short greeen hair

[radrngr]

I am having trouble with my new tank. it is a reef tank with plenty of live rock with a lot of purple. Ihave some snails and crabs and a sally light foot crab. i also have two green mushrooms, 2 small zoa rocks and a pulsing xenia. the problem is small green hair all over the back of the tank :mad2: and starting to grow on the sand. please help. the tank is about a month old. I am running 2x150 halides and the tank is 36x24x18. Iam going crazy with this. Iam going to do a water change tomorrow and also get a couple more crabs and possibly an emerald crab. Is there anything else i should get. I am new and would realy appericiate if anyone could give advice. also please use names of products and anything else i can understand let alone pronounce.
thank you everybody for your help in advance.

 

[Justin74]

This is natural, consider it a fairly fast biproduct of having a tank thats only a month old. This usually takes people a couple of months to get too, so be patient and consider yourself ahead of the game! First comes the brown algae, then all is good.Then comes the hair algae and it seperates the whimsical from the devoted hobbyist.

Everything you said your going to do is great, and should be done. And dont by into the quick fix chemical treatment. Natural methods should be exhausted for this.Replace or clean filter media every 3 days, carbon every week or two, and water changes. For agressive corrections like algae, mirky water, high nitrates a more aggressive waterchange may be warranted 30% for example. Otherwise 10% biweekly or 20% monthly is average.

Key word patience. Nothing good happens fast. Meaning it will be a slow battle, but definately beatable or at the very least manageable. Good luck and stick around

-Justin

 

[dots]

It is the equivalant of a baby teething. Pretty soon it will be asking for more money, just like a teenager. Enjoy this time and treasure it, your tank will change daily.

After you spend lots of time and effort in about 6 months it will become very easy to take care of as it matures and stabilizes. Just ask Nu2SW, I am sure he is about at that stage now. During this initial time learn as much as you can, ask before doing anything drastic and be PATIENT.

The algae will go away and pretty soon you will have that purple crap that grows on everything that you wish you had in the beginning, but curse it now because it covers your powerhead intakes......wait, thats me!!

Less is more when it comes to products. Make sure you learn that one first. There are a lot of people and products that say you need this or that....but in reality there are only a couple

 

[funman1]

When I started my tank hermits cleaned that stuff up like it was a delicacy.

 

[Pico1]

Your reef has some lettuce nudi's that will eat hair algae.

 

[KMP]

snails are the way to go at first, however, if they are not doing the job:

1) test your phosphate level

2) take a turkey baster and blow off all your rocks. you will need to do that several times over the course of a few hours. what you are trying to accomplish is getting the gunk off your rocks and let it suck into your filtration.

3) scrub your rocks with a tooth brush over the course of a few hours and let that gunk get sucked up in your filtration. steps 2 and 3 can be done at the same time.

4) remove all media from your tank and toss it. i did this with mine and replaced it with purigen, rowaphos, and carbon (after step 5)

5) thoroughly clean your filtration system

6) do a 50% water change and siphon the sand bed

7) reduce feedings. i was feeding every day, now every 2-3 days.

8) enjoy your tank

i had a serious hair algea problem. snails were non-effective. after doing all the steps above i could see the algea creeping back and repeated the same process. the snails can now keep up and my algea is gone and water crystal clear.

 

[Nu2SW]

Yes patience is the key... My tank has been set up since the start of march and Im still having little issues. Just had a bout with cyano bacteria, I went thru the green algea also... Water changes weekly and just kept scrubbing it off and made sure nitrates were at 0.

How long are your lights on for? Algea strives on light and if you dont have any fish, then leave your lights on for 4-6 hours a day. Thats one thing that helped me.

The info from these folks is worth its weight in gold. Always ask questions first and act after.

GOOD luck and keep Reefin

 

[brianblack72]

Hair algae is definitely _not_ part of a cycling process ...

Phosphates cause hair algae, which can be introduced via:
1) makeup water
2) salt mix
3) feeding

Solution:
1) use filtered water, usually RO filtration is sufficient, use a DI cartridge if high phosphates are found in filtered tap - get a phosphate test kit!
2) do your research or be sure to use quality salt mix
3) reduce feeding, again do your research about this

I've found that normal maintenance will eliminate hair algae in short time, assuming the three items above are observed.

 

[seaworks]

If phosphates are part of your issue, you may want to consider using a phos-ban reactor. Starting with one sooner than later will keep phosphates form saturating your sand (if you have a sandbed) and liverock.

 

[pepe.king.prawn]

Not sure how phosphates can saturate your sand or liverock, so I wouldn't be concerned about that. Your tank is new, so I wouldn't bother with buying anything fancy to try and remedy your problem (don't buy a phosban reactor). Of any of the suggestions made, I would say a Deionizing (DI) water purifyer is money well spent. I would NOT recommend that you do water changes of larger than ~30%. When you start changing out this much water if can rebound by depleating some of the bacteria, essentially taking a step backwards. I'd continue doing 20-25% water changes weekly or every other week. Don't burn yourself out by buying expensive gear, just have some faith in what you're doing, try the cheap solutions and the results will be gratifying hopefully quite soon.

 

[radrngr]

I get my rodi water from coral reef and I changed out 15 gallons. I also got a sea hare and he is jst having a blast with all of the algea. My emerald crab is doing ok but hte sea hare is much better. I also got a black and yellow serpent star and he will help sift the sand.

 

[pepe.king.prawn]

Sounds like a good start. In my experience, the emerald crab is only really interested in bubble algae (which may be good down the line!). The serpent may not sift the sand so much, but they're definitely cool. I would recommend you take the sea hare back when it's eaten all of the algae in your tank. Keep up the water changes! RO/DI from a store is fine.

 

[pepe.king.prawn]

Also, I don't know what light cycle you're running, but try running your halides only 4-5 hours a day, and that may help. (I run mine 2 or 3 hours on my SPS reef).

 

[seaworks]

Pepe, it is my understanding that if phosphate levels are allowed to increase unchecked, that eventually it becomes imbedded (saturated) through out the porous surfaces of the sand & rock; and reduction becomes a more difficult task if allowed to reach this point. Granted I'm no research assistant with interests in chemistry, but if you can provide a grounded and sound explaination as to why you doubt phosphate saturation is possible, I think I'd be able keep up and more than willing to hear it.