How to grow hair algae?

[Treefer32]

This is something that I never thought I would ask... In my 4 years of running my 340 gallon display and 75 gallon sump, I never thought I would ask why can't I grow hair algae? My Algae turf scrubber from turbo aquatics has grown hair algae every 10 days like clock work. The last month or so, it's slowed down algae production to the point that I cleaned the screen 10 days ago and there's hardly any growth on the screen right now. I run the lights 23 hours and 30 minutes a day on the scrubber at max. Always have.

I thought since the tank was looking clean and the scrubber not growing hair algae that nutrients were down finally. I had backed off vodka dosing some.. And phosphates skyrocketed from .09 to .5 in the last week and nitrates went from 15 to 41 in the last week. I thought the scrubber should be picking up some of that, but it's not.

Alk was low at 7.6 dkh. So, slowly increasing my alk dosing. I'm dosing red sea A, B, C, D trace elements weekly. Dosing more iodine than others since that was not present in the icp test I did recently.

Otherwise, why wouldn't the ATS be filling in with such high nutrients. It's a strange issue that hasn't happened in 4 years. It has sped up and slowed down production at times, but a few days, not by two - three weeks. There's no hair algae growing in the display either. There was some on one of my gyres, but it has since died.


The question is strange.... With such high nutrients, why can't I grow hair algae?

 

[Dburr1014]

This is something that I never thought I would ask... In my 4 years of running my 340 gallon display and 75 gallon sump, I never thought I would ask why can't I grow hair algae? My Algae turf scrubber from turbo aquatics has grown hair algae every 10 days like clock work. The last month or so, it's slowed down algae production to the point that I cleaned the screen 10 days ago and there's hardly any growth on the screen right now. I run the lights 23 hours and 30 minutes a day on the scrubber at max. Always have.

I thought since the tank was looking clean and the scrubber not growing hair algae that nutrients were down finally. I had backed off vodka dosing some.. And phosphates skyrocketed from .09 to .5 in the last week and nitrates went from 15 to 41 in the last week. I thought the scrubber should be picking up some of that, but it's not.

Alk was low at 7.6 dkh. So, slowly increasing my alk dosing. I'm dosing red sea A, B, C, D trace elements weekly. Dosing more iodine than others since that was not present in the icp test I did recently.

Otherwise, why wouldn't the ATS be filling in with such high nutrients. It's a strange issue that hasn't happened in 4 years. It has sped up and slowed down production at times, but a few days, not by two - three weeks. There's no hair algae growing in the display either. There was some on one of my gyres, but it has since died.


The question is strange.... With such high nutrients, why can't I grow hair algae?

Do you know how much iron you have?
Or have you ever dosed iron?

[Effects of iron on the algae growth and microcystin synthesis: a review] - PubMed

Iron, as one of the essential mineral elements for algae growth, plays an extremely important role in the physiological processes such as plant photosynthesis, respiration, nitrogen fixation, protein and nucleic acid synthesis. In view of the fact that iron in different forms could be absorbed...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Treefer32]

Yes, I was dosing all for reef which contains iron, however all for reef, did not do well for my corals. I switched back to red Sea, A, B, C, D trace elements, which one of the bottles is dedicated to Iron. My iron levels when I was transitioning 10/13 was 5 Ug/l per ICP Test: https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/icp-oes/115183

Iodine was low, but not critical, and manganese was 0 which, I buy separate bottles of manganese to dose as well, so the fact that was 0 was surprising.

I can dose more iron to see if that helps it grow if that's a critical element, which it looks like it is.

 

[SPS2020]

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth! LOL

Next, you'll be wanting to grow bubble algae!

 

[Treefer32]

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth! LOL

Next, you'll be wanting to grow bubble algae!

If the bubble algae grew in the algae turf scrubber and was more efficient at removing nutrients than hair algae. I would be totally o.k. with this. I'm curious if anyone has measured nutrient export from bubble algae vs. Hair algae! Ha!

I need something to grow in the scrubber that removes nutrients. I don't care what it is at this point.

And since using the scrubber, I've never had nuissance algae in the display. Or whatever starts to grow, my fish take care of. However, I have film algae on the glass within 24 hours of scraping the glass. That part is annoying!

 

[Dan_P]

This is something that I never thought I would ask... In my 4 years of running my 340 gallon display and 75 gallon sump, I never thought I would ask why can't I grow hair algae? My Algae turf scrubber from turbo aquatics has grown hair algae every 10 days like clock work. The last month or so, it's slowed down algae production to the point that I cleaned the screen 10 days ago and there's hardly any growth on the screen right now. I run the lights 23 hours and 30 minutes a day on the scrubber at max. Always have.

I thought since the tank was looking clean and the scrubber not growing hair algae that nutrients were down finally. I had backed off vodka dosing some.. And phosphates skyrocketed from .09 to .5 in the last week and nitrates went from 15 to 41 in the last week. I thought the scrubber should be picking up some of that, but it's not.

Alk was low at 7.6 dkh. So, slowly increasing my alk dosing. I'm dosing red sea A, B, C, D trace elements weekly. Dosing more iodine than others since that was not present in the icp test I did recently.

Otherwise, why wouldn't the ATS be filling in with such high nutrients. It's a strange issue that hasn't happened in 4 years. It has sped up and slowed down production at times, but a few days, not by two - three weeks. There's no hair algae growing in the display either. There was some on one of my gyres, but it has since died.


The question is strange.... With such high nutrients, why can't I grow hair algae?

How long have you been using the algae scrubber and dosing vodka? I am wondering if you have finally created a GHA unfriendly ecosystem, whatever that means.

 

[Treefer32]

How long have you been using the algae scrubber and dosing vodka? I am wondering if you have finally created a GHA unfriendly ecosystem, whatever that means.

That's funny... "An unfriendly algae ecosystem" every aquarists dream. That's an interesting thought if it's possible to achieve with high nutrients. Vodka dosing is probably going on a year now. I had actually reduced my vodka dosing significantly from 40 ml per day down to 20 ml per day since the scrubber was doing well and things were finally managed. I thought I could reduce dosing. Maybe I could have just not by that much.

 

[taricha]

A common answer given is that Fe / trace elements are depleted. They are needed by algae too. And if the system keeps high N + P and carbon doses, it's quite possible that Fe or some other trace element becomes limiting.

Something like Chaeto-grow would be an additive that you could use to test this idea. This answer might be too simple, but it seems as plausible to me as anything else.

 

[Dan_P]

A common answer given is that Fe / trace elements are depleted. They are needed by algae too. And if the system keeps high N + P and carbon doses, it's quite possible that Fe or some other trace element becomes limiting.

Something like Chaeto-grow would be an additive that you could use to test this idea. This answer might be too simple, but it seems as plausible to me as anything else.

Yes, of course! Trace element depletion or maybe just iron as you say. That is the answer.

 

[Treefer32]

I looked at Chaeto grow and compared the elements in Chaeto grow to my last ICP test and almsot every one of the trace elements in Chaeto grow are what my ICP test shows as being low or completely missing back in October. . .

I'm dosing iron, iodine, potassium + and other trace elements from the Red Sea elements in heavier doses now. But, I'm going to order Chaeto grow as that has more of what is needed.

Thank you all for confirming my suspicions but I needed validation! Lol!


I'll report on what I discover over the next two weeks with increased dosing.

 

[Waters]

Well if you can figure out what is limiting you from growing GHA, you might be on your way to becoming a millionaire

 

[olonmv]

I’ve read that elevated magnesium stunts GHA growth.

 

[Waters]

I am pretty sure GHA grows on Mars.

 

[Dburr1014]

I’ve read that elevated magnesium stunts GHA growth.

My mag is 1560 and has no problem growing HA.

 

[olonmv]

My mag is 1560 and has no problem growing HA.

I’ve rocked those levels also and had GHA. I’m not sure if mag is op’s issue, I’m just spitballing as I didn’t see magnesium mentioned or I may have missed it.

 

[Garf]

This is something that I never thought I would ask... In my 4 years of running my 340 gallon display and 75 gallon sump, I never thought I would ask why can't I grow hair algae? My Algae turf scrubber from turbo aquatics has grown hair algae every 10 days like clock work. The last month or so, it's slowed down algae production to the point that I cleaned the screen 10 days ago and there's hardly any growth on the screen right now. I run the lights 23 hours and 30 minutes a day on the scrubber at max. Always have.

I thought since the tank was looking clean and the scrubber not growing hair algae that nutrients were down finally. I had backed off vodka dosing some.. And phosphates skyrocketed from .09 to .5 in the last week and nitrates went from 15 to 41 in the last week. I thought the scrubber should be picking up some of that, but it's not.

Alk was low at 7.6 dkh. So, slowly increasing my alk dosing. I'm dosing red sea A, B, C, D trace elements weekly. Dosing more iodine than others since that was not present in the icp test I did recently.

Otherwise, why wouldn't the ATS be filling in with such high nutrients. It's a strange issue that hasn't happened in 4 years. It has sped up and slowed down production at times, but a few days, not by two - three weeks. There's no hair algae growing in the display either. There was some on one of my gyres, but it has since died.


The question is strange.... With such high nutrients, why can't I grow hair algae?

Is this the original scrubber screen? 4 years old? Mine was paper thin after the scraping every week or so for 2 years.

 

[Treefer32]

Is this the original scrubber screen? 4 years old? Mine was paper thin after the scraping every week or so for 2 years.

No, Ive replaced it once about 18 months ago. It was getting pretty brittle.

 

[Garf]

No, Ive replaced it once about 18 months ago. It was getting pretty brittle.

Did you rough it up plenty?

 

[Treefer32]

Did you rough it up plenty?

Great question! I got an "official" replacement from @Turbo's Aquatics with the hardened mortar on it to allow algae to take hold. And under the mortar the screen is roughed up. I also smeared a bunch of the healthy green hair algae from the old screen and zip tied the two screens together for a couple weeks. Within 2 weeks I had a full fresh batch of hair algae, softball sized balls of it. I just wish it was more efficient. I still had phosphates and nitrates testing high despite removing that much nutrients weekly. I do have 20 fish and many of them over 7-8". I don't get it though, the LFS has a 220 gallon display with 40 fish in it routinely. despite many of them smaller than my smallest fish. But, maybe 20 is my limit. Tank seems so empty with just 20 fish. heh.

 

[Treefer32]

Quick update as my scrubber took off in the last 3 days. I dosed 50 ml (twice my normal dose) twice of Red Sea A, B, C, D - Iron+, Iodine, Potassium + and Bio elements for coral colors.

The scrubber is growing algae everywhere now.. LOL It's growing off the acrylic as well as the screen. Parts of it are so full I had to turnt he water flow to it down. . . I also upped my vodka dosing by 10 ml per day.

Results:

Nitrates down to 31 (were 45 the prior week)
Phosphates down to .01 - Were .2 prior week.

denitrification is probably phosphate limited, but quite honestly, nitrates of 30 are tolerable to me. I'd prefer 10-20 vs. 30. A little more room for error, but it's trending the right direction. So, I definitely think it's trace element depletion. I added 3 larger corals Saturday and so far they appear to be extremely happy with my water. So, Fingers crossed!