Hair algae help

[Broose51]

Wondering if anyone has any advice for a bit of a hair algae issue I’m having. Nitrates are around 8ish and phosphate has been at 0 for the last few weeks at least, I feel like I feed plenty and I turned my skimmer off for a few days and phosphates still don’t register, (I have a ULR Hanna checker). Tank is about 7 months old and I run my lights for 9 hours a day. Would like to get on top of this before it takes off. Thanks!

 

[Reverend Turtle]

Cut the whites out, or to a couple of hours a day max, and hair algae usually will end up receding. The hair algae is probably why you have no phosphate as well.

 

[JGT]

Wondering if anyone has any advice for a bit of a hair algae issue I’m having. Nitrates are around 8ish and phosphate has been at 0 for the last few weeks at least, I feel like I feed plenty and I turned my skimmer off for a few days and phosphates still don’t register, (I have a ULR Hanna checker). Tank is about 7 months old and I run my lights for 9 hours a day. Would like to get on top of this before it takes off. Thanks!

Manually remove/siphon out, lessen feeding, shorten light intervals, add CUC if you don’t have and a tang or 2 depending on tank size and lawnmower blenny. Be patient. Will take time to eradicate.

 

[John08007]

Gotta raise your phosphate, could dose tri sodium phosphate. What does your filter system consist of? I would suspect you don't have a large clean up crew. Need some emerald crabs, will eat up the gha.

 

[Broose51]

Gotta raise your phosphate, could dose tri sodium phosphate. What does your filter system consist of? I would suspect you don't have a large clean up crew. Need some emerald crabs, will eat up the gha.

Yeah I was thinking raising phosphate might help. It’s a Red Sea 250 so their standard sump, filter cups with floss and a small bag of carbon in one of them, a marine pure block and then my skimmer.

 

[Broose51]

Gotta raise your phosphate, could dose tri sodium phosphate. What does your filter system consist of? I would suspect you don't have a large clean up crew. Need some emerald crabs, will eat up the gha.

And I have a fair number of snails and few hermits, no emerald crabs but I’ve heard they can go after corals so I’d prefer to stay away from them if possible. I think I might try a few turbo snails if reef cleaners ever gets any back in stock

 

[John08007]

And I have a fair number of snails and few hermits, no emerald crabs but I’ve heard they can go after corals so I’d prefer to stay away from them if possible. I think I might try a few turbo snails if reef cleaners ever gets any back in stock

I've never had one go after a coral, except possibly standing on a zoa while picking algae out from between them. I would pick some up, they're gonna consume a lot more than a hermit crab. I have a 75 gal with about 5-6.

 

[Snooty]

Reef flux hd

 

[01xp]

I had a hair problem the tomini you have will do good but a small foxface will absolutely destroy hair algae

 

[HaveFishWillTravel]

I had a hair problem the tomini you have will do good but a small foxface will absolutely destroy hair algae

Wondering if anyone has any advice for a bit of a hair algae issue I’m having. Nitrates are around 8ish and phosphate has been at 0 for the last few weeks at least, I feel like I feed plenty and I turned my skimmer off for a few days and phosphates still don’t register, (I have a ULR Hanna checker). Tank is about 7 months old and I run my lights for 9 hours a day. Would like to get on top of this before it takes off. Thanks!

I had a similar problem in my new tank. The hair algae seemed to have grown almost overnight and I think it came from introducing Phytoplankton into the water that created a too nutrient rich environment. It only grew on two rocks. My Phosphates and Nitrates were relatively high so I opted for a 35% water change and I took a clean toothbrush and scrubbed off the algae. I followed up with two weekly 20% water changes and continued to scrub the algae. This pretty much got rid of the hair algae and it knocked down PO4 and NO3.
If I had it to do over again, I would have cut the water changes in half 20%|10%|10%. I think what I did freaked out my pink-tipped rainbow anemones. They are not doing well since the 2nd weekly water change. Everyone else looks really happy. It looks like you could scrub your rocks easily. Definitely read what others recommend because I am not the most experienced cat in the alley. Best of Luck! JL

 

[01xp]

Stupid question but are you using rodi water?

 

[Broose51]

Stupid question but are you using rodi water?

I am

 

[John08007]

Reef flux hd

I feel like this is a bandaid for an underlying problem. You need to deal with the nitrate that caused the algae or it will come back.

 

[Broose51]

I feel like this is a bandaid for an underlying problem. You need to deal with the nitrate that caused the algae or it will come back.

Agree, I’d rather try and figure out the cause than just start throwing chemicals in.

 

[01xp]

Did you use dry rock. If you did you'll have a hair problem for a little the foxface will take care of it but it will eventually start to go away. Your tank is still fairly young I wouldn't use nopx yet possibility of DINO then you'll have a problem

 

[01xp]

Plus the pictures you posted don't look horrible. This was the outbreak in my old system and the fox cleaned it all right up

 

[Uncle99]

Toothbrush first and remove.
Maybe Vibrant 1/2 dose.
Not much of an algae problem I see.
Yup, phosphate up to just detectable

 

[Broose51]

Did you use dry rock. If you did you'll have a hair problem for a little the foxface will take care of it but it will eventually start to go away. Your tank is still fairly young I wouldn't use nopx yet possibility of DINO then you'll have a problem

Yeah i used dry rock. I’m not concerned with my nitrate level and phosphate is at 0 so not going to use nopox, ideally I’d like to get my phosphate up just a little

 

[01xp]

The gha will give a false 0

 

[Broose51]

Fox face will eat that much hair algae? Will one pick from both the rocks and the glass? My concerns are that I know they can eat corals (not that they necessarily will though) and that I only have a Red Sea 250, which I’m sure is too small for all but a tiny foxface