Green Hair Algae Questions

[lenny23]

It has been a while since my last post because I can normally find my answers from other posts. However I have a few questions about hair algae. I have had my tank up for almost 4 years now. I have added lr from other tanks in the local area and I believe I have about 100-125lbs in my 75g reef tank. I have had a persistent hair algae problem for about 9 months. I had a minor nitrate problem about 6 months ago due to a deployment that I believe fueled the fire, but since then my parameters have been pretty good. I didn't have a phosphate test for quite some time. So I just ran a phosban reactor with GFO pellets just in case. I have a skimmer in the sump (25g sump) with an algae scrubber that has been running for about 3 months. I was wondering if it is possible that lr can hold large amounts of nitrate and or phosphate and slowly leech it out over time. Or if the new lights I bought about 4 moths ago may be part of the issue. I have a 48' aquatic life T-5 fixture. For the last 2-3 months my nitrates have always been undetectable (salifert test) and I am just curious about what could be fueling this algae. I have been using only RODI water for the last 9 months right when the issue started. I tried leaving the light off for 2 days but it didn't really seem to do much. If I remove a large portion of the algae from the rocks and sand then it takes about 2 weeks for it to come back. It seems to be slowing down a bit but not enough. After some heavy reading I just started a low concentration of kalk dripping as well. Minus the vinegar due to the fear of more algae.
This is my stock list:
20+ blue leg hermits
30 assorted snails
2 clowns
assorted shrooms
green brain
Xenia
Zoos
Greet BTA
3 striped damsels
Six line wrasse
Flame angel
These are my parameters:
Nitrate-0
Phosphate-undetectable
Ca-450
dKH-7.8
pH-8.2
Ammonia-0
Mag-1200
My livestock seems not bothered by the algae. But I am tired of looking at it. Any ideas on what I can do to combat this nuisance? I am running out of ideas. I may purchase a lawn mower blenny soon and just feed him sheets if the algae disappears. Any help would be awesome. Thanks in advance.

 

[kaingers]

A pic would help understand how much algae you are dealing with. I have been combating it myself for a couple months in one of my tanks, and have made great progress.
I don't believe LR would hold nitrates or phosphates as long as you have good circulation in the tank. You got new bulbs for your fixture, but how long do you run it a day? Cut your light cycle wayyy back while you complete the following.
A large water change(40+%) with RODI water and even taking the rocks out of the tank that are littered with hair algae and scrubing them down would help give you a head start. Understand you wont be able to do that with rocks that have corals on them, but when you do a water change you can scrub them in the bucket with old tank water.
None of the livestock in the tank is helping. I would recommend a couple emerald crabs, they cost about $10 a piece.
After you scrub the rocks that you can, acclimate a few emerald crabs into the tank and do a 40% water change, turn the lights off for 3 days. After that time I would not exceed 8 hours a day on your light cycle.

 

[lenny23]

I just started "brewing" the RODI for the water change. But I just wanted to clarify what you thought it was causing the outbreak. From what I've read the blue leg hermits are algae eaters, is this not true? I am going to beef up the cleanup crew soon. I also cut back the lighting to 4 hours with actinic starting 1 hr prior and after that. I will try to get a pic but my camera is pathetic. Thanks for the tips!

 

[ophiura]

First, thank you for your service and as a result, sacrifices, for the security of the rest of us. The least of these, I suspect, was your tank. Hopefully we can get that on track.
A picture would help.
LR does tend to accumulate detritus, and so it is good to understand the diversity of your LR critters. Do you see a lot of pods, microbrittlestars and such? These are the things that will get in those rocks and clean out the detritus. If you do remove rocks for scrubbing, you should try blowing the rocks off with a powerhead to see what comes out of the holes.
One of the catch 22s with nitrate and phosphate as a fertilizer, is that the algae growth you have is, in effect, hiding the real numbers. So what you see is not necessarily what is really fueling the fire. The algae may utilize it pretty rapidly...so it can seem you have low numbers but it is not the full story.
Your algae scrubber is based in part on this logic, and may just need time to grow in.

 

[ophiura]

Do you use any additives for food or otherwise? What and how much do you feed?

 

[lenny23]

I do biweekly water changes of 20g. I blow off the rocks with a turkey baster or lightly scrub with a brush before about 1/2 of those water changes. I feed 1 cube of frozen formula two or mysis shrimp every other day now (was every day before outbreak).
I have noticed that there are about a dozen or so bristle worms that clean up at night. I used to have quite a few microstars like the ones I have seen in recent posts, the white ones with not all their arms, but now not so many. I have a fairly large pod population that really thrives in the sump in some lr i have down there.
I also have about a dozen of these creatures that I have yet to identify. The largest of these creatures is about 2cm they stick on the glass around coralline normally where the rock touches the glass. I finally was able to get one out and it curls up similar to a rolley polley bug. It looks like it has some type of shell but is normally quite flat if not harassed. From the underneath it looks similar to a snail, because of the gooey underneath with a hardened outside. I tried to take a pic but it just looks like a blur.
I add about a 1/2 tsp of "DT's" phyto about once a week as well. I managed to get 1/2 tank shots of the left and right.

 

[lenny23]

The hitchhiker I was talking about earlier looks like some kind of Chiton. That's my best guess and my pictures of it are worthless. I forgot to mention i have quite a few types of sponges on my lr. Most are the type below. I borrowed a picture from the hitchhiker thread, I hope that's alright.

 

[ophiura]

Are the red areas also an algae?
So, definitely a bit of an issue there

I do get concerned in older tanks once biodiversity drops. Do you have a local reef club?
Possibly another thing to consider is an urchin, like a blue tuxedo (but not a slate pencil).
A sea hare is an option - but they do tend to starve. Now and then a reef club will effectively have one that is "shared"
Do you have a pic of your algae scrubber?
I real goal is to knock back growth enough in the main display in order to allow that to get a foot in the door. I would also increase your water changes.
My 45g tank basically crashed early in the year and the only solution I've had was to get into very large water changes each week. I do about 12 g a week on the tank. this is in large part because I have some big brittlestars and I feed them very heavily, but also because I have big sinularia leathers which are quite toxic. But it has helped overall.
Your hitch hikers may be Stomatella snails.
I think you are light on the clean up crew but I would probably go for more snails like turbo's, astrea, ceriths and conch as well as possibly the urchin. Hermits have pros and cons and I don't think they will really help as much in this case.
Do you have a deep sand bed, and if so, does it seem "hard?"
You may want to test your source water (with salt mix) to make sure some isn't being introduced.

 

[lukeist1]

something else that will help slow it down is when you go to put the lr back in your dt after scubbing them is to put them in with the side down that u just removed the green hair from. this will help to keep what was left behind out of the light. and hopefully from just regrowing. %%

 

[lenny23]

I am going to order a clean up crew in the next week or so. I think I will go with the snails and probably an urchin. I will step up the water changes too. Do you think that 20g is enough? Its a 75g tank with about 15g under the tank. If I do more than that a decent part of the lr is exposed to air and some of that rock has rics and xenia on it so I don't like doing it too often.
The red in that previous picture is just a glare off the room lighting. There is only green hair algae. I used to have a cyano problem prior to my RO/DI purchase. I plan to test my water change water tonight.
I don't have a dsb. There is only about an inch of sand in the DT it doesn't seem hard but it does have algae growing out of it.

I hadn't thought about a local reef club until you mentioned it. I will have to do some checking, if anyone know any around Oklahoma city, OK feel free to let me know!
The picture below is my scrubber. It is about 10x10 and has been growing well for the couple of weeks now. I had a rough start getting the flow and lights figured out. Its only been going strong for approximately the last 4 weeks. In the picture the light is moved out of the way. Its about 6 inches from the screen and there is another light on the opposite side.
I appreciate all the words of advice. Thanks!