Green Hair Alge

[rover_sac]

Lots of little green hair alge growing this week. First I'll give the tank details then what's changed. in the last few weeks.
55g SW (PowerHead 401) & 10g refugium (Protien Skimmer / Emperor Biowheel w/ only the wheel). 30W(?) Power Compaq w/ 10k & Blue.
Water Levels are "perfect" according to 2 seprate LFS' as of this afternoon.
Nitrites - 0
Salinity - 22
kH - 9 10 days ago, now 12
Ph - forget, but it was "perfect"
I use:
tap water & I don't treat it w/ anything.
I feed:
frozen mysis shrimp (about 1/4 Tsp every day)
DT's phytoplankton (15ml 3x week, but just started 5 days ago).
I add:
Seachem Iodide - 5ml 3x week
Seachem Stronium - 13ml 3x week
Seachem Calcium - 15ml 3x week
Kent Superbuffer dKH - 2tsp 2x week
Tank is 18mo old, everything was dandy until 10 mo ago when ICK wiped out all the fish (only 5, but still...). Button Polyp "died" about a month later. Then finally the last of the critters died about 8 mo ago. The tank sat for 7 months w/o anything going on other than adding water & letting the heater & pumps run.
6 weeks ago: I decided to bring everything back up to speed after my 3yr old asked to get a "nemo" for the tank. Got new lights / heater / and another pump for the return on the refug (this was a new addition). Moved all the equip (other than the single 401 PowerHead) to the refug.
4 weeks ago: water looked ok so I added two Perc Clowns. Noticed about a half dozen or so very small (1/4") but bright red feather dusters in the tank. Saw some Aptasia growing.
3 weeks ago: everything looked good so I added 1 lawnmower and 2 peppermint shrimp. Noticed about a half dozen small (1/2") white & black striped feather dusters. Aptasia is still growing, but only in numbers, not in size. All are less than 1/2"Hx1/4"W.
10 days ago: added 20lbs LS to the refug. Noticed Green Hair Alge.
3 days ago: - Noticed that the button polyp, that was thought dead, is "coming back to life" and looking quite happy. Aptasia is still growing, but very slow. All are still only 1/2"Hx1/4"W.
Today: added 5 Turbo Snails, 2 more peppermints & some culerpa (sp) alge to the refug.

[hr]
Looking for any kind sugestions. I've been reading as much as I can lately, but there is still so much to pick thru.

 

[dreeves]

Adding the live sand may have caused some amonia...on to the nitrates...
Also, regular tap water could contain a trace amount of phosphate.

 

[beaslbob]

With the refugium running, you might try reducing (temporaily) the lighting in your display. Basically let the refugium plant life grow and get the nitrAtes. If you turn your lights off for a couple of days, the hair should be almost gone.

 

[peasly1]

too much dt's will certainly speed the process of hair algea,and other forms of algea

 

[nerdy]

Like breeves said.. tap water contains posphates which are a good percent of the time the main cause for the hair algae growth.. change to R/O water and see what happens

 

[rover_sac]

Specificlly RO water only?
I did install a rather nice 3-stage filter system in the sink (seprate water faucet) for drinking water. Wasn't an RO however. Would this be better than TAP, or would this be a waste of time for the tank? I'm just not thrilled about spending money on the 2nd most common item on the planet, I know it sounds dumb.

 

[overanalyzer]

Originally posted by rover_sac
Specificlly RO water only?
I did install a rather nice 3-stage filter system in the sink (seprate water faucet) for drinking water. Wasn't an RO however. Would this be better than TAP, or would this be a waste of time for the tank? I'm just not thrilled about spending money on the 2nd most common item on the planet, I know it sounds dumb.
Your 3 stage filter sounds like an RO filter .... are you sure??

 

[rover_sac]

yup, I'm sure.

 

[dreeves]

I had a two stage carbon block and sediment under cabinet filter...I replced it with the RO/DI unit.
The problem with the type of filter you have is it only filters certain elements out..elements with which have some physical size to them...it doesnt touch the silicate, phospate or nitrates...most ions pass right through the filters and need to be absorbed by resins from a DI.

 

[ncjetskier]

Questionable about whether the purified drinking water is better than tap and here is why. One of the three filter stages is probably a carbon filter. This needs to be activated charcoal or it will actually be adding to your phosphates. I would spend the $ on an RO. Green Hair Algae is one of the worst problem (IMO) that one can have-I know-I have it!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[rover_sac]

beaslbob - said to turn the lights off for a couple of days. So I'm going to try this. Should I have some lighting on the refug? If so, what type and how much?

 

[peasly1]

I would think that you would leave light on 24/7 on the fuge so that..........thats the only place agea will grow...IMO

 

[dreeves]

Turning your lights off for the tank wont cure your hair algae problem...it will merely treat a symptom...
Locating the cause if the hair algae...most cases excessive nutrients, and rectifying that problem will help you control it...then add an invert cleaning crew..snails, hermits or what have you...

 

[ncjetskier]

First-I have had and still have a problem with hair algae. I have a 70gal tank with only one flame hawk, one turf mower blenny, snails, crabs and a couple pieces of corral. I don't feed the tank at all-maybe once a month, a very small amount, use RO water with double DI. Have completely broken down the tank, cleaned it, replaced the arogonite and have culpera growing in the refugium. All tests (phosphate and Nitrates) are non existant. Two Metal Halide 250w-10 Uskio (sp?) 3 monts.
I don't think turning off your lights is a good idea, especially if you have corals-I just did for two days and now my flower pot coral is suffering. Here is my opinion (for what it is worth). First you need to recognize "what type of hairy algae you have"-there are a bunch of different types. If it is like mine (light green kinda looks like a fern up close) nothing is going to eat it-not crabs, snails, turf mower blenny, sea urchin, tangs-I know I have tried it all and several times. If it is a dark green algae that looks like grass, then all of the above should eat it. Now as far as impurities in your tank-Phosphates and nitrates- If you read the article published by Sea Chem-it states that scientific studies on natural reefs conclude that hairy algae can survive with as low as 1PPB (yes that means one part per BILLION) of phosphate . Home test kits cannot read this low.You can try Phosphate sponges, Etc but it will only stunt the growth or slow it down-not kill it.
When I first put Culpera in my refugium it did stunt the growth and make the hairy algae weak-it became easy to pull off the rocks. But soon after the hairy algae outlasted the culpera.
The best advice I can give is to make changes to 1) the source of the water being used for top offs 2) Change the hardness (calcium levels of the water-I read that Hairy algae does not like hard water 3) Use culpera somewhere in the tank 4) Thoroughly clean the tank, live rock and substrait of any waste 5)Run the snot out of the protein skimmer 6) Get a urchin-HOWEVER-it will eat your coraline algae off your rocks, but keeps them clean to prevent the spread of the hairy algae 7)Take any and all peices of rock and scrub it with a old tooth brush in a SEPARATE container of salt water-this helps prevent spores from getting in your tank 8)Pray you have better luck than me!!!!!!