Hair Algae

waterboys · Aug 18, 2023

I’ve been dealing with hair algae for a while now. I brush and water change and believe it or not it’s better than it was. But I feel like I’m losing the battle. I read on here that an urchin will probably help. Is a tuxedo urchin my best option? Parameters and tank picture below. Someone also told me a sea hare would help but I’m not sure if my tank is stable enough. Tank is about a year old (40 breeder).

Temp - 78
Salinity - 1.025
pH - 8.4
Alk - 9.1
Cal - 400
Mag - 1180
Nitrate - 2
Pho - .13

Jekyl · Aug 18, 2023

My uglies wrapped up right around a year old, so hopefully you're on the door step.

Live phyto dosing helped me out and it's beneficial vs some of the algicides out there.

I never finish anythi · Aug 18, 2023

Urchins are very good algae eaters . What sort of cuc have you got in the tank ? What is you're lighting schedule?

Jekyl · Aug 18, 2023

I never finish anythi said:
Urchins are very good algae eaters . What sort of cuc have you got in the tank ? What is you're lighting schedule?

This. I always get packages from reefcleaners.org

Get a package for roughly half your tank size to start.

waterboys · Aug 18, 2023

I couldn’t figure out how to reply to both of you. I purchased a package from reef cleaners for a 30 gallon because I had a couple hermits and turbo and a few misc other snails already. Unfortunately the shipment got caught up for a couple days in transit and none of the large ceriths made it. I did get a couple from a LFS though.

I have blues only from a Viparspectra on about 20% for 11 hours I think. I have a couple nicrews on a low setting for I think 8 hours. I’d have to double check though.

fishyjoes · Aug 18, 2023

waterboys said:
I couldn’t figure out how to reply to both of you.

You can use the "+Quote" button on both posts, then in the reply box you use the "insert quotes" button and choose which quote(s) to insert into your response

You can also highlight just part of a response and when you hover a "+Quote" will show up if you only want to include parts and not the whole thing

waterboys · Aug 28, 2023

It appears to be getting worse. I took the first linked video below on Thursday the 24th. I took the second one 10 minutes ango. Any suggestions? I’ll order another cleanup crew after this week but I don’t think it should be getting worse. Tank parameters below taken this morning.

Temp - 78
Salinity - 1.025
pH - 8
Alk - 8.7
Cal - 420
Mag - 1250
Nitrate - 0
Pho - .07

I know my nitrates shouldn’t be zero but I’m not sure if it’s appropriate to bring them up.

I’ve also done two 12.5% water changes in the past week.

Not sure what to do to get this under control.

waterboys · Aug 29, 2023

I’m thinking about temporarily cutting back feeding to every other day and reducing my light schedule and increasing water changes.

How many hours should I have the lights on to keep coral “happy”? Currently 9 hours of blue and 4 with white.

exnisstech · Aug 29, 2023

IMO your going to have to perform some type of manual removal. If you are able to remove the rocks and scrub them while in some old tank water that would probably be most effective. If you can't remove the rocks try pulling it off with some forceps or similar. You'll need to try and remove as much as you can and keep at daily if needed. Not many critters I know of that will eat it when its long like that. A sea hare may work but be prepared to return or rehome it when the algae is gone or it will starve. I tried them twice. First time it ate like a machine for a couple of weeks then died. Second time it didn't even eat, just died in a couple of days so not great results for me. I would definately add a cuc. I always under stocked my cuc because to me the recommended crews sounded like way too many snails. On my last start up I really beefed up the cuc when algae appeared and it helped a lot. I would recomend passing on the dwarf cerith if they are recommended. In my experience they spent more time in my power heads than on the rocks.

I've ran my lights as short as 6 hours peak a day before with no negative issues. I wouldn't bother with water changes, at least not to help with the algae control.

I'm hesitant to say this but many people have had good results with flucanizole. I used it once when I had gha badly. It did work on the gha but then I ended up with a bad case of cyano so it's not without risk.

waterboys · Aug 29, 2023

exnisstech said:
IMO your going to have to perform some type of manual removal. If you are able to remove the rocks and scrub them while in some old tank water that would probably be most effective. If you can't remove the rocks try pulling it off with some forceps or similar. You'll need to try and remove as much as you can and keep at daily if needed. Not many critters I know of that will eat it when its long like that. A sea hare may work but be prepared to return or rehome it when the algae is gone or it will starve. I tried them twice. First time it ate like a machine for a couple of weeks then died. Second time it didn't even eat, just died in a couple of days so not great results for me. I would definately add a cuc. I always under stocked my cuc because to me the recommended crews sounded like way too many snails. On my last start up I really beefed up the cuc when algae appeared and it helped a lot. I would recomend passing on the dwarf cerith if they are recommended. In my experience they spent more time in my power heads than on the rocks.

I've ran my lights as short as 6 hours peak a day before with no negative issues. I wouldn't bother with water changes, at least not to help with the algae control.

I'm hesitant to say this but many people have had good results with flucanizole. I used it once when I had gha badly. It did work on the gha but then I ended up with a bad case of cyano so it's not without risk.

Thanks. Appreciate the response. I’ll dial back the lights some more and beef up the CUC.

I did pull several of the rocks and even brushed them with hydrogen peroxide (as I read somewhere that was another recommendation). The big rock would be a problem getting out and doing something manual but it’s looking like I’ll need it.

I’ve heard from several people that a hare might help but I read horror stories about them nuking tanks if they die. But that’s not apparently completely true.

exnisstech · Aug 29, 2023

waterboys said:
I’ve heard from several people that a hare might help but I read horror stories about them nuking tanks if they die. But that’s not apparently completely true.

That is a possibility but I don't think it's common. Probably one of those things that happened once, got posted online then repeated buy tens of thousands of people. But I'm just talking from my experience.
EDIT : I'm surprised the peroxide didn't work better. I use it for gha on frag plugs and it works great. I'm pretty sure it's a method recommended by @brandon429 (I may be wrong) and he's pretty much an expert at this kind of stuff.

waterboys · Aug 29, 2023

exnisstech said:
That is a possibility but I don't think it's common. Probably one of those things that happened once, got posted online then repeated buy tens of thousands of people. But I'm just talking from my experience.
EDIT : I'm surprised the peroxide didn't work better. I use it for gha on frag plugs and it works great. I'm pretty sure it's a method recommended by @brandon429 (I may be wrong) and he's pretty much an expert at this kind of stuff.

The peroxide do work (initially). But I was unable to pull out the big rock so I think it just came back stronger.