Hair Algae

verojeremy

verojeremy

Member
OK so I am starting to see some really short hair algae starting to grow on my rocks. I have no idea why this is happening. I have a swc 150 bmk protein skimmer, a phosphate reactor, a mp40, 2 1050 koralias, I have 8 t5's on from: blue 12-9 white 1-6. I have a refugium with chaeto and mangroves with live rock. I had the light for it off for about a week because I didnt have enough outlets. I only use rodi water I just recently did a 12 gallon water change,my GFO is only 3-4 weeks old, I only had 2 sea cucumber, about 10 snails, and 5 hermits with 2 sea stars, but I just got 60 astrea and turbo mix snails. I turned my lights off for today. I went to lfs and wanted a algae blenny but they didnt have one. I tried scraping some off with a toothbrush but It is not doing much. So anyone any ideas?
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Didn't you recently say that you had a flow issue because your powerhead was unplugged and it caused a cyano bloom?
It really sounds like you are overfeeding your tank and providing too much lighting as well as not having a sufficient cleaning crew.....
 
verojeremy

verojeremy

Member
No it wasn't cyano its more of a featherduster. How often should I feed and what should my light sycle be then? A also got the 60 snails and I am going to get more and different kinds.
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Well, you never fully answered the questions in your last thread where you mentioned an algae issue ( https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/391338/tennenti-tang-in-a-75 ) when I asked you.
In order to figure out what is going on, you need to answer the following:
Stocklist
Temperature
RODI? What is your source of this? Has it been checked with a TDS meter?
What do you feed?
How much?
How often?
How often are you doing water changes?
What else do you clean in your tank and how?
What brand of GFO? What reactor? When was the last time it was changed?
What is your lighting schedule? Type/Brand of fixture/bulbs?
What are you parameters? What test kits? How old?
 
verojeremy

verojeremy

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by BTLDreef http:///t/391414/hair-algae#post_3471040
Well, you never fully answered the questions in your last thread where you mentioned an algae issue ( https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/391338/tennenti-tang-in-a-75 ) when I asked you.
In order to figure out what is going on, you need to answer the following:
Stocklist I have a melanurus wrasse, a tomini tang, a yellow tang, a mandarin dragonet, and a clown pair occ. and perc. (I know not two tangs but i am going to trade him in soon).
Temperature 79.5-80.5.
RODI? What is your source of this? Has it been checked with a TDS meter? Right now I get it from my lfs but I am getting an rodi unit soon, he has a tds meter and his water is ammonia, nitrite,nitrate,phosphate -0, ca 460, mag 1400, alk 10.
What do you feed? I feed nori and artic pods.
How much? as much as they eat in 2 minutes.
How often? every other day
How often are you doing water changes? every week, 12 gallons.
What else do you clean in your tank and how? I clean off my powerheads every week like if there is something on them, my skimmer, my glass. I just use my hands and he magfloat for the glass.
What brand of GFO? What reactor? When was the last time it was changed? I use phosban in a two little fishies 150, I got it 3-4 weeks ago, and havent changed yet.
What is your lighting schedule? Type/Brand of fixture/bulbs? All Ati bulbs, 4 blues on from 12-9, and 2 white, 1 purple and 1 blue on from 1-6
What are you parameters? What test kits? How old? My parameters are ammonia 0, nitrate 0, nitrate between 0 and 5, phosphate 0, ca 450, alk 10, mag 1350. API all except Elos which is mag. Elos is like 1 month old, and api is about 8 months.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Hi,
Besides answering BTLDreefs questions...how old is your tank?
New tanks (under 1 year) go thru changes concerning algae. You will never be algae free because it's a part of life with a fish tank...but hair algae is not our friend. A little fuz on rock does not mean hair algae and if you scrape it off with a toothbrush you are seeding the tank with whatever it is, so I hope you did the toothbrush thing in a saltwater filled bucket.
Continue to build up your CUC to eat the algae. I don't know much concerning mangroves...but I do know that there are some very attractive macroalgae you can put in the display... to absorb any phosphates and nitrates, it would starve out the fuzzy green algae you are seeing.
 
verojeremy

verojeremy

Member
Yeah my tank is turning maybe 8-9 months this month. The macroalgae wouldnt survive with the two tangs. It does look like hair algae and the snails look like they are eating it. Hopefully a lfs around me has an algae blenny. I also plan on getting 60 more snails with the deal on here. Also yeah I did do the saltwater bucket thing. I had my lights out yesterday, should I keep them off today? Also anybody on the light schedule I have an 8 bulb tek fixture with api bulbs. If it isnt hair algae and is fuzzy, short, soft on my rocks what could it be? I will try to get a pic.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by verojeremy http:///t/391414/hair-algae#post_3471092
Yeah my tank is turning maybe 8-9 months this month. The macroalgae wouldnt survive with the two tangs. It does look like hair algae and the snails look like they are eating it. Hopefully a lfs around me has an algae blenny. I also plan on getting 60 more snails with the deal on here. Also yeah I did do the saltwater bucket thing. I had my lights out yesterday, should I keep them off today? Also anybody on the light schedule I have an 8 bulb tek fixture with api bulbs. If it isnt hair algae and is fuzzy, short, soft on my rocks what could it be? I will try to get a pic.
There are macros that tangs won't eat. In fact your short fuzzy stuff (hair algae) is a macroalgae. As you removed it by scrubbing in a bucket you removed the nutrients it was feeding on...now it will regrow and if it is scrubbed off it will remove more. I had some red macro growing...it was a mystery until it got long enough to actually see...it was beautiful and looked like rose petals. So sometimes what an algae looks like when it starts is not the adult appearance (for lack of a better term). If it isn't hair algae, it could be something good. LOL..Hair algae looks horrible and grows too fast to be useful to us, but it does a good job of removing nutrients when we scrub it off.
 
verojeremy

verojeremy

Member
OK from all the pics I saw it is definitley hair algae. My yellow and tomini tangs seem to be eating it and same with the turbos.
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Do you ever blow off your rocks when you do water changes? This will help a lot.
You listed your stock list of fish, but not what your CUC is....
I'm not a T5 person, so I really don't want to comment on your lighting schedule. That being said, it is safe to leave your lights off for up to three days to combat an algae bloom.
You need to start feeding other things. Artic pods, while good, need to NOT be a staple in the fishes diet, they're very high in fat. I'm also going to assume that you're not rinsing this, as almost no one does, and just dripping it into your tank right out of the bottle. NOT a good idea.
For the record, I almost never trust RODI from the LFS.
It really sounds as if you just don't have an adequate cleaning crew, but you haven't posted it, so I don't know.
Also, don't add an algae blenny for hair algae, most don't eat it. You should never add a fish just to help with a problem, especially an algae issue. What do you do when the algae is gone? Starve the fish...
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
I'd comment the lighting schedule is a bit long....no need to run your lights 9 hours......I didn't see any mention of any corals in the tank.....

As far as rinsing food.....Very debate able and info proves very little gained by the rinsing......
 
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