Huge hair algae problem

[Phantom7]

Hello, I have 4 saltwater tanks, 2 of which are reefs, and those 2 have a extravagant hair algae problem. It’s to the point I’m cleaning the teeth of the weir almost every other day, otherwise the tanks will overflow (and have overflowed) because of the weirs getting plugged.

What can I do to get rid of it? I checked parameters and they’re not terrible. Nitrates we’re around 20, and nitrite/ammonia were 0.
Thank you

 

[sixty_reefer]

Have you got a phosphates test and pics also?

 

[Phantom7]

Have you got a phosphates test and pics also?

I do not have a phosphate test. I’ll take some updated pictures later today, just got woke up by my water alarm due to one of them overflowing.
Is there a specific one you recommend? I use Redsea for the tests I do have.

 

[exnisstech]

I do not have a phosphate test. I’ll take some updated pictures later today, just got woke up by my water alarm due to one of them overflowing.
Is there a specific one you recommend? I use Redsea for the tests I do have.

Hanna ultra low range for Phos and high range for nitrate seem to be the most popular choices and what I use.

 

[I never finish anythi]

If you have lots of hair algae you nitrate are higher than 20.

 

[exnisstech]

What do you have for a clean up crew?

 

[Morpheosz]

Hey there, this surely can be frustrating as we just battled an outbreak in my son's 20 gallon tank. He too had an overflow due to it clogging the weir while we were out of town a few days

Can you share more about your setup? Size of tanks, age of tanks, stocking, lighting, phosphate levels, what water do you use for water changes and top ups? Happy to offer some thoughts but could use more data to go on.

In my son's case, no amount of water changes and harvesting seemed to help and his PO4 and NO3 were both very acceptable. It seems that sometimes when it gets a foothold it can really hang on. We ultimately removed all his rock and corals and used a spray bottle with hydrogen peroxide and RO water along with a tooth brush. That melted it all instantly and that seems to be all it took to reset things as he's going on 3 months now with no issues (and no change to his regimen before the outbreak or after). Corals were a little grumpy but everything came through. He mostly has softies so nothing too exotic and his couple LPS we were pretty careful not to hose down, focusing more on the algae on their bases.

 

[Duffer]

nitrates are not the issue...phosphates are the issue...they are most likely high, even if the test shows differently...the gha is consuming them and feeding off of them..water changes will only take out whats in they water column as the bind to rock and sand...

manually remove as much as possible, clean up crew and lower the phosphates by gfo or other means like Phos E..

 

[sixty_reefer]

I do not have a phosphate test. I’ll take some updated pictures later today, just got woke up by my water alarm due to one of them overflowing.
Is there a specific one you recommend? I use Redsea for the tests I do have.

Most test are fine, you just want do ensure that they haven’t bottom out as that may be a limiting factor for some beneficial bacteria to grow.
I would also advice to siphon the sand bed and rock work as often as possible to reduce build up of organics and for the same reason change more often the filter floss or sock, if you have a roller filter maybe increase the speed a little.
Look at flow and verify if the uneaten food is getting trapped in the tank instead of being exported via mechanical filtration.
Evaluate your skimmer also, see invite working correctly and removing proteins efficiently.
The above are just to slow the growth, you may want to do a CUC check and add some more if needed.

 

[averagesteve]

What's your lighting like? I had an issue with GHA taking over everything. I did a bit of manual removal and reduced the amount of time my lights are on by 4 hours (was 11 hours, down to 7) and the GHA did not return.

 

[Phantom7]

Hanna ultra low range for Phos and high range for nitrate seem to be the most popular choices and what I use.

Thank you

What do you have for a clean up crew?

a lot of snails and some crabs. In one of the tanks, I have a tang and a fox face too.

Hey there, this surely can be frustrating as we just battled an outbreak in my son's 20 gallon tank. He too had an overflow due to it clogging the weir while we were out of town a few days

Can you share more about your setup? Size of tanks, age of tanks, stocking, lighting, phosphate levels, what water do you use for water changes and top ups? Happy to offer some thoughts but could use more data to go on.

In my son's case, no amount of water changes and harvesting seemed to help and his PO4 and NO3 were both very acceptable. It seems that sometimes when it gets a foothold it can really hang on. We ultimately removed all his rock and corals and used a spray bottle with hydrogen peroxide and RO water along with a tooth brush. That melted it all instantly and that seems to be all it took to reset things as he's going on 3 months now with no issues (and no change to his regimen before the outbreak or after). Corals were a little grumpy but everything came through. He mostly has softies so nothing too exotic and his couple LPS we were pretty careful not to hose down, focusing more on the algae on their bases.

Tank 1) 6ft 120, it’s probably around 4 years old, it has 3x viparspectra 165watt lights running 7 hours a day, and a grow light atop a Chaeto reactor running over night. I use RODI water for everything. The stock is) 2x percula clown fish, 1x foxface, 1x doctor tang, 5x yellow tail damsels, at the time of purchasing the cuc, I got 3 snails and 20 hermits. how many are kicking 4 years later I’m not entirely sure, could probably do with some more hermits for sure.

Tank 2) 75 gallon, I’ve had it for 2 years but was purchased as a whole running setup. It has 2x generic box lights running for 7 hours. Also uses rodi. Stocking is 2x oscellaris clowns, with a wrasse. There’s also a big starfish, but he hasn’t left his den in those 2 years (he’s alive and not stuck, idk what his issue is).

Both tanks also have some lps I believe it is, like kenya trees, mushrooms, and there’s a coral usually referred to as a nuisance because of how fast it spreads (but I quite like it). I believe the 75 has some zoas as well. (I’m quite inexperienced still, apologies for not knowing the names of everything)

my RODI system is a 7 stage, because my well water is crap even for drinking. I store it in a 55 gal barrel used previous for some mash crap that smells awful everytime you open the lid, but I was told so long as I cleaned it up and everything it should be fine.

Most test are fine, you just want do ensure that they haven’t bottom out as that may be a limiting factor for some beneficial bacteria to grow.
I would also advice to siphon the sand bed and rock work as often as possible to reduce build up of organics and for the same reason change more often the filter floss or sock, if you have a roller filter maybe increase the speed a little.
Look at flow and verify if the uneaten food is getting trapped in the tank instead of being exported via mechanical filtration.
Evaluate your skimmer also, see invite working correctly and removing proteins efficiently.
The above are just to slow the growth, you may want to do a CUC check and add some more if needed.

Their food 100% goes in their tiny mouths. i often feel like I could be under feeding because of how excited they get for food. On these two tanks, I actually don’t have a skimmer. 1) the sumps are too small and 2) at the time, I’d never used one and wasn’t sure if I needed it. I just had my first experience with a skimmer recently, which was terrible (I think I have past threads regarding it), so I’m still trying to learn how to use them.

do you have any recommendations for cuc?

Thank you all

 

[Phantom7]

Also unsure how relevant it is but I use instant ocean salt.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Their food 100% goes in their tiny mouths. i often feel like I could be under feeding because of how excited they get for food. On these two tanks, I actually don’t have a skimmer. 1) the sumps are too small and 2) at the time, I’d never used one and wasn’t sure if I needed it. I just had my first experience with a skimmer recently, which was terrible (I think I have past threads regarding it), so I’m still trying to learn how to use them.

do you have any recommendations for cuc?

Thank you all

As long as the fish are eating there will always be nutrients that can be used by algae and coral even if it’s only a little. Both will use the same nutrients to thrive in any system.

If your not confident with a protein skimmer you could look at roller filters or changing the mechanical filtration more often to aid the removal of organic from the water column before they have a chance to be broken down into nutrients that will aid the algae growth.
As a secondary means to remove those nutrients from your system you could also look into a algae bed to compete with the display algae for nutrients or even incorporate display macro algaes in the DT for the same function.
Regarding CUC I couldn’t advice you without knowing what type of algae you have and how long it is, for example no snail will touch large strains of the common GHA for that job you would do better with a sea hare and finish the job with snails, Most LFS will gladly accept the sea hare back for credit making it a good investment for the work they do.

 

[Phantom7]

As long as the fish are eating there will always be nutrients that can be used by algae and coral even if it’s only a little. Both will use the same nutrients to thrive in any system.

If your not confident with a protein skimmer you could look at roller filters or changing the mechanical filtration more often to aid the removal of organic from the water column before they have a chance to be broken down into nutrients that will aid the algae growth.
As a secondary means to remove those nutrients from your system you could also look into a algae bed to compete with the display algae for nutrients or even incorporate display macro algaes in the DT for the same function.
Regarding CUC I couldn’t advice you without knowing what type of algae you have and how long it is, for example no snail will touch large strains of the common GHA for that job you would do better with a sea hare and finish the job with snails, Most LFS will gladly accept the sea hare back for credit making it a good investment for the work they do.

I have a Chaeto reactor on the 125 trying to eat up the nutrients. I heard that’s an effective method to combat the algae. I’ll have to look into a seahare.
On the tanks I’m having issues with, I don’t really have the room in the sumps for a skimmer, and I feel like I’ve only heard bad things about hob skimmers.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

This sounds like possible contributing factor, as your water storage should not smell - you wrote:

55 gal barrel used previous for some mash crap that smells awful everytime you open the lid, but I was told so long as I cleaned it up and everything it should be fine.​

Bleach it and get it actually clean. Rinse it out well, and use declorinator if nervous afterwards.

Also, completely agree your tested water parameters are nowhere near what you think due to the explosive growth of algae which needs nitrate/phosphate/light for fuel.

Also there is no mention of room's lighting and/or proximity to windows. My gorgeous southern facing windows that used to fill this fish room with sunlight have not just wooden slat blinds but also solid barrier between each window and blind.

Finally, here is my magic algae scrubber that during water changes, I lift out each rock, scrub rock out of the water (so algae actually all leaves tank), rinse rock with water that was getting thrown away anyhow and then rock returned. My flexible scrubber is made in part from actual scrub brush from home improvement store, so it has that awesome stiffness, but to get into rock crevices, bristles are cut off brush and stuffed into bit of spare tube, then bead of superglue run around outside edge to hold in bristles:

Yes, it you think it seems more bristles taken than you see used, you are correct. You can wear out scrub brush bristles if you scrub often enough, and I've lost count of how many built though each lasts for months.

 

[Phantom7]

This sounds like possible contributing factor, as your water storage should not smell - you wrote:

55 gal barrel used previous for some mash crap that smells awful everytime you open the lid, but I was told so long as I cleaned it up and everything it should be fine.​

Bleach it and get it actually clean. Rinse it out well, and use declorinator if nervous afterwards.

Also, completely agree your tested water parameters are nowhere near what you think due to the explosive growth of algae which needs nitrate/phosphate/light for fuel.

Also there is no mention of room's lighting and/or proximity to windows. My gorgeous southern facing windows that used to fill this fish room with sunlight have not just wooden slat blinds but also solid barrier between each window and blind.

Finally, here is my magic algae scrubber that during water changes, I lift out each rock, scrub rock out of the water (so algae actually all leaves tank), rinse rock with water that was getting thrown away anyhow and then rock returned. My flexible scrubber is made in part from actual scrub brush from home improvement store, so it has that awesome stiffness, but to get into rock crevices, bristles are cut off brush and stuffed into bit of spare tube, then bead of superglue run around outside edge to hold in bristles:

Yes, it you think it seems more bristles taken than you see used, you are correct. You can wear out scrub brush bristles if you scrub often enough, and I've lost count of how many built though each lasts for months.

I’m getting a phosphate test kit- the barrel I used a couple gallons of bleach and scrubbed the hell out of it when I first got it. I just figured the previous contents leeched into the plastic.
The 120 is by our front door that doesn’t get a whole lot of sunlight, and the 75 is in our ‘dining room’ far away from windows.

 

[Phantom7]

I’m getting a phosphate test kit- the barrel I used a couple gallons of bleach and scrubbed the hell out of it when I first got it. I just figured the previous contents leeched into the plastic.
The 120 is by our front door that doesn’t get a whole lot of sunlight, and the 75 is in our ‘dining room’ far away from windows.

Finally got a Hanna checker phosphate tester. It reads .08 on the 120. Is this good or bad?

 

[averagesteve]

Finally got a Hanna checker phosphate tester. It reads .08 on the 120. Is this good or bad?

I feel like it's a tiny bit high at 0.08, but not really terrible.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Finally got a Hanna checker phosphate tester. It reads .08 on the 120. Is this good or bad?

It doesn’t make any difference really, there isn’t a concentration of phosphates that is more desired over another by the algae or coral, having 0.01 or 1.9 has no different effect on the algae growth. All it tells you is that you have a certain concentration of po4 available in your system. Same for nitrates having a residual of 5ppm or 100ppm won’t make the algae grow faster or slower.

 

[BirdFish5000]

I had a lot of hair algae problems. I got a algae turf scrubber, and two months in my hair algae problem has dramatically improved.