that is the case it'll get somewhat easier when the bacteria in your rock and sand has stabilized (generally after 6 months or so).

There really isn't any quick cure you can just pour in a have the HA dissapear. Generally it takes time, getting other tank parameters under control, and manual removal.

 

[Duddly01]

I also have a healthy amount of red grape kelp in the display. I am not absolutely certain it is hair algae. It is positively brown, hairy, and only really growing on the branches of the kelp and gorgonian and not on the rocks. Any ideas what else it could be? The tank was a quarantine tank for a long time and I only recently (2 months) ago added cured live rock I purchased from a fellow reef central member. At that time I slowly started pulling the bioballs and converted the back chamber into a refugium.

I am currently doing twice a week water changes (catalina water) of 4 gal. each. It may need to stabalize and I am probably freeking out over nothing. The horses are doing fine and don't seem to care. Last night I added two more turbo snails (now a total of 4) and 2 scarlet hermit crabs. The ph was at 8.2 this morning.

 

[pledosophy]

Pics would help out tremendously.

Sounds like diatoms.

For overall algae control, I recommend:

Limiting the number of phospates in the system, this includes using RODI for top off and NSW or RODI for water changes, rinsing frozen foods before feeding, not over feeding fish or corlas.

Maintaining proper calcuim, alkalinity and pH levels. IME nuissance algae seems to usually be accompained by lower pH levels.

Setting up the system for denitrification. This can be done with chemical media (like Seachem's denitrate or similar products). Macro algaes are also helpful. IME the slower growers like many of the beautiful reds do not consume as many nitrates as there faster growing, not quite as beautiful counterparts, although I am partial to the prolifera caulphera which I find to be a fast grower and quite stunning. Good flow through the rock work and quaility liverock are also useful. Dead rock will not contain the aerbic bacteria used for denitrification although it can be seeded to contain the aerobic bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate. Remote unlit deep sand beds are also very effective if you have the space.

Not using products or chemicals that contribute to the problem such as cheap carbon that contains and leaches phosphates.

Limiting natural sunlight to the tank as well as regularly replacing bulbs before the get old and begin to shift there color spectrum to a spectrum more favorable for nuissance alagae growth.

Regular water changes with good water is great. Make sure during this process that you are using your syphon to remove any detritus. i like to use smaller gage hosing so I can vacuum extra good and not remove to much water to fast during this process.


If your having a diatom outbreak, it will need to run it's course. If you fight it and continue with it's removal then it will never go away. Diatoms run there won course. The timeline from your tank setup is ripe for a diatom outbreak.

If you follow the rest of the advice you'll never have to battle the extremely lame nuissance algaes though.

HTH

Good Luck.

 

[cmsargent]

If it's diatoms they should run there course. Sounds like the tank may be going through a mini-cycle due to all the recent changes.

The diatoms are however harmfull to the grogs. That blueberrry gorg is going to be tought enough to keep alive anyway (BTW what are you feeding it? How long have you had it?.

You can give the gorg and kelp a FW dip which will kill the diatoms on it. To prevent them from reoccuring try to keep the nitrates and phosphates low. Also try to move the gorg to a lower light area of the tank and add more flow directed right at the gorg.

I was having problems with diatoms coving one of my sea whips and adding another small powerhead pointed right at it solved the problem. The seahorses can handle the higher flow as long as there are still lower flow areas in the tank.

 

[Duddly01]

I have had the gorgonian for about a month and it is not doing well. I have been putting in phytofeast live every day for it. I am currently doing 4 gal water changes twice a week and I just started thawing and washing the mysis before feedings. I hope that helps. I don't think it is diatoms, at least what I know of them. Diatoms in my experience have been more dusty instead of hairy. The lighting isn't much in the main part of tank, only the 2x36W PC.

 

[cmsargent]

Well I hate to say it but that gorg is starving. They don't eat phyto. They need microplankton. I haven't tried a blueberry gorg (but I would like to get one) but I have other species on nonphotosynthetic gorgs. I feed mine a mix of rotifers, oyster eggs, cycloeze, reef chilli, golden pearls, and freeze dried copepods.

You can still try a FW dip for the gorg. It may kill whatever this nuciense algea is. I'd more flow for the gorg as well. Good luck.

 

[Duddly01]

I have been adding freeze dried cyclopeeze and I have some freeze dried rotifiers I will start adding as well. It is probably too late, but I will do my best.