Help with Aggressive Hair Algae!

[Morpheosz]

Hey gang,

My son's 1 year old 20 gallon tank has come under attack in the last 2 months by some really aggressive hair algae that none of his CUC seems to want to eat (including 2 golf ball size turbos that mowed through hair algae in my other tank's sump). It grows really fast and clogged the weir when we were out of town for a few days leading to a small flood I'm curious if this is recognizable by anyone and if there is a recommended course of action?

When I first tested, his PO4 was around 0.1 and NO3 around 10. In an effort to slow or starve it out, he's since done a few bigger water changes and added ChemiPure blue and subsequently his PO4 bottomed out (I know not great) and his NO3 are around 6-7. However, it still seems to be growing rapidly. He's conservative on feeding as well especially since this began. We are at a loss for what is fueling its growth. It also seems to grow thick and long and not on the sand or glass, mostly on the rocks or the plastic bits (or the poor snail who now has shaggy hair).

His tank was virtually algae free for a year and he didn't really change anything significant other than maybe adding a few frags over the past few months. Perhaps this was introduced and liked the conditions?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!!

 

[Rtaylor]

Could get a rock urchin to help out.

 

[rsumner]

I agree with @Rtaylor. An urchin would have that cleaned up in no time assuming you don't have any persistent sources fueling the algae.

Alternatively, get the tweezers and toothbrush out.

Under either scenario, I would get a hang-on-the-back UV sterilizer capable of supplying 30,000 uw/cm2 and run that for a few weeks during removal to kill any spores in the water column.

 

[SPS2020]

Start pulling it manually as a first start. Not many critters will touch it that long. You also need to identify the root cause (PO4, NO3, etc.) and take corrective measures or it will just come back. Do some searches here on R2R, there are many articles for advice.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I would be adding phosphates and nopox or similar 0.5 ml per 25 gallons of tank volume at night should help reduce growth.
Then manually removal of larger strands and cuc

 

[MECOMI]

I am getting a bit of PTSD as i have been dealing with this style of aggressive algae for some time. I dont love giving advise but i do want to provide a recommendation as my original cause was surprising. I ran a higher nutrient system and never had issues until a little after the year mark.

My main cause was my Alkalinity/Calcium/Magnesium bottoming out. I did not test in the early days of my reef adventure, and i did not realize these were the culprit for way to long. Since those were so low it started to cause some death that was not visible at first, fueling the growth of this algae, and eventually over running the coral till things crashed all together. The algae i had was very strong at the base too making removal difficult.

So my recommendation is testing Alkalinity to see if it is in line (increasing back to optimal levels if needed), manual removal by hand to limit how much gets in the water column, lower nutrients to avoid letting it really find its footing, and a possible black out to reduce its strength.

I hope this helps in some way, good luck!

B-Kind

 

[Pkunk35]

My 2cents,
For sure water change and brush/siphon/manually remove as much as possible. Use a filter sock to recycle tank water while siphoning if you need to, in order to remove more algae without changing even more water (upsetting nutrient balance even more)

add phosphate daily until it is not bottomed out anymore.

doing the above several times while keeping nutrient balanced should defeat it. Additionally I think using microbacter 7 LIGHTLY while testing for phos/nitrate will also help with green algae.

come back here if it don’t work! But it should.

 

[Morpheosz]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the thoughts. This one has been a head scratcher due to nutrient levels being pretty modest. Will try raising the alk a bit as it is on the low side of normal (7.2) and will do some more aggressive removal and try an urchin or maybe sea hare. We did start dosing some microbacter as well but it didn't really seem to change anything because it doesn't seem to be an excess nutrient problem.

 

[sixty_reefer]

We did start dosing some microbacter as well but it didn't really seem to change anything because it doesn't seem to be an excess nutrient problem.

You have a issue due to low to zero nutrient, microbacter7 has heterotrophic bacteria and some nutrients in the bottle, because you don’t have phosphates bacteria can’t build tissue. If bacteria can’t build tissue they can’t multiply, if they can’t multiply they will go dormant and GHA will take over as they will be the next more effective organisms in your tank at utilising ammonia.
in this case the bloom in algae is due to low to zero phosphates.

 

[Morpheosz]

You have a issue due to low to zero nutrient, microbacter7 has heterotrophic bacteria and some nutrients in the bottle, because you don’t have phosphates bacteria can’t build tissue. If bacteria can’t build tissue they can’t multiply, if they can’t multiply they will go dormant and GHA will take over as they will be the next more effective organisms in your tank at utilising ammonia.
in this case the bloom in algae is due to low to zero phosphates.

I appreciate the thought, but there's a sequencing issue that I may not have articulated well in my original post. My phosphates were 0.1 PPM up until a week ago when we attempted to lower them to starve out the algae, only then did they bottom out after a bigger water change plus ChemiPure blue addition. We will let them level back out above 0, but that is a recent occurrence due to attempted treatment rather than the cause.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I appreciate the thought, but there's a sequencing issue that I may not have articulated well in my original post. My phosphates were 0.1 PPM up until a week ago when we attempted to lower them to starve out the algae, only then did they bottom out after a bigger water change plus ChemiPure blue addition. We will let them level back out above 0, but that is a recent occurrence due to attempted treatment rather than the cause.

ok

 

[Reefer Matt Verified Media Partner]

More often than not, I have seen byropsis causing this issue. Most people assume there is only one kind, that looks fern like. There are many types. After manually removing the large pieces, I suggest using reef flux, per the directions. It will take about 6 weeks to work.

 

[Morpheosz]

More often than not, I have seen byropsis causing this issue. Most people assume there is only one kind, that looks fern like. There are many types. After manually removing the large pieces, I suggest using reef flux, per the directions. It will take about 6 weeks to work.

That would explain no one eating it! I have some fluconazole that I was thinking of trying. Thanks for the perspective.

 

[MECOMI]

That would explain no one eating it! I have some fluconazole that I was thinking of trying. Thanks for the perspective.

Hey @Morpheosz just curious if you have made progress on the war with algae, Did the fluconazole work? I second that there is a good chance it is byropsis and am hoping things are improving in your tank.

 

[Morpheosz]

Hey @Morpheosz just curious if you have made progress on the war with algae, Did the fluconazole work? I second that there is a good chance it is byropsis and am hoping things are improving in your tank.

So we ended up gutting the tank, hosing everything down with H2O2, scrubbing with toothbrush, etc, and the tank looks great now. It was a huge pain in the **** but hopefully it was the reset needed. I don't think it was bryopsis, I've been battling that in my main tank for months. It's a much slower grower and much firmer consistency. This was very "fluffly" hair algae that largely siphoned right out. It had very little consistency to it. Also I treated with Fluconazole about 2 weeks before we gave in and did the reboot and it didn't do a thing (where in my main tank it always knocks it WAY back within 3-4 days.

I was going to take a current pic but the lights are out for the day. This is what it looked like when we were done and it still looks like this 10 days later except all the coral is back out and looking good. The H2O2 really wiped it out. I was pretty aggressive with it other than directly on the more sensitive corals. I did hose down the zoas and other polyps as well as the gsp as it was all covered in hair algae and it all popped back within a few days.

 

[Morpheosz]

Also we ended up doing about a 75% water change as that's just how much came out between siphoning the rocks, the sand, etc. Used the extracted water to rinse the rocks after squirting them with H2O2 and scrubbing them.

 

[Roatan Reef]

Phosguard. Matrix Carbon, clean with a toothbrush, water changes 10% every week. I went through a similar situation a few months ago, now we are Gucci!

 

[MECOMI]

Also we ended up doing about a 75% water change as that's just how much came out between siphoning the rocks, the sand, etc. Used the extracted water to rinse the rocks after squirting them with H2O2 and scrubbing them.

I am happy to hear this process worked out. The tank also looks very clean after its H2O2 bath. I have a mixture of bryopsis and hair algae that i have been dealing with but using H2O2 is the last extreme option on my list. It seems after all my other attempts this is the route i have to go ::sigh::

Out of curiosity did you take out all the rock at once or do it in stages? Any noticeable effects on the fish?

Thanks again,

B-Kind

 

[Morpheosz]

I am happy to hear this process worked out. The tank also looks very clean after its H2O2 bath. I have a mixture of bryopsis and hair algae that i have been dealing with but using H2O2 is the last extreme option on my list. It seems after all my other attempts this is the route i have to go ::sigh::

Out of curiosity did you take out all the rock at once or do it in stages? Any noticeable effects on the fish?

Thanks again,

B-Kind

I did it piece by piece, but all over the course of 1 session / roughly an hour. I just used a big rubbermaid bin to hold the rock / do the work and a 5 gal bucket of water from the tank to dip each rock to rinse. For the H2O2, I just used a wash bottle like this and mixed it about 50/50 and was pretty liberal in my application.

My son's livestock is all hardy stock, corals and fish all seem to have come through fine. He has a percula clown, damsel, and royal gramma for fish and a bunch of different zoas, GSP, candy cane, a couple acans, tree leather, small euphyllia. Much of it was grumpy for a day or two but within a week things were looking better than before because it was all getting suffocated out by the algae.

 

[MECOMI]

I did it piece by piece, but all over the course of 1 session / roughly an hour. I just used a big rubbermaid bin to hold the rock / do the work and a 5 gal bucket of water from the tank to dip each rock to rinse. For the H2O2, I just used a wash bottle like this and mixed it about 50/50 and was pretty liberal in my application.

My son's livestock is all hardy stock, corals and fish all seem to have come through fine. He has a percula clown, damsel, and royal gramma for fish and a bunch of different zoas, GSP, candy cane, a couple acans, tree leather, small euphyllia. Much of it was grumpy for a day or two but within a week things were looking better than before because it was all getting suffocated out by the algae.

Appreciate the detail, and it is awesome the livestock shook it off!

Have a good one,

B-Kind