General Help - Hair Algae outbreak Please help

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Hair Algae outbreak Please help

Printed From: Utah Reefs
Category: Help
Forum Name: General Help
Forum Description: The place to ask about pest, problems, hitchhikers, etc.
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=82485
Printed Date: April 19 2024 at 11:16am
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Topic: Hair Algae outbreak Please help

Posted By: beege29
Subject: Hair Algae outbreak Please help
Date Posted: April 28 2017 at 8:46am

I'm ready to give up and throw everything in the trash. I have a 55 gal with 50 lbs LR. Has been set up for 2 years with no problems whatsoever. the last 3 months brown and green hair algae has been taking over. I have 10 snails mixed turbos and ceriths. 15 crabs. Sailfin tang. 2 clowns. starry blenny. various generic soft corals. I use RO for bi weekly water changes, sometimes weekly. Fluval 306 canister filter with seagel. Generic LED lights whites and blues. Parameters are and have always been spot on. Nitrates and Nitrates have always been zero. Phosphates always zero. Ammonia Zero. Alk 7 to 8 dkm. Mag 1130. Flow is sufficient with 3 powerheads. salinity 1.021 to 1.023 ph 8.0. What the actual hell is going on here? please help. am trying the vodka dosing method and reduced lighting

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90 gallon mixed reef
30 gallon sump

Replies:

Posted By: shaggydoo
Date Posted: April 28 2017 at 8:56am

I would use a TDS meter to check your RO filtration, you may need to change your filters. I would also recommend a lot more snails and/or hermits (I prefer astrea and cerith snails). I have close to 100 combined snails and hermits in my 60g. You can also try running more blue lights until you get the algae under control.

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60g LPS Cube

Posted By: beege29
Date Posted: April 28 2017 at 8:58am

I use RO from the LFS. I will try more snails but none of them ever eat any algae

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90 gallon mixed reef
30 gallon sump

Posted By: achillestang
Date Posted: April 28 2017 at 9:19am

Bare minimum you need to triple the number of hermit crabs and snails. Also, a Sea Hare will definitely eat hair algae.

It is also possible that your water changes could be adding fuel to the fire as the new salt water you put in the tank will contain nutrient that the hair algae uses for food.

Posted By: Adam Blundell
Date Posted: April 28 2017 at 12:11pm

Pictures?

And consider a one day tank restart. It can really help.

Adam

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Come to a meeting, they�re fun!

Posted By: beege29
Date Posted: April 28 2017 at 2:44pm

Adam I can't upload pics for some reason. also what is a one day restart?

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90 gallon mixed reef
30 gallon sump

Posted By: beege29
Date Posted: April 28 2017 at 2:46pm

nevermind, I know what you meant :)

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90 gallon mixed reef
30 gallon sump

Posted By: Adam Blundell
Date Posted: April 28 2017 at 10:01pm

For anyone else following along that may be interested...

Remove corals, drain the tank, swap out sand, fill it up, all in one day. Or something similar.

Adam

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Come to a meeting, they�re fun!

Posted By: phys
Date Posted: April 29 2017 at 3:51am

Here's what I've done.... Clean your sand, clean your filtration, slow feeding, rinse frozen foods before feeding, cut back or stop dosing of anything like "fuel", clean filter socks or anything similar bi-weekly, run phosban and change every 3-4 days, suck out as much of the algae as you can, never let it break off and float around, blow off rocks of detritus, make sure your tds is ZERO, and do 25-30% water changes weekly. If you don't have coral or much of it, a 3 or 4 day blackout would do well too.

You can try running a hang on back refugium with macro algae but be sure this stays clean too. An HOB skmmer would be a good upgrade. or an in sump version of these if you have a sump. These alone won't get rid of it so do as I stated above and these will help keep it in check later and speed up the process.

Or there's another method floating around where you use some kind of chemical that's used for fish treatment... Read here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bryopsis-cure-my-battle-with-bryopsis-using-fluconazole.285096/