Hair algae

[Novicereefer]

Hey,

I went away for a few days last week and I must've accidentally put my auto feeder to feed too much flake and pellet food twice a day. It's been about 10 days since I've been back. A week after I came back I did a 50% water change over 3 days. Things seem to look better. Now 6 days since the change and I find myself blasting the hair off the corals every day. I will do another 50% over 3 days (25% tomorrow and 25% Sunday) sucking out as much algae as possible. Should I throw in a bag of chemi-pure blue in the filter or would that be over kill? And I run my lights from 7 a.m to 9 p.m. With high intensity from 11-5. Thinking if I should cut it down to 10hrs and intensity from 12-3?

It doesn't look that bad in the pictures because I kind of just blasted them

 

[blaxsun]

Compared to some of the other "algae" images that are frequently posted, it actually looks really good. You could add some ChemiPure Blue (or the nano packets) in a high-flow area - I don't think it could hurt.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey,

I went away for a few days last week and I must've accidentally put my auto feeder to feed too much flake and pellet food twice a day. It's been about 10 days since I've been back. A week after I came back I did a 50% water change over 3 days. Things seem to look better. Now 6 days since the change and I find myself blasting the hair off the corals every day. I will do another 50% over 3 days (25% tomorrow and 25% Sunday) sucking out as much algae as possible. Should I throw in a bag of chemi-pure blue in the filter or would that be over kill? And I run my lights from 7 a.m to 9 p.m. With high intensity from 11-5. Thinking if I should cut it down to 10hrs and intensity from 12-3?

It doesn't look that bad in the pictures because I kind of just blasted them

Add a few Carribean blue leg hermits (which are tiny and safe) to pick the algae and even chiton snails if you can find them. Assure Po4 is not elevated and if so, add chemiPure Blue pouch which will keep phos levels in check. Not sure what your daily schedule is but in lieu of large water changes, consider small 1-2 gallon water changes over the next 2 weeks which takes up to 10 minutes each time. You will keep on top of no3, po4 and restore traces with this step and should see improvement
best is you identified the likely source which removes the mystery as to cause

 

[Novicereefer]

Compared to some of the other "algae" images that are frequently posted, it actually looks really good. You could add some ChemiPure Blue (or the nano packets) in a high-flow area - I don't think it could hurt.

Thanks lol. I slowly turned my mixed reef into a sps/Acro dominated tank so any bit of that stuff bothers me because I don't want anything ticking them off plus I figured the algae meant something is off in the tank. Thanks!

 

[Novicereefer]

Add a few Carribean blue leg hermits (which are tiny and safe) to pick the algae and even chiton snails if you can find them. Assure Po4 is not elevated and if so, add chemiPure Blue pouch which will keep phos levels in check. Not sure what your daily schedule is but in lieu of large water changes, consider small 1-2 gallon water changes over the next 2 weeks which takes up to 10 minutes each time. You will keep on top of no3, po4 and restore traces with this step and should see improvement
best is you identified the likely source which removes the mystery as to cause

Thank you. Yea the root cause was over feeding. Everything was fine until I left and came back. I'll check out the inverts you suggested. The small water changes can work. I guess for the Acros' sake smaller change is better than large water changes

 

[Isaac Alves]

yeesh..you should see my tank. It's a snuffaluffagus dream scape. Your tank looks great.

 

[Novicereefer]

yeesh..you should see my tank. It's a snuffaluffagus dream scape. Your tank looks great.

tangs would love your tank

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thank you. Yea the root cause was over feeding. Everything was fine until I left and came back. I'll check out the inverts you suggested. The small water changes can work. I guess for the Acros' sake smaller change is better than large water changes

the small changes will benefit the acro even more