Still Battling Hair Algae-Pleaseee Help..

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Bsmith_SigEp

New member
Serious HAIR ALGAE ISSUE STILL: as some of you know and remember from previous post the past few months...im still battling my issue with hair algae....ive doen everyting possible it seems to eliminate the issue one step at a time...
1--changed rodi filters and resin
2-checked rodi unit pressure, its all fine and over 30 psi
3--spend almost 200 bucks for a clean up crew that worked a bit...lot of them ahve died already..

4--checked TDS reading...its all fine....currently bought an inline tds meter for my rodi unit.....incoming water reads 079 ppm approx...outgoing to holding can reads 000.....

5--cut down on my feedings and lighting times and even left lights off for several days at a time.

6--bought a lawnmower blenny

7--been doing water changes weekly to help get phosphates down

8--using a bag of GFO in the tank with a powerhead blowing on it

9--During water changes, ive been using a toothbrush and cleaning the algae off of the rocks and then sucking it out during the water change....grows back pretty fast....

10--before all thsi started i bought live rock from a friend that was dead for over 2 years just sitting in his garage...i let it soad and cure in saltwater for several weeks...did water test and such.....then i soaked about 60 lbs of the rock in VINEGAR water........then after a week or so of that..i then cooked the rock back in saltwater and did a water change and let soak for about a month or so....then finally put the rock back in my tank when teh "test results" read OK......since then ive been battling this Hair Algae issue.....

im beyond fed up and exhausted fighting this issue adn dont know really know what else to do......i think its causing other issues in my tank also b/c i lost a yellow tang not sure its b/c of my tank...but now i have a blue hippp tang ive had about a month or so and now it seems to be getting faded blemishes on its body as well as some very very small white specs on it....dont look like ich though...not sure to be honest though....

PLEASE PLEASE HELPPPPPPPP....I LOVE MY TANK AND DONT WANNA LOSE MY INTERST AND MONEY B/C I LOVE THE HOBBY...JUST BEYOND FRUSTRATED RIGHT NOW.....
 
You did not mention about your tank water test results. everything fine? One thing you did not try is an algae scrubber.
 
i feel ur pain i have gha too and i cannoy beat it for the life of me..i run carbon,ammo chips,phos gaurd, have a 36 watt uv steralizer, do bi weekly water changes,got bramd new lights,cut lighy tile and feed eod...ready to throw in the towel myself

sent from my iphone slayer
 
It sounds like you have taken the necessary steps to reduce nutrient levels in your water column. I haven't read how long you have been having these issues. Depending on how long you had elevated nitrate, and more importantly phosphate levels, could explain why you are still seeing the effects of high nutrients. Over time nutrients seep into your rock and substrate. As the nutrient levels in your water column lower those that remain in your rock and substrate leach back into the water column and as they do so they conveniently fuel algae and/or cyano growth.

I have had a similar experience with my system as I used to have slightly elevated phosphate levels. When I started running GFO a few months ago I began having cyano issues on my sandbed, which was a first. It took me a while to figure out why but the above theory is a possible explanation.

Regarding the clean up crew you purchased. Did it include Mexican turbo snails? If not get some of these, IME they are by far the best when it comes to consuming hair algae. (unless you have bryopsis, which would open an entire new problem)

Good luck and don't lose interest. As your tank husbandry skills have increased you will eventually see the results.
 
Assuming you have a sump I would recommend adding an algae turf scrubber. Look it up on RC. Their easy to make and cheep. I too had major algae issues and tried the scrubber on a whim. I was floored at the results. In a few months all algae disappeared from my main tank. The turf scrubber out competed the main's algae and it died off.
 
We all feel your pain as the majority of us have been through such issues. You can come through the other side and have it level out so hang in there.

After getting rid of a small out break a few years ago, I have had patches of hair algae pop up every now and again. I have one rock that has an area of about 1" x 1" that will come back once a year or so and I change out my GFO in my media reactor (I change it out pretty regulary anyway, but I do it immediately if my indicator rock flairs up - It is a base rock, so taking it out to give it a good scrubbing will occur at my next rock rearrangment - but that will be a big project for a rainy day down the road) and it goes away quickly. So, I think I mentioned this last time, but I have my GFO in an inexpensive TLF media reactor and I feel it is much, much better than sitting in a bag. If you watch GFO tumbling in a reactor and compared that to a pump pushing against a mostly idle bag, you would conclude the surface area being exposed to the passing water is dramatically higher. I do the same for my carbon and have one pump running both reactors. If you weren't having any major issues, a passage bag approach might be sufficient, but I would want to maximize my efforts for the maximum effect under your current situation.

Plus, the GFO is probably getting exhausted pretty quickly, so I would test the water before you add the GFO and then on a regular basis (every few days at the most) and immediately replace it if the tests start showing rising P&N. Some GFO directions might say every month or so, but when you have elevated testing results, that calls for a different change out procedure.

You indicated you bought a new fish, so I would not add any new livestock as that will only add to the problem. I am not sure what size tank you have or how many fish you have in it, but I would go way light even a while after you survive this issue. You often see tanks with a ton of fish and it looks great, but you have to be all over tank husbandry to get away with it.
 
It might be a good idea to also move your fish to a quarantine tank in hopes to prevent further any loss. You can treat for ich if needed in the quarantine tank vs the main tank which just adds to water quality problems.
In the meantime, I would follow what nck1992 and bshumake recommend for your main tank along with adding the Mexican turbo snail that ajcanale mentioned if you haven't already.

I'm not sure if it would do anything at this point but you might want to remove the rock that you added to the tank and deal with that seperatly. However, per ajcanale's post, the nitrate and phospate levels may now be soaked up in the original rock you had before.

Good luck and keep us posted.
 
Thanks for the replies...im going to try to anwser as many questions as i saw above to the best i can....
as for my setup ...i have a 75 gallon tank..with a 25 gallon sump.....octopus skimmer in the sump....i currently have 4vho lights....2 actinic and 2 white...
bulbs are less than 4-5 months old

...i recently just bought 175 watt metal halide fixture with double actinics in it but havent installed it on tank yet...
i do not have a refugium nor a quarantine tank......i do not have room in my living room area where my tank is under the stand for these....i would love to...or could possibly find a way to modify my sump to include a refugium though....

and i recently spent close to $200 bucks for a clean up crew....assortment of all types of crew...mainly snails....and i got several mexican turbos and bulldozer snails or whatever theyre called...

i do not have any kind of reactors or anything as well.
 
my tangs do a great job at eating any algae that hits the tank
also rabbit fish will devour it but may also nip at polyps , the lawnmower blenny is not going to put a dent in your 75 gallon tank if you have a bad outbreak . are you feeding frozen or flake/pellet food? if feeding frozen make sure you thaw it , rinse it before feeding with it. all tests from your tank are going to read 0 nitrates and phosphates due to the algae holding it with in , weekly water changes of about 10 gal and a bag of phosban in the flow of your sump will help, change out the phosban when it starts turning a rusty color. if able get a reactor on your sump with a mix of phosban and carbon. over a month or so there should be a difference, just keep removing the algae when doing water changes. also rule of thumb with t-5 bulbs . attinics should be changes every 6 months and day bulbs every 9-10 months
 
I know many will disagree with me here, but Algaefix solved my severe GHA problem after two weeks of dosing. It's been several months and it has not returned yet. Quick chemical bandaids are generally a bad idea but in this case it was a miracle.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2
 
Moody636 said:
I know many will disagree with me here, but Algaefix solved my severe GHA problem after two weeks of dosing. It's been several months and it has not returned yet. Quick chemical bandaids are generally a bad idea but in this case it was a miracle.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...

you will also have issues keeping any macro algae in the future also.
 
ihavtats29 said:
you will also have issues keeping any macro algae in the future also.
Click to expand...

If that's the price to pay then it's still a good deal. The corals were totally unaffected and that was my main concern. I run biopellets on that system now and have 0 phosphate and 0 nitrate, so macro is not needed. There's more than one way to skin a cat.
 
I used that Algaefix for a time and it did work for a short time. But as soon as i stopped dosing the HA came back. It might be a better idea to use the Algae fix in addition to doing a LOT of manual removal. If you go that route them treat for a few days and clean the hell out of your system. Plan to spend a few hours removing each rock and scrubbing them with a brush. Let the system recover and try the turf scrubber. The main thing here is manual removal of algae. Your removing PO4 when you do so there's lead to feed the HA that's left. The ATS basically out competes the remaining HA since it's light cycle is 18 hours. You then scrape the screen off, thus physically removing PO4 etc from a small, remote screen and not disturbing your main tank.
 
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