Help with reef/hair Algae tank

[fishfood]

I've asked this once before but will try again. I can not clear up the hair algae in my tank. It has been thriving in there for 3+ months now.
Here are the water parameters:
Nitrates - 0 for 7 months
Nitrites - 0 for 7 months
Ammonia - 0 for 7 months
Calcium - 450-500 for 3
pH - between 8.0 and 8.2
alk is 2.5 meq/L.
Phosphate - below .1
I have been using phosguard to lower the phosphate which i thought was high, but i don't think i have the best phosphate test kit. I do use RO water. I also just bought a new prizm skimmer to replace the piece of junk i had. I'm also running a fluval with foam pads and the phosguard. I clean it every other week.
I also haven't put any food in the tank for the last month because there are no fish.
The only thing i can think of is maybe the lights. They have been running for 8 to 9 months now.
I have a cleaner kit also which includes:
20 turbo snails
30 blue legs
25 scarlet hermits
2 brittle stars
1 cucumber
1 cleaner shrimp
2 peppermint shrimp
1 emerald
I know this was long but if anyone has any ideas please help. I'm sick of the hair algae.

 

[kimf]

I took out each and every rock. Turned on the water hose and used a new toothbrush to scrub the hair algea off. Knock on wood I haven't seen any come back. Did lose some coralin algea, but it is back now.

 

[fishfood]

I didn't want to make the original post any longer than it was but i have done that also. Now it would not work because i have shrooms spreading all over the place and my green star polyps are also taking over some areas. Almost every major rock in the tank has coral attached to it now.

 

[ryano]

I finally gave up and started adding tap water. Mine left quickly and all other inhabitants looked great. Chlorine in small amounts did great.

 

[salisbury a d]

Kimf
You use fesh water to wash the rock that is the reason you lost coraline algae and you probably lost more than that.
Never use fresh water to scrub lr.
Always mix salt water and scrub it in that.
I have Hair algae too Because I use tap water.
It is caused by most likely your phosphates.
I can't get rid of it but I keep it under control by daily harvesting.
After a while you can cut it and shape it so it looks like patches of grass here and there. It really looks good when you get it under control and it sways in the current. It becomes an art not a pest.
Adam

 

[fishfood]

Adam,
I'm not sure about hair algae being art. For me it is a pest. Actually it is in my girlfriends tank and she wouldn't be able to find the time to trim it every day. I do it once a week. I want to put some macro algae in there but she won't let me. I would think that the macro would out compete the hair algae or i would hope so anyway. I'll continue trying to eliminate the phosphate and hopefully the new skimmer helps out. It has actually pulled out a lot of stuff already, it is great. I guess i need to give it more than a week.

 

[adrian]

Heres my suggestion, your hair algae problem is probably due to one or more of the following: high nutrient concentration, phosphates, poor lighting, and/or lack of herbivores. This is what I would do: What type of lights are you running, NO, VHO, PC, ect? If its going on time to replace the bulbs, go ahead and do that. Take the sponge and the phosguard out of the canister, the sponge will trap wastes that will eventually decay, sponges dont remove debris, they just store them out of site which prevents them from being properly broken down by bilogical activities in the tank The phosguard, if it works, will only mask the problem, you need to get at the root of the problem, why do you have phophates? Taking the PO4 out dosnt help if more PO4 is being introduced. Get your new skimmer broken in and collecting, if you dont already have a DSB look into setting one up, add some fresh activated carbon to your canister, in place of the phosguard, and do a couple of %15 percent water changes, one every 1-2 weeks. Doing these things will help to remove the excess nutrients in your tank. Last, but not least, add something that will graze on the algae, a lawnmower blenny, or tang or fox face if you have a large enough tank, 75+. Of course this is only a plan of attack based on my experience, and everybodys got an opinion

 

[fishfood]

Well the initial source of the phosphate was the RO water that we were getting from the LFS. Unfortionatly they found out that the membranes were not filtering properly when their phosphates when sky high and killed all of their fish. I'm not sure if it is high or not because i'm having problems reeding the test kit. I had a blue eye tang that died when everyone in the tank got ick. May get another one i'm not sure. The lawnmower blenny was next on the list. I'll try these things out and see what happens.
thanks

 

[twoods71]

Algae needs nutrients to feed on and the most important nutrient to them is phosphate. With a phosphate level below .03 many algaes will be unable to grow. Unfortunatly most test kits will not measure levels that low and make it difficult to really know exactly what the PO4 level is.
The best way to elimate PO4 is with a high quality water for top off and water changes. Also for water changes use a high quality salt mix.
The next most important to algae is nitrate. Over feeding is one of the most common causes of high nitrates. As much as 90% of the food given to fishes can end up as nitrates.
The best way to eliminate nitrates is to avoid over feeding and regular water changes.
The next on the list for algae would be dissolved organic mater, DOC or dissolved carbon. Unfortunatly there is no practical test to measure the amount of DOC but there are a few ways to keep them in check.
Use of a good protien skimmer and a good clean up crew will help a great deal to keep DOC levels low.
Another thing that people tend to over look as a contributor to algae growth is carbon dioxide (CO2). The main reason for a high CO2 content is poor circulation in the tank.
Make sure you have good circulation in your tank and avoid dead spots to keep your CO2 level down.

 

[mlm]

I have used a product called chemi-clean that works very well and is reef safe.

 

[fishfood]

twoods71,
well i'm not sure about the phosphate in my tank. It was high at one point because the ro water that i was getting was bad(full of phosphate). I feel that i have a fairly large cleanup crew also(it is listed on here already). As for overfeeding when we did have fish in the tank we would feed every other day only one time a day and they usually ate everything. There hasn't been any fish in the tank for the past month. He is in QT right now so i haven't put food in the tank for the last month. The current comes from 3 ph's two maxijet 1200's and another one that is probably a mj1200 but i can't tell, it is old and doesn't have any lables anymore. There is also the fluval running and the protien skimmer. Maybe i haven't been doing water changes often enough (once a month 10g a change). I'll continue to try different things and hope it clears up.

 

[twoods71]

Once something like hair algae pop up in the tank there is no quick cure. It takes time to rid yourself of the algae.
The best thing to do is just follow basic guide lines.
Change out your bulbs if it has been awhile.
Do regular water changes with good quality water and a good quality salt mix.
Eliminate excess nutrients. Try to go easy on some of the additives.
Manually remove the hair algae.
Clean the skimmer often.
With time and patience you will rid yourself of the algae.