Hair algea help

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Antlrman

Antlrman

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Fellow reefers,

I recently had a tank crash 3 weeks ago. Human error, lost about 2k worth or of sps, fish, and lps. So now have things back to stable and ready to begin restocking. Problem is I went to my office this weekend to check the tank and I am loaded with hair algea now. I expected a new cycle of algea issues to develope after the crash so I am not too surprised by it.

My question is this, with the new start of hair algea (which I have never had before) what is my best course of action? I plan to manually remove tomorrow as much as possible, but what other measures can I take to eliminate or lesson further intrusion of it? Add more fish? Tangs or angels? Add chemicals such as Algea fix? I have two shipments of sps coming in the this week and need to get a handle on this asap. My phosphates are low to nothing. All my water checks out. So water quality is not an issue.

Thanks! Let me know.
 
Deltec
Po is low because of the algae. Id scrub like heck. Not sure how youd do anything else and have it ready for Acros that fast
 
I will scrub my butt off! Tomorrow. I know I am.kinda of rolling the dice this soon. I had such a sweet set up and sps grow strong in my tank. So I may be a little speedy on my restocking can't quite help the addiction of getting it rolling again after losing 2 yrs of solid growth. Guess that is the hobby lol. Just wondering if anybody had any ideas on control of it other than manual removal.
 
Ecoscape Reef Rock
What fish did you lose? Were any of them taking care of the algae for you before?
 
Antlrman said:
I will scrub my *** off! Tomorrow. I know I am.kinda of rolling the dice this soon. I had such a sweet set up and sps grow strong in my tank. So I may be a little speedy on my restocking can't quite help the addiction of getting it rolling again after losing 2 yrs of solid growth. Guess that is the hobby lol. Just wondering if anybody had any ideas on control of it other than manual removal.
Click to expand...
yea not fast AND safe. Best IMO to mow down as much as possible. and beef the heck out of the cuc. at that speed I personally wouldn't use Peroxide, vibrant, alga fix or any of the other usual stuff.
Ive dome some deep algae cleaning w peroxide but the acros did not like it. and those were in the tank, so id would be a bigger stress for a new new one
 
Natural predators ( fish) are always the best option imo for control. But that's not a fast thing if proper acclimation/Qt protocol is used.

I had crazy good success with hair algae in a friend's tank using like 100 turbo ( large) snails and rehoming them to proper levels once the algae was under control.. Basically the tank went through a massive bloom when we moved it to his new house and literally in two weeks the snails picked it clean. It was a 75gal fwiw.. Could work for you as well just as a temporary option..
 
WWC
I lost about 15 different fish. All varieties. The angels, tangs, and blennies kept things under control. I think will get some angels and tangs going into he tank tomorrow. Manual removal and simply let things take its course. I hate to treat with any sort of chemical. I am.sure I am pushing it with restocking, but already made the purchases and deliveries start this week. Made the purchases prior to the hair algea starting. So it is what it is guess. I guess I can just hope at this point to keep it some what under control until it runs it's course.
 
Antlrman said:
I do have to say I think R2R is awesome. I just signed up on this forum and I have been addicted to reading the endless amount of information provided by all you guys! It is great info.
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welcome aboard. Really really good folks here.

yea elbow grease and snails. prob for the best really. once it all gets stable you can go a bit deeper safely.
 
Ecoscape Reef Rock
I went through this battle for months. My phosphates were at 0, but there was arguably no reason to measure them anyway since even if they're 0, everyone will tell you it's since your GHA is using it up. Regardless, I assume it was in there and tried GFO, Phosguard, and and Rowaphos. That plus weekly 25% water changes in my 116g Reefer tank did nothing. I would pick it out every 3-4 days, and it would all grow right back. I tried a 3-4 day blackout period, which helped a bit, but the it all grew back. I reduced the lights to 4-5 hrs/day, which did nothing. I removed all red, green, and white light from my LEDs leaving only blue spectrum, and my GHA was as happy as ever. Then I measured my Nitrate and it was surprisingly high. Someone told me to try Seachem Purigen. Within a few weeks, all of the GHA was finally gone. Cannot tell you if it was the persistent water changes, the Rowa, the changed light spectrum, or maybe finally the Purigen, but I finally saw the last of it after a 4-5 month battle. FYI I also tried the additional Turbos and other snails along the way but they didn't help. Even if they do, you're not getting to the root cause, and ultimately many will die and arguably feed the problem even more. Tons of variables and you'll try many solutions and likely never know exactly which solved the problem, but once you find an answer that works, stick with it and dont look back. Good luck and stay persistent, but dont expect a quick win either...
 
I agree. I expect I am in for a long battle. Have dealt with it in the past years ago in another tank. I will try the purigen. Can't hurt! This is fascinating thing about a reef tank for a hobby, always unpredictable and always keeps you on your toes. That is the attraction I believe!
 
Chewy.com
Well, I was waiting for that question. Dummy me, I have about 5k invested into my Apex system to start with. I have an auto top off line from my RO. I also use the same line to fill my water change 36 gal container. The week of Thanksgiving I disconnected the auto top off and connected to my can to fill for a water change. That was Tuesday. I usually fill overnight. On Wednesday I forgot to connect it back to the tank auto fill. I left for the holiday weekend. I can back in on Sunday to my office to check on things and as soon as I open my office door I could smell disaster! Walked in to a soupy tank. Tank dried up and stopped flowing. The tank cooked over the weekend. Absolute catastrophe. Started emergency water changes and got the tank cleared up in few days. Lost just about 90% of my tank. I was distraught that I didn't get any alerts from Apex. Learning lesson! I had my email entered in the Apex system for alerts. But there was an update in the past year that I was unaware of. I wasn't getting any alerts, nor was my local reef expert that was also set up on my system to get alerts in my absense. My lfs guy that sold me the system came over that week and went through the whole thing. It finally took us calling apex and walking through the set up to find a back door page that we were unaware of that needed additional email and phone text information to make the alerts work. So I was furious with Apex at the time, but in the end it was still my fault. I was just mad that I did not get the alerts that paid so much money for to have. But live and learn. System is correct now and I have added many more sensors and alerts since as well as I have tripped every one of them to make sure my emails and text alerts are now working through Apex. So warning to everyone with Apex to make sure their system is up to date and they are getting the alerts that they should be. Was a 2k dollar lesson for me.

Also I added a 3 dollar tee to my ro system for filling my cans now that I will never disconnect my autofill again!!
 
On a positive note, I was able to now get rid of 100 lbs of live rock, rework my base rock set up, get rid of undesirable mushrooms and palys that were a nuisance, and now starting over with better live stock. So I am.excited about the new adventure! Have to be positive in this hobby right!! :-)
 
I would manually remove as much as possible and give it a good shot of vibrant.
 
www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com
I was having a huge problem with green hair algae my phosphate was at 0 and nitrate 0 keep on manually taking in out to only have it come right back . Installed a 55 watt uv and in a week it was gone and never returned. Not a trace left and it was covering rocks and some corals and it has not returned
 
Robert Vacchiano said:
I was having a huge problem with green hair algae my phosphate was at 0 and nitrate 0 keep on manually taking in out to only have it come right back . Installed a 55 watt uv and in a week it was gone and never returned. Not a trace left and it was covering rocks and some corals and it has not returned
Click to expand...
That sounds pretty good there. Something I will look into trying. Thanks
 
I am starting up a new 360 gallon dislay and had the typical hair algae break out. When I relocated my purple tang to the new display, he cleaned it all....100%... in about a week. Of course, you need to watch for phosphate issues from top off water, flake food, etc., but the tang really did his part.

Good luck!!!
 
www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com
I am going to be getting a tang or two this coming week to help pick at it. I appreciate the advise for sure. I am also hoping that with the crash of the tank this will also be a normal cycle and naturally take its course as well. But I will do all that I can to minimize the bloom
 
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