This is so sad to write (This is long)

[sterling]

The hair algae has just about got me beat.
I have tried everything that I can think of, and what has been suggested.
My nitrates are around 2. My nitrites are 0, my phosphates are 0, my calcium is 420, my alk is, I dunno, have to test that. PH is 8.0. temp is 76.5, salinity is 1.024
I switched back to my PC's to see if the MH's were too much light/heat. I added my old CPR BakPak unit that has a skimmer on it, so now I have a big skimmer and a little skimmer going. I put in a phosphate sponge for the heck of it.
I clean, clean, clean the algae off daily. I feed the fish every other day now, they're not happy.
I don't know what else to do.
I'm thinking of breaking this tank down to the DSB, just a few rocks, keep the fish in and the inverts, cut the lighting WAY down and see what happens.
But what do I do with all my corals??
Here is what I have:
1 frogspawn, 1 colt, 2 monitpora caps, 1 plate, 1 wellsp....(whatever it's called), 1 rock with green ricordia, 1 rock with some BEAUTIFUL tonga mushrooms, one rock with hairy mushrooms, one rock with bright green mushrooms, 1 big leather, 1 HUGE rock covered with bi-colored polyps, 1 green brain, 3 cup corals, 1 yellow scroll coral, 1 small maxima clam, 1 squasmosa clam, 1 derasa clam, 1 beautiful gorgorian, 1 pectinia, 2 acro's, 1 caulestra, 1 BTA that my maroon clown lives in.
Do LFS take stuff to "board" (this is funny because I own a dog boarding kennel), or other reefers in the chicago area that would keep them for me. I hate to sell them all, but I guess I might have too.
Any help would be great. And if I broke my tank down the way I said would my fish and inverts be able to handle it?

 

[toddpolish]

a royal urchin will solve your problems of hair algae

 

[doodle1800]

I live in Plainfield, and would like to help if I can. Either buy some or hold?
Maybe get some salt water made up in tubs, clean tank and refill? You might go through another cycle, mini one hopefully. Any ammonia probably would be fatal to lots though I would imagine.
What about a partial water change - like 1/2. What is the hair algae clinging to? The LR?
Save existing water in tubs, clean tank and refill with old water? I might try this first.
Let me know if you want to sell anything.

 

[starfishjackedme]

I think with lots of light hair algae is hard to completely get rid of in any reef. I am going to try te royal urchins as suggested about because it seems like many have had success with them. Maybe i will get a rabbitfish too.

 

[beaslbob]

Sterling
Before you tear everything down, reset it up, get rid of corals, and all that, try reducing your lighting first. My macro algae tank was really looking a mess with couldy water and lotsa hair algae. I reduced the lighting by more than half and in a week it was clear with much reduced hair algae. temporaily reducing the lighting or even turning the light of completely for a few days, will not affect your corals.

 

[sterling]

Thanks for the posts back.
1. I put 4 Royal urchins in the tank. They help, but not enough. And they do take the coralline algae off also and that leaves exposed bare rock that the algae loves.
2. I bought a rabbitfish, I think he jumped out, but never found the body.
3. I do 20% water changes every two weeks now.
4. The hair algae gets on everything, but mostly the rock. That's why I was going to get rid of most of the rock and leave just a few pieces with DSB and cut way back on the lighting.
I will try cutting back on the lighting ALOT for now. What do you guys think the minimum time needed for my clams and light-loving corals? 3 hours a day, 2 hours.
I heard that algae does not like blue light. Could I leave the actinics on longer?
Keep up with the suggestions, becuase I really don't want to go the drastic route.

 

[birdy]

I had to go drastic this last time, I removed the corals I had into a sperate tank (I didn't have very many luckily). I then completely turned off the lights to my tank, I think it took about two weeks like that and all the algae pretty much died, I then took the rocks out and scrubbed all the algae off of them (it comes off a lot better when it is dead) I did a 25-30% water change. Put all the rock back in and gradually increased my lighting, Ran phosphate sponge, and tested water for Phosphates, I even broke down my tiny refugium (I had more hair algae in there than macro) and restarted it back up. I did this about 4months ago and I have only a small amount of hair algae that has reapeared and the cleanup crew seems to be keeping it in check.
Good luck Hair algae is a PIA.

 

[dreeves]

Micro algea is an opportunistic algea...it needs certain elements to survive...once the elements are removed, the micro algea itself will die to provide more nutrients for it to regrow...a big circle...
You need to find your source of nutrients..eleminate them, do 20% or so water changes with RO/DI water every two to three days until it is under control...
Add a clean-up arsenal of snails...
Check your test kits as well...maybe take a water sample to your LFS and compare results with your own test kits...doesnt sound right everything is normal but you have hair algea.
No matter how hard we try, we can never fully rid our tanks of micro algeas...we can simply do our best to control them...they are naturally occurring elements in the ocean and our tanks are not immune...
Good luck.

 

[donjasper]

How many snails do you have?

 

[jonthefb]

try lettuce nudibranchs.....these things are lawnmowers of the sea......get like 5 or six of them and let them go to town!
tehre is also a product ont he market called Marine SST it is a bacteria that outcompetes the hair algea by utilizing all the needed nutrients first....we just started carrying this product at the lfs i work at and are treating several tanks at work along with one of our employees tnaks at home! so far its worked amazingly!
do a search on yahoo or google for marine SST or marine SAT(<---former name)
good luck
jon

 

[j21kickster]

i ditched my DSB- i was getting too much buildub- and the way my tank was setup made it impossible to clean- i will have a dsb in my new tank but it will be only in the refugium where i can have various cleaners- i was starting to get another hair algae problem- do you have significant buildup in the sand bed?

 

[buzz]

I'm with Jon....lettuce nudi's are the way to go. They are machines, and eat all day long. Their primary diet is hair algae. I have 2 big ones in my 100g, and they are making a dent. I may get a couple more of them.

 

[j21kickster]

when i had my lettuce nudis- they plowed through it- but after about the just vanished- that seems to happen a lot to people who get them- make jure and pumps and powerheads have foam prefilfers

 

[dburr]

If all else fails....
Frag the big corals and trade them to the LFS. Keep the small frags and other stuff you want in a small tank with the fish. Pick out a few pieces of rock with no algae to put in also.
Cover the main display, no lights and no circulation and no heat for a month.
You will have to suck out the crap later but you will save the rock. (and pods should survive)
It wont go through a long cycle either.
I did this with a few pieces of rock that had hair. It worked great, it may work for the whole tank, last resort anyway.
Dan

 

[bdhough]

Try Mexican Turbos as well. They will eat themselves to death by leaving nothing... They do eat hair algae. I put one in my tank and now have no hair algae left. Give them some time. Y on earth are you nitrates so high? Are you using tap or RO? If tap then try switching to RO. Just make sure to properly buffer it.