Am I still in the ugly stage?

[Auqaman]

I’ve been telling myself I’m still in the ugly stage but it’s been 4 months of constant algae. I started with dry rock so I’m assuming it’ll take a bit longer. But should I be concerned with this much algae? I only have 4 fish, 1 bta, few snails and 1 urchin.

 

[Astro]

Following
new to reefing, but that does look excessive but unsure!

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Ugly stage? I'm not sure, you didn't post a picture of yourself

Anyways ya dry rock is gonna make things tough for a while. I assume you added lots of bacteria and have been manually removing lots of algae?

 

[sixty_reefer]

Need a pic under whites as that doesn’t seems normal to me

 

[LxHowler]

Can you get a better picture with more white, that's looks like hair algae? Which I don't believe is a normal part of the ugly stage. Dry rock will make your tank take a little longer to settle.

 

[sixline]

Looks excessive to me. Id try manual removal, and maybe adding an emerald crab or two if you can easily do so.

Also:

- How large is the tank?
- How often and what are you feeding?
- What is your filtration and/or skimmer setup like?
- What is your lighting?

I'm guessing it is some sort of combination of high nutrients and/or too much or poor spectrum of lighting.

 

[Auqaman]

it’s a Red Sea reefer 250. About 65G. Also have a skimmer, uv and 2 filter socks. I think it is hair algae. I bought blue tuxedo urchin that helps out but he can only do so much.

 

[pochaxoo]

Auqaman, I am just a little behind you in time but started with dry rock as well. I was fine up until I turned on my lights and I had the same explosion of green hair algae you are having. I have since had my refugium with Chaeto running and the Nitrates and Phosphates are down to zero. I would measure those in your tank, even if they are zero you may find the algae is taking it up. I am hoping my Chaeto will out compete the GHA over time, however my belief is you will have to manually remove the GHA which is super hard. Here are the things I am doing that you may or may not have the appetite for. Using hose to vacuum out while pinching the long strands between my thumb and index finger. The short stuff is impossible so I have been using a scrubbing brush similar to this one to scrub it off.

This will cause lots of particulate algae to be floating around so will need to change any filter socks in a couple of hours when the tank clears to remove it. I also had a single rock that I was able to remove from the tank and sprayed with 2% hydrogen peroxide, this definitely killed it and it hasn't grown back. I rinsed this in saltwater before putting it back in and attaching those frags. I wasn't willing to do this in the aquarium and was somewhat leary that it might affect bacteria on this rock, but it was the one rock I could easily remove, see bottom left corner rock on bottom.

I have also turned my light intensity during the brightest part of my day down 10% and that may be contributing to the lack of growth of the GHA.

Good luck and bear with it through this phase.

 

[pochaxoo]

it’s a Red Sea reefer 250. About 65G. Also have a skimmer, uv and 2 filter socks. I think it is hair algae. I bought blue tuxedo urchin that helps out but he can only do so much.

Looks like it is a bit whitish so it might be weakened by the UV? Does it come off easily when you pinch and pull? I have a lown mower blenny that is doing a hero's job on the GHA as well if you are looking for additional working fish.

 

[Damdeno]

i thought crabs like hair algae or just some angelfish or a tang would love to nip on those

 

[Ippyroy]

Manual removal and a diverse CUC are your best bet.

 

[Garf]

I wouldn’t scrub it off that’s for certain. This is basically an “in tank algae scrubber”. By scrubbing it you are exposing fresh substrate for algae and interrupting the natural algal procession. Pulling it off and siphoning it generally leaves a lot of the helpful bacterial slime behind to combat it.

 

[Damdeno]

I wouldn’t scrub it off that’s for certain. This is basically an “in tank algae scrubber”. By scrubbing it you are exposing fresh substrate for algae and interrupting the natural algal procession. Pulling it off and siphoning it generally leaves a lot of the helpful bacterial slime behind to combat it.

idk about you guys but my fish go crazy trying to eat algae things whenever I scrub it off for them lol lazy things.

 

[Cbones1979]

I’ve been telling myself I’m still in the ugly stage but it’s been 4 months of constant algae. I started with dry rock so I’m assuming it’ll take a bit longer. But should I be concerned with this much algae? I only have 4 fish, 1 bta, few snails and 1 urchin.

Same as you. I only have 1/3 of the rocks in the tank that were dry rock.
Can’t stop algae from growing on substrate or the dry rock. Skimming, pulling it out, and trying algae scrubber (not working so far) but hoping as it matures it stops.

 

[sawdonkey]

What’s your PO4. Dry rock can leach it out and feed your algae. If added smallish pieces to my 210 and seen a noticeable jump in PO4.

 

[Cbones1979]

What’s your PO4. Dry rock can leach it out and feed your algae. If added smallish pieces to my 210 and seen a noticeable jump in PO4.

Mine was at .00 other day. Up to .04 yesterday. Sanna Monica algae scrubber can’t compete with the algae as it is supposed to either. Algae in DT grows but nothing in the scrubber