FHA Appearing

[Mwhitedesigns]

Good morning,
First of all I just noticed I fat fingered an F instead of a G. Apologies! Also Happy New Year!!

I started a small 5 gall Fluval Spec V about 4 months ago with some upgrades.

Upgraded the following:
-Cobalt Aquatics Mini MJ 606 Water Pump
-The new Current USA Orbit Marine Aquarium LED Light: Lights ramp up starting at 0730 and ramp down and are off by 1730.
-In Tank Media Basket.
1) Slice of sponge filter 2" W x 4"L x 1"H (cut from original sponge filter that came with the tank)
2) ChemPure Elite
3) Purigen

I have the following as a clean up crew; Mexican Turbo, blue legged hermit crab, scarlet legged hermit, Shrimp cleaner and 2 nassarius snails.

Current stock: Golden headed goby, 2 tiny ocelleris clowns (mated pair, less than .75-1" long each), RBTA, Pipe Organ, Grape Cristata, Neon Green Monti and a Zoa colony with about 15 polyps.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5 PPM
Salinity 1.026
Temp 78
Ph 8.1
Phosphates ?

Weekly 30% water changes and I use RO/DI water. All filter media gets a swish on each WC. I feed a pinch of Omega 1 freeze dried mysis once a day, twice if I feel they are hungry. I have Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef flakes but they won't touch it. I did use reef roids once a week for 2 weeks but I feel as if it makes the tank too dirty!

Everything looks super healthy. Great color, great extensions on polyps etc.

I plan on building a Mame Skimmer clone shortly once the rest of my parts come in.

However I recently started getting some hair algae. I know I need to eventually get a way to test phosphates, but with the information above, any tips besides H202? The hermits don't seem to touch it. I haven't tried brushing off the hair yet. I have some rocks stacked on each other which aren't glued together yet and haven't had the time to disassemble. Plus my RBTA decided to attach on the same rock where most of the algae resides. I don't have a color correction, sorry for all the blue!

Any thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[glb]

My guess is excess phosphates. Salifert makes a phosphate test. There’s also a Hanna Checker, which I use. Anytime there’s algae, I check phosphates first.

 

[declanisadog]

Keep up on water changes. Maybe spot treat with H2O2. Tank is till pretty young so some ugliness is expected.

 

[ihavecrabs]

Every reef tank that is stable has a little algae. It is up to balancing your consumers of that algae (snails, hermits, fish, etc).

I have some spots in my rock work crevices that get light but the fish and hermits can't get too.. They hover around it and pick off what they an get. It is quite humorous.

Edit: to be clear, inbalance of water chemistry could and will definitely exacerbate the issue. Definitely get that in order as well if it is an issue, but taking phosphates to 0 also isn't the answer.

 

[Mwhitedesigns]

Thank you everyone for your responses so far.

I would love a Hanna Checker. I've already flown past the budget given by wifey. So that will have to wait. I'll grab a manual test kit on the way home from work today.

Will H202 affect the Anemone at all being so close to the main algae cluster?

 

[ihavecrabs]

Yeah, if you put H2O2 anywhere in the tank, the anemone will close up and look unhappy for a little while. It should be fine as long as you don't overdose it; however, I'd recommend a more natural approach. Add herbivores of some kind and manual removal via some long tweezers.

 

[Mwhitedesigns]

I prefer a more natural approach. What herbivores would you recommend? More crabs? Another snail? Trochus?

 

[Mwhitedesigns]

I bought a Phosphate test from my LFS. They only had API :/ Anyways Level is showing between 0 and.25 PPM but is closer to 0 with a VERY slight tint of green.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

I prefer a more natural approach. What herbivores would you recommend? More crabs? Another snail? Trochus?

Lawnmower Blenny will cut the grass!

 

[Mwhitedesigns]

Wouldn't the addition of one be too much for my size tank with my current stock?

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Wouldn't the addition of one be too much for my size tank with my current stock?

Whoops I misread your post I thought it was a 25G NVM, what about an Urchin?

 

[Mwhitedesigns]

I wish it were a 25! Took enough convincing to let wifey build this 5 gallon! Haha. Hope to upgrade sometime later this year.

As for the Urchin I haven't thought about that before. The only thing I'd be worry about is it knocking over my scape as I haven't glue some of the rocks together. Once the algae is gone, I would need to feed it I assume. Or try to trade it for something else I guess.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Yes you would either need to feed it (seaweed) or trade it in unless you have a steady supply of algae.

 

[Mwhitedesigns]

Besides the blenny, would adding more scarlet hermits or another turbo help? I never seen either of them near the algae though.