Hair algae root cause? Help if you can please!

[AmatuerAuer]

I don't want to add more than the three emeralds for now. I have a lot of coral (every kind) and don't want to end up with a predator.. I will look into Mexican Turbos though. Thanks!

So far I have given the fish room a serious facelift, taped & skimmed (poorly) and painted the walls and put in some shelving. Also removed and cleaned the old 40b and made more space.

Did one 15g water change, went through the sand bed pretty good. Have another batch mixing now. I have a few coral growing close to the surface so I can't drain the tank half way..

I scrubbed down a lot of the rock work.

I think nori was definitely a culprit, I had a 2x2 piece break off and hide somewhere about a week ago.. I have also cut my feeding routine back a lot.

 

[Cory]

Nice upgrade

 

[rock_lobster]

Emeralds are very peaceful non predatory(much better than hermit crabs) They will never kill snails.. They can be territorial amongst each other though.

 

[Vaughn17]

The money cowrie (Cypraea moneta) or the ring cowrie (Cypraea annulus) are both excellent hair algae consumers. They are also very hardy, don't bother corals, stay small (approx. 1 inch), and are cool little creatures. I have six of them in three different tanks.

 

[moulton1853]

How old are the t5 bulbs? If they are also about a year it may be time to change them.

 

[AmatuerAuer]

Rock, I have heard enough anecdotal claims about Emeralds to be wary..not doubting..just wary.

Vaughn- Thank you, I will look into them as well!

Mouton - T5 are 1-2 months old tops

 

[brandon429]

Take one rock only as a test, hit it with peroxide, wait four mins in air, rinse, put back in, compare to other rocks in five days will be interesting comparison

Gives comparisons between treated v non treated where only a single easy rock is the test subject. Do that zoanthid one, it'll appreciate being algae free in a week

The removal of algae and the prevention don't have to be the same thing, unless the algae needs to be left in the system until starved then its OK to use the prevention as the remover.


Gha in the wild grows in perfect waters, only reef aquarists claim it signals nutrient issues. A million tonnes of wild grazers are thankful it grows anywhere it's allowed. That's not to say nutrient control isn't wise... but we wouldn't need peroxide if nutrients were the swing vote

The root cause of gha is leaving early growths in the tank to collect detritus among the strands and self feed despite nutrient work. We beat gha in many cases simply by cellular kill, independent of nutrients. I pop in gha threads offering a test rock only because the method has so many after pics, its ok if another method is chosen. Am adding options that at least come with mass pics. How does seabass' tank look here
Not bad, not bad
http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/2687...nk-with-pics-to-prove-it/page-63#entry5250571

If you choose to starve it out slowly, that's fine too.

 

[AmatuerAuer]

Update: Lost a clown to my overflow...really stinks. Found it and took it out before it broke down. That was not the GHA cause.

Added two Mexican Turbos that are going to town...

Removing my 5 damsels, too aggressive and will help lower bioload.

The spread appears to have stopped, hope to see some regression in the next week.

 

[rock_lobster]

Yep its the turbos they destroy it.