Hair algae outbreak out of control!!!

[willforr]

I’ve been dealing with this hair algae for four months now. I have tried everything so I don’t know what to do anymore. I’ve done water changes, manually removing it, hair algae treatments, countless water tests and I’ve bought snails, urchins, and even a sea hare. Nothing will eat it. I’ve gone to the fish store numerous times. Their advice never works. I manually removed about half of it two weeks ago and added a treatment called flux rx. I came back yesterday after being out of town for a few days and the algae is already worse than what it was. I really need someone to help me out. At this point I don’t know what to do anymore.

 

[brandon429]

how many gallons is the tank

 

[willforr]

50 gallons.

 

[brandon429]

Hey I see it's a fifty gallon system and this will be it's first deep clean. that's the max size we like to work with, but lucky you, rip cleaning a 50 gallon isn't all that bad.


here's what I recommend, pics inside the link show what you will get.

for your tank and it's details, you need to disassemble and rinse out the bed like we do, study how we rinse sandbeds it's not your usual method.

Algae Identification

Any opinions on what type of algae this is growing on my rocks and sand bed?

www.reef2reef.com

then you hold that sandbed in a bucket and go set it in the pantry or something open topped, you won't need it for a while.

You would then run the rock cleaning, as we detailed in the thread, your rocks are now algae free

you would then assemble your tank back, minus the sand, with the clean rocks fish and corals, and all new water matching the temp and salinity of the current.

you would expect about 3 months or so of light growback management of the rocks, in a bare-bottom tank because you can keep those cleaner than sandbedded tanks, to make up for letting them blanket over like that / they're seeded well now so you will be occasionally lifting out a rock, and scrape + treat the algae off that spot before it grows back. You'll learn manual controls prevent all algae takeovers in the no sand tank, be removing detritus as it collects on the bottom vs in the sand grains now for three mos

manage the tank by hand, make the rocks look right, do normal water changes.

then you put the rinsed sand back in three months, you just simply add it in/it won't cloud you rinsed it.

 

[brandon429]

not disassembly cleaning got you build up, chemical souping of the water after multiple dosers, and 2 yrs of extended work on the tank plus full invasion, I realize that looks like a lot of work. it is.


one disassembly cleaning gets you what's in that link above, it will take you ten hours in one day to do it correctly.

This is the price of sandbedding + allowing algae eutrophication. the undoing of that is manual, it's not a doser you buy or a test you conduct on the water. there is no param, doser, or reef trick you can find to fix your tank better than that above fixing six other reefs in varying presentation. the one set of moves undoes any invasion in smaller tanks. larger tanks are too hard to work/they just start over and waste everything...and then the new setup/same destiny in several mos

it's better to practice undoing eutrophication and keeping all your rocks, they aren't ruined, they need lawnmowing by steel implement.

 

[brandon429]

Old tank syndrome is vanquished in reefing now

the cause of old tank syndrome is compounding whole waste particles that blanket the interstitial sand grain zones and plug up the channels in live rocks- in some cases it's sheer overgrowth allowed from various invasions that plugs up the surface area on live rock combined with a thin veneer of...

www.reef2reef.com

your tank has old tank syndrome, even though it's not old


eutrophication vs oligotrophic conditions

check out some of those jobs above. the university of florida's reef was ten times worse than yours, and it was dual 160 gallon systems they rip cleaned. those kids must've spent a week rasping lol.

the problem with putting in algae killer dosers is it rots the plant and that biomass transmits into rock and sand pores to degrade, plug, reduce surface area, reduce oxygenation by housing mud vs clean open pores...your tank needs surgery luckily there's a roadmap for that.

the second we debride all that rock back into compliance and set it in flow, the nitrification rates in the system will go up, the ORP will be better bc we blasted out all the organics.

that reef is a mouth that hasn't been to the dentist in too long, we're about to dentist it. dentists don't kid glove you with a doser, you leave bleeding if they do a good job with their rasping tools.

I wish we could make your tank a shining example clean enough and rinsed well enough to be part of those threads. its a big job most would rather just start over.

Don't feel rushed to put back the sand, many don't. if you want to later you can/at any time it'll be rinsed and ready

don't store it wet let it fully dry while holding open topped, this prevents mildewing.

 

[14 foot reef]

The one thing that worked for me was Fluconasol which is Flux RX. The deal is here, this did not come on you in a week, it's surely not leaving in a week.
Get 2 more correct doses of Flux RX ( Cheapest and easiest doses come from Pet Mountain. )

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Let your current dose run for 3 full weeks, do a water change, then do another "CORRECT" dose of Flux RX. If by the 2nd 3 week full dose it isn't gone, do a 3rd water change and 3rd treatment. Make sure you follow the directions 100% no UV No Skimmer No Carbon, No GFO. Read instructions. Do exactly as they say. This should be 100% in 9 weeks.

 

[adsf430]

I'd just buy a sea hare. Give it a couple couple months to eat it all, return it

 

[willforr]

The sea hare didn’t eat it. I already tried.

 

[melonheadorion]

although a complete teardown wouldnt be hard for you to do, i feel that it is a way to ignore an issue. feel free to do it, but i personally wont go that route because it feels like the lazy way out. what happens when you have an algae issue in the future? just tear down the tank every time? i wouldnt
im battling a hair algae issue as well. im at a 65g, which isnt much more than yourself. ive done the fluconazole, like you have, and went with other methods to try to fix it. ultimately, the end result is that algae is feeding off of nutrients. the question to go with is, how to outcompete it. if you restart the system, in the matter of the same amount of time, you will be back to fighting an algae issue.
i personally, just take out rocks, scrub them, and put them back. however, i also have a significant number of rock in mine, versus the small amount that you have, so taking the rocks out, to scrub them, should be very easy. in addition to that, you could easily replace rocks over time, or all at once if you want to fight it that way (assuming that you have enough bacteria in your sump, or whatever) to not lose your cycle. but, the reason why i say a complete teardown is lazy is because if you do, but your issue has to do with excess nutrients, you will be fighting the same issue in the future.

 

[brandon429]

I agree with both of those for sure-honestly would have rated sea hare at 90% going off posts. nothing is 100%, only your hands, some anger, and a rasping tool makes a reef tank 100% clean. that and several buckets, hours of tap rinsing, and total trust in keyboard reef warriors from well across the way.

key prediction: those grazers and dosers can't help with cyano that cycles in after those two options, because the bed is full of waste/evidenced by any stirring/ a total cloud will erupt right now that can kill his tank.


that's why mouth surgery is needed on that reef, because he can. Because the risk of not doing it isn't paying off and 50 gallons is the breakpoint in human effort heh

you are in a cycle of invasions, it's not just that one. when you clear GHA through alternate means, cyano comes in for two years, see the 460 page fluconazole thread. its 40% cyano tradeoff invasions.

 

[brandon429]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/official-sand-rinse-and-tank-transfer-thread.230281/ final card lay lol sales pitch. 50 pages of rip cleans and no tradeoff invasions.

we have a compliance rate that beats any system on file, it will just take you ten hours, scraped hands, and a trip to the dr for inflammation creme to attain those shiny after pics

Those other methods save you all the work and you gamble on the outcome.

above we guarantee your system won't recycle, and you can will it into compliance in any ten hour period.

how you reef after that: up to you, we provide skip cycle science and a free roadmap for ruby after pics.

 

[willforr]

How do I remove the rocks if the corals are glued on or have attached themselves?

 

[brandon429]

they sit on the counter still attached. we need to do one test rock before any disassembly anyway and that doesn't oblige you to do the rest, it's a test to see how well the clean state holds when you set it back in the tank


set the rock on the counter with stuff attached

use a steak knife to get in, dig, score, rasp out working around the corals and score off that algae by damaging with scrape marks, you're going to divot up that rock a bit in sections like a parrotfish took bites of the algae, that's true removal. the holdfasts

rinse down the sink via saltwater pour over

you just work a rock like that back to 100% clear, avoid the good spots, scrape anchor free the invaded spots this precision allows you to work around corals. be rinsing off with saltwater all this mess.


*when the rock is clean, go spritz or dropper peroxide 3% on the former invaded spots, hit the dense areas you really had to detail scrape, this is a follow up chemical burn on total clean substrate you already scraped free.

it's to catch invisible cells of algae/fizzle them.

rinse that off after a few mins, you now have 1x perfect rock as a model. take pics, we need model pics anyway, and set back in tank.

watch it over the coming days, see if you like the effort

if so, let's do the whole dang job asap on remote. **watch out for worm pokes in handling live rock. slight uptick lately in reefers who get welts from small bacterial infections in micropunctures.

 

[brandon429]

I dont know any corals that can't do 20 mins in air, and most can do an hour. I have a video of me simply draining my 16 year old nano reef to the sandbed, leaving it totally empty for 33 mins that's the whole system in the winter air as a shock test. refilled, next day 100% normal.

if you are concerned about corals in air, dribble saltwater on them every 10 mins. I could keep your corals alive for two days out of water just dribbling saltwater across them on my counter lol not a joke. they'd probably die after 48 hours though

 

[14 foot reef]

My before and After with 3 doses of Flux RX - Zero loss on coral, inverts and fish. 850 gallon mixed reef system.

 

[willforr]

Thanks guys for all the help

 

[sumtingbig]

The best and safest way are snails. Throw a 100 Astraea Snails in there and let them go at it. And a load of dwarf cerith and they will get the deep cleaning. Works for me. I just thru in 50 astrea and 175 dwarf in a 81 cube for 67.25 to the door. Twice a year because Melinarus likes them lol. And the Orange Shoulder Tang likes flipping them over for Mel. Stay away from putting drugs in your tank all possible. Oh and the Orange Shoulder Tang is a algae eating machine. I have good luck with reefcleaners.org Good Luck

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[William Mumford]

The best and safest way are snails. Throw a 100 Astraea Snails in there and let them go at it. And a load of dwarf cerith and they will get the deep cleaning. Works for me. I just thru in 50 astrea and 175 dwarf in a 81 cube for 67.25 to the door. Twice a year because Melinarus likes them lol. And the Orange Shoulder Tang likes flipping them over for Mel. Stay away from putting drugs in your tank all possible. Oh and the Orange Shoulder Tang is a algae eating machine. I have good luck with reefcleaners.org Good Luck

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Do not forget copepods they will crush algae