Inedible hair algae?

[vampirexevipex]

Hello! (I'm not sure this is the right forum btw....) I've been having this hair algae problem for months! I've had hair algae before and I seemed to keep it under control with my foxface and sea hares. Everything went well until 5 months ago, this new hair algae came up and not even the sea hare, tangs, or foxface seem to eat it. WTF is this new stuff?



The sea hares are shrinking because of starvation:

This pic he might seem big, it's actually zoomed and he is 3 inches now, he used to be 7....

And the only help I got (I think since he spents all day on the algae) is this little hitchhiker (lettuce slug):




The nitrates are 0 and the phosphates are 0.15. The phosphates were 0 a week ago but jumped to 0.15, 2 days after I added a pad to control the algae. So does anyone know how to deal with this super algae? (btw: I've added alot of medications but none seem to resolve this algae issue). I doubt it's the phosphates since they were 0 when this started which was 5 months ago until a week ago...

 

[silverado61]

What's your Alkalinity level? It needs to be above 8 dKH. Have you tried activated carbon? Do you use a protein skimmer? What other types of cuc do you have?

 

[vampirexevipex]

Alkalinity is 10, haven't tried activated carbon since they say it leaches phosphates and yes,I have a protein skimmer. Also for the cuc I only have the Sea hare above, the lettuce slug and in the sump i have alot of feather dusters to clean up the excess particles, plus some oysters and clams.

 

[silverado61]

10 dKH I think is a little high. Somebody else might know better. I just know it should be above 8 dKH. You probably should do a small water change. Hermits and snails would have helped keep the hair algae in check. About one of each for every 3-5 gallons should do it. Then harvest as much as you can by hand. You can use a tooth brush to help. That and turn your lights off and stop feeding for a few days. That'll help starve it out.

How long do you leave the lights on, does your tank get direct sun light and how much do you feed your tank? You won't see any Nitrates because the algae is consuming it all which is why it's growing so fast.

The activated carbon depends on what brand and how they process it. The better brands won't leach phosphate.

Somebody else correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[vampirexevipex]

No direct sunlight, the lights are LED, they're on for aproximately 10 hours, two of those completely dark blue light. I've been doing water changes for this past months and taking out as much as possible by hand... I might have to buy some hermits and snails. In the meantime, is there another way to control this invasion? and btw, I thought the dKH had to be between 9-12, thats how my lfs had their tanks, and damn those tanks are epic.

 

[silverado61]

Turn the lights off and leave them off for a week. And discontinue feeding for a week. That and get that cleanup crew. Keep harvesting.

 

[geridoc]

I had a severe hair algae problem, probably because I love to feed my fish. I finally got it under control when I added an algae scrubber, which effectively outcompeted the rock for macroalgae growth. it still took a few months to completely eliminate the problem.

 

[silverado61]

Scrubbers are easy to build too. I built one for my sump/fuge. It's kinda cool.

 

[bang guy]

There are a couple scenarios that do happen from time to time.

1 - Is your salt mix high in Iodine? Filament algae is good at sequestering Iodine in all forms and can make the algae inedible for most animals if there is too much.

2 - Was the rock the algae is on ever exposed to really high levels of ammonia? This can cause the animals and Protista in the rock to die leaving a long term constant source of Phosphate for filament algae.

 

[vampirexevipex]

None of the above, also, silverado... wont a week without light kill all the corals and zoas?
Planning on making an algae scrubber tho

 

[silverado61]

No, but you'll have to ramp your lights back up slowly over the course of a couple of weeks so they can re-adapt to the light though. If you can't adjust the intensity, start with just 3-4hrs of light a day and slowly work your way up from there, again, over the course of a couple of weeks. Maybe if the ones at the top aren't attached, move them down a little till your back to a full light schedule. Then slowly move them back up to where they were.

It'll also give your new cleanup crew more time to get the algae under control and keep it under control.