check out my hair algae...

[townsdp]

Ok. 75g, 1 yr. old, i use ro/di water with a 004 TDS reading, have tried two salts, have 440w of vho, tried new bulbs, 3 maxi900, 1 maxi600 running a phosban reactor, css125, 15g sump, 15g fuge with caulerpa and chaeto, have lowered my lights to 4 hrs a day for almost 3 months at one time but back up to 7 hrs now, weekly 10g water changes, feed every other day a portion the size of a pencil eraser, have pulled all the rock out twice and scrubbed most the algae off, no window nearby, and have tried many inverts. They earn their way but the algae will not go away. This is my seventh tank and the only one with this algae. I can't figure out the problem. tried a lmb, 2 sea hares, 1 big one that caught himself under a rock and died, a new one that is an inch long so utterly useless, mex turbos, scarlet crabs. It overgrows everything, clogs my ph filters, and is overtaking my fuge within a two weeks. WTF is up?

 

[trainfever]

Leave the lights on in your fuge 24/7. The macroalgae will compete with the hair algae for nitrates thus starving the hair algae. You could also put you lights on reverse schedule with your fuge lights on for 18 hours and your tank lights on for 6. Also check your water for phosphates.

 

[townsdp]

well, my fuge lights have always stayed on 24/7. The wierd thing is my chaeto and caulerpa were blowin up so much I had to remove half every other week and my xenias were exploding. two weeks ago, my xenias started staying smaller, the caulerpa turned white and is almost gone and my chaeto turned white on top and has not grown. I do not have a phosphate test kit yet but I obviously have them. The test will prob show low amounts because the algae is devouring it i assume.

 

[newtoreef_tank]

I had that problem in my 37 gallon. i got a red lip blenny in there and he got it all out in about a week. and lawnmower blennys also work well.

 

[reefstar22]

why would you let your reef get that bad?
Check your phosphates. - Use RO/DI if your already using it get new filters.
Get a clean up crew. - Emrald crabs, hermits and snails.
Lower your lighting.

 

[05xrunner]

Originally Posted by Reefstar22
why would you let your reef get that bad?
Check your phosphates. - Use RO/DI if your already using it get new filters.
Get a clean up crew. - Emrald crabs, hermits and snails.
Lower your lighting.
Guess you lack the skills of reading

 

[townsdp]

yeah, i second that last one. Lowered my lights to almost nothing twice. I have 16 scarlets, 15 nass snails, 10 ceriths, 3 mex turbos, 1 sea hare, 1 queen conch, and a few shrimp. I have my own Ro/di setup I have had for two years. When the algae first started, I flushed the membrane and then replaced all the filters. They r only 6 months old now but I have had the algae getting worse for about 8 months.

 

[05xrunner]

I know how u feel. I use my ro unit, I got 14k MH and dont run them that much..Have a fuge FULL of cheato..I dont feed all that much and I still got a GHA outbreak.
my hermits, emerald mexican turbos and lawnmower blenny do like nothing either

 

[weberian]

You said it's not near a window, but doesn't that first photo show a reflection of window blinds?

 

[townsdp]

very good. Before I pulled the blinds down and put up poster board. Those pics r about a month old. The window does not get any direct sunlight at all anyway. It just gets ambient light from outside through the closed blinds, and I didn't think it would be the window but I covered it anyway.

 

[trainfever]

Are you culling your Chaeto and Caluerpa? You have to cut it back from time to time to let new stuff to grow. It allows the macro to absorb more nitrates from the water. If not then the hair algae will consume more nitrates, thus allowing it to grow or spread. You cant just put the Chaeto and Caluerpa in your fuge and forget about it, you have to cull it back..

 

[tx reef]

The easiest way to rid yourself of the algae would be to "ccok" your live rock.
Take half of your rock out and place it in a rubbermaid type container filled with saltwater. Put the lid on, you want the rock to be in complete dark. Shake the container hard several times a day. Perform water changes bi-weekly. When doing a water change, use a powerhead to blow off the rocks and siphon out as much crud as you can that has settled at the bottom of the container. Do this for 2-3 weeks (until the algae is gone and you don't see any crud on the bottom of the container after shaking). The reason this works is you are putting the rock in a nutrient poor environment and the algae can only feed on what is on the rock. Once it runs out of nutrients on the rock, it dies.
When done, place the algae free rock back into the tank and then pull out the other half and "cook" it.

 

[trainfever]

That works great for bare rock but if you have corals on the rock, you cant do that. So even if you were to do that to all your bare rock but still have hair algae on the rocks with corals, the hair algae is going to spread again.

 

[ice4ice]

One word : Sea hare !!
They'll take care of your hair algae. Once it's under control, give it away because the sea hare will starve and die when there is no more algae to feed on.

 

[tx reef]

It is not hard to remove corals from rock. It's not like they are impossiple to remove. Either use a dremel to remove part of the rock with the coral, or a hammer and chisel.
I moved every piece of my SPS from my 55 to my 54 corner this way. I had encrusting montis that had grown over large areas of rock.
Do not try to make it out to be hard when you have never tried something like this before.
I am speaking from personal experience...it is not difficult at all.
There was a thread over on -- where someone with a 240 gallon heavily stocked SPS, LPS, & Soft coral tank did this. He had no problems. It is very easy to do.

 

[tx reef]

Originally Posted by Ice4Ice
One word : Sea hare !!
They'll take care of your hair algae. Once it's under control, give it away because the sea hare will starve and die when there is no more algae to feed on.
This is only a temporary solution. The hair algae will grow back. The only way to rid it for good when it gets that bad is to remove the nutrients that have built up in the rock....

 

[40 galons]

tx reef how does one go about getting rid of nutriens that have built up in the rock?

 

[mushroomss]

STOMATELLLA VARIA aka (cap snails) work wonders and breed like rabbits.I started with 2 in my 12 gallon now have more then i care to count.and the same goes for my 24 gallon.I also have a 160 gallon prop table,Had a bad cyno and hair algae problem in there so i put some cap snails in.a month later there is no algae and like 200+ snails.

 

[mushroomss]

oh and 40 gallons,Endless water changes lol

 

[farslayer]

Nassarious (sp) snails took care of my cyno/dirty sand problem quite nicely. That stupid dragon goby was just dropping sand on my clams.