Hair Algea outbreak

farlow

farlow

Member
Hi,
I recently moved my tank from my old house to my new house right after doing so I encountered a hair algea problem. I upgraded my lights to the CoralLife Metal Hilide (2x 20k 250w) Power Compact (2 x 96w) combo hood and the problem got worse.
I've taken my water to get tested at my local Salt Fish store experts and all levels were good except my alkalinity and calcium levels were slightly low (which I am in the process of uping it).
I have ~12-14 Tiger Turbo Snails, ~15-20 hermit crabs (mix of the bloot foot and red), Tuxedo Urchin, Sea Hair (although I havent seen him recently) from clean up crew. I have a pretty nice size Squirlfish, Sailfin Tang, Chrismas Wrasse, Lawmower Blenny.
My Tank is a 90g with a 30g sump.
I am jsut looking for some opinons on how to stop the growth, and start getting rid of what is already there.
I've attached some pictures.
Thanks,
-Scott

 
farlow

farlow

Member
Yes the tank is by a window but the blinds are never open and sunlight does not get in. The lawnmower does nip around and does his share but it doesn't seem to be enough.
I run my tank lights 12 hours (halide time) and I think i might reduce it to 10-11 hours.
 
anonome

anonome

Active Member
I would definately cut back on the halides to only 6 hours since you have the combo set-up. Leave the compacts on the rest of the time. You have to equate the halides to equal to stadium lighting. One hour in halides is equal to 2-3 hours regular lighting. Cut them back, this should help.
 
mbowker

mbowker

Member
three of these will clean your tank in a few days, maybe one week. Hair algae, or any other kind. Its amazing what they can do, you can see the clean areas right behind them
 
craig7220

craig7220

Member
Definately cut back the hours of the halides. Also to you use RO water or tap water to top off with. Sounds like an excess of phosphates. Tap water or over feeding can cause this. Are you growing any beneficial algae in your sump? Algae in the sump can consume all the phosphates and starve out the hair algae... Just some thoughs.....
 
ninjamini

ninjamini

Active Member
Remember that algae will consume nitrates and phosphates. So you have high levels of both which make sense since you just moved the tank. You also increased the amount of light that you are giving them providing them with lotsa photosynthesis.
The good news is that you have no phosphates and nitrates in your system the bad news is that they will take over the system look ugly and retain the phosphates and nitrates instead of exporting them with water changes.
Heres the only fix: You need to (1) kill off and (2) let die the algae.
(1) To kill it get some things that will eat it. ie. mexican snails (the big ones) which is my personal favorite (they are also easy to catch and take back to the store when your done with them), algae eating fish, emerald crab...
(2) To let it die you need to remove the things that it needs to grow and survive. So what does it need? phosphates and nitrates these enter you tank from feeding. Cut back on feeding. Also light. Cut back you lights to 6 hours a day for a while. Then slowly increase the light. It looks like you have a few corals that need the light. They will be unhappy but they will survive for a week or two on reduced lighting.
Lastly you need to export the phosphates and nitrates that will no be consumed from the algae. There are two ways to do this. (1) Water changes I like 10% weekly. (2) get a beneficial macro algae and put in in a sump with a light. I like cheto. Its easy to then export the nutrients by taking out some cheto when it grows. It consumes the same stuff that hair algae consumes but its easy to cut away.
One thing to keep in mind is that as the hair algae goes away its phosphates and nitrates that it consumed will go back to the water. Keep an eye on levels and keep water around for changes.
Good luck. Now get some ***) and watch your mexicans mow it over.
 
farlow

farlow

Member
Thats for the very extensive explanation.
I will look at doing the following:
1.) Reducing my hallides from 12 hours to 10 hours for a week then 10 hours to 8 hours the following week
2.) reduce my feeding cycles
3.) Mexican turbo snails sound fun to me as well
I do use RO water for all top off and moved the water from my old location to this location (80% of it and RO for the remaining 20%)
I have lots of calerpa in my Refugium down below and it is constantly growing and requires trimming about once a week. No Hair algae down below though.
Thanks,
-Scott
 
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