HELP!!!! Hair algae invasion!!!

[ileas12:]

This hair algae in my 125 is out of control and I have no idea what’s causing it. When my tank finished cycling it was crazy long like this and then I scrubbed a lot away. I’ve been doing scrubbing every weekend since and I even bought a sea hare! Have 10 turbos as well. Don’t let the pictures fool you it’s literaly 3-6” long strands


Phosphate is at .031 ppm done with a hanna UL checker

Nitrate at around 5 ppm with an API kit

 

[ileas12:]

If a mod considers this an emergency feel free to move it to that thread. I didn’t want to be that guy so I didn’t post it there

 

[Chris Villalobos]

I see a lot of frags and a whole bunch of white rocks. How long after you set up the tank did you start adding corals and a lot of light?

 

[ileas12:]

I cycled with ammonium chrloide and dr Tim’s bacteria and let it all sit for 6 weeks ammonia and nitrates were gone and added a few fish.

 

[Chris Villalobos]

I cycled with ammonium chrloide and dr Tim’s bacteria and let it all sit for 6 weeks ammonia and nitrates were gone and added a few fish.

I'm assuming at the 6 week mark is when you added corals and high lighting too? Are those rocks as white as they look in the pictures? If so, you probably were way too early to be adding lights and corals. This is called the Ugly Phase! If you make it through without shutting down your tank or calling it quits you get to wear it as a badge of honor.

 

[OutsideBrian]

If your tank is only a few months old it’s normal. Removing it by hand is your best bet. Lowering your light hours/timing/intensity will help but you need to balance that with your corals getting enough.
Hermit and emerald crabs may help eat it.

 

[ileas12:]

I'm assuming at the 6 week mark is when you added corals and high lighting too? Are those rocks as white as they look in the pictures? If so, you probably were way too early to be adding lights and corals. This is called the Ugly Phase! If you make it through without shutting down your tank or calling it quits you get to wear it as a badge of honor.

i guess so. They arent pearly white and were already live.

 

[ileas12:]

If your tank is only a few months old it’s normal. Removing it by hand is your best bet. Lowering your light hours/timing/intensity will help but you need to balance that with your corals getting enough.
Hermit and emerald crabs may help eat it.

I have a goby 2 clowns and 2 cardinals. As said above the nutrients arent high. For corals a few zoas an acan and an encrusting monti

 

[ileas12:]

could i run carbon or dose peroxide?

 

[Jberge]

Idk if it’s too soon to take these measures with the age of your tank but what I’ve done is remove as much of hair algae as possible by hand, then pull out any rocks I can get to easily and spray them with peroxide, let them sit no more than 5 mins, rinse in SW or RODI and put them back in the tank. After that you could dose peroxide twice a day. The recommended dosage for peroxide is 1ml per 10g of total water volume. I’ve done as much as 1ml/2g without any ill effect on fish, coral, or inverts. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that high of a dose though

 

[Chris Villalobos]

could i run carbon or dose peroxide?

I would never dose peroxide. My tough love advice. Give the corals to someone you trust and scrub your rocks of the algae. Keep nutrients low but testable, reduce your lighting, and wait for the hair algae to go away (you will probably have to do weekly scrub downs). Your rocks will darken and you will get healthy coralline algae growth on them. This is what Ryan at BRS calls the bacteria and coralline algae barrier to pest algae. Then you can increase your lighting and bring back your corals.

 

[NS Mike D]

could i run carbon or dose peroxide?

steady does it. Be diligent in removing it by hand and weather the time it takes for a tank to mature. Keep your water parameters steady. My tank is 4 years old and I have a huge GHA problem, but my corals are doing well and I no lonmger have dyanos nor cyano, so it doesn't bother me as much. I let it grow into big clumps which makes it easier to remove. Eventually, corals will cover all the rock work and take away room for the GHA to hold.

There are more experienced and better reef keepers than me that swear by using as little rock as possible in the DT and will supplement with marine pure block in the sump. This makes a lot of sense to me. You can always add rock to create more coral anchorage.

If I had to do it over, I'd use 1/10th the rocks to start and put marine pure blocks in my sump. My original logoc was more rock, more filtration. Now I subscribe to more rock, more homes for GHA and detritus.

 

[ileas12:]

I would never dose peroxide. My tough love advice. Give the corals to someone you trust and scrub your rocks of the algae. Keep nutrients low but testable, reduce your lighting, and wait for the hair algae to go away (you will probably have to do weekly scrub downs). Your rocks will darken and you will get healthy coralline algae growth on them. This is what Ryan at BRS calls the bacteria and coralline algae barrier to pest algae. Then you can increase your lighting and bring back your corals.

This is my 3rd tank its just this algae is insane.

 

[NS Mike D]

I would never dose peroxide. My tough love advice. Give the corals to someone you trust and scrub your rocks of the algae. Keep nutrients low but testable, reduce your lighting, and wait for the hair algae to go away (you will probably have to do weekly scrub downs). Your rocks will darken and you will get healthy coralline algae growth on them. This is what Ryan at BRS calls the bacteria and coralline algae barrier to pest algae. Then you can increase your lighting and bring back your corals.

^ this, pull the corals and scrub. But I will differ, this will be a good time to scrub with H2O2 (and rinse well) to kill off any remnants. Further to my above post, consider putting some rocks in your sump for later use in the DT and only put in your DT enough for your current corals. If you are like the rest of us, you'll change your aquascape 100 times anyway.

 

[ileas12:]

Idk if it’s too soon to take these measures with the age of your tank but what I’ve done is remove as much of hair algae as possible by hand, then pull out any rocks I can get to easily and spray them with peroxide, let them sit no more than 5 mins, rinse in SW or RODI and put them back in the tank. After that you could dose peroxide twice a day. The recommended dosage for peroxide is 1ml per 10g of total water volume. I’ve done as much as 1ml/2g without any ill effect on fish, coral, or inverts. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that high of a dose though

I scrub it every weekend but theres so much rock its impossible to get it all.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

I have a goby 2 clowns and 2 cardinals. As said above the nutrients arent high. For corals a few zoas an acan and an encrusting monti

Edit, missed a zero in the PO4 reading. I would just keep cleaning, watch how much you feed, and ride it out.

 

[ileas12:]

^ this, pull the corals and scrub. But I will differ, this will be a good time to scrub with H2O2 (and rinse well) to kill off any remnants. Further to my above post, consider putting some rocks in your sump for later use in the DT and only put in your DT enough for your current corals. If you are like the rest of us, you'll change your aquascape 100 times anyway.

wont scrubbing and spraying with h202 on rocks kill the bacteria?

 

[ileas12:]

Actually, 0.31ppm of PO4 is high, especially for a new tank. I would suspect that is the main source for your algae growth. PO4 should be 0.02 - 0.1 for a new tank. Some more established tanks get away with higher nutrients because they have a lot of live competing for them. I would figure out the source of the PO4, probably leaching from the rock IMO, and get that under control first.

its .031 and I also think its leaching from the rock. Any ideas for rocks leaching?

 

[NS Mike D]

This is my 3rd tank its just this algae is insane.

I surrendered. Other than cleaning my sand and scrubbing my rocks with H2O2, I was only making things worse with different techniques. There is a good thread on a radical tank cleaning, may be worth a look for you.

 

[ileas12:]

Edit, missed a zero in the PO4 reading. I would just keep cleaning, watch how much you feed, and ride it out.

Its also heavy on the left side only so maybe those rocks are leaching