My first battle with a hair algae explosion.

[Knight_Solaire01]

Hello everyone.

Recently I added a purple gorgonian frag with what I thought was a small itty bitty clump of dead algae on it to my tank. "No big deal". Well I could not be further from the truth. This coupled with some uneaten mysis shrimp lead to an amonia spike. Several water changes later I have zero amonia and have turned down my red and white light, but I still have a lot of hair algae. I am gently brushing my live rock, monties, and zoanthids when I do a water change, and I even got a lawnmower blenny the other day. However I feel like I could be doing more. Is there any solution I could make use of to try to conquer this explosion within a week? I really do fear for my corals who as of right now only the soft gorgonians are happy. What else can I do?

P.S. on the bright side I am gaining a lot of experience of what to do and not to do for newcomers to salt water tanks.

 

[brandon429]

post tank pics curious to see layout and other details

the most important param to know about your tank regarding algae control is actually how many gallons of water it holds, not the usual stuff. past a certain breakpoint, best to use the usual stuff and hopefully fix it by august.

but if below a certain threshold, fixed by Sunday, that much of a difference, based on volume alone

 

[andrewey]

A picture of your hair algae might help determine how much you're dealing with. Have you measured your nitrate and/or phosphate levels recently?

I'm glad to hear you started with manual removal in tandem with your water changes- that's one of the best places to start! Likely your nutrient levels are elevated, so getting those back down will be paramount in solving the problem long term, otherwise you risk bouncing from one bandaid to another. Sounds like you're on the right track!

 

[720 Reefer]

Just a bandaid fix to start, but try fluconazole (Flux RX). Works great for GHA. Then obviously keep nutrients under control.

 

[Knight_Solaire01]

post tank pics curious to see layout and other details

the most important param to know about your tank regarding algae control is actually how many gallons of water it holds, not the usual stuff. past a certain breakpoint, best to use the usual stuff and hopefully fix it by august.

but if below a certain threshold, fixed by Sunday, that much of a difference, based on volume alone

I am rather embarrassed that It got that bad. To be honest I didn't know I had a problem until it was this bad. Kinda like if you have an outbreak of fleas in a house with a lot of cats and dogs. I am thinking about getting a long pair of gloves and a algae siphon.

 

[Knight_Solaire01]

Another thing I am considering is another round of coral tip while doing water changes to help the corals.

 

[Knight_Solaire01]

To be honest I am very disappointed that I let it get this bad. But now that it is this bad I need to step it up or else I think I will lose all of my zoanthids, GSPs, and montiporas.

 

[brandon429]

need to know how many gallons, this is why:

our option is special, it takes about two days.

 

[Knight_Solaire01]

It is a 32 gallon biocube.

 

[brandon429]

so was that one above/a ~32 from Seabass at nano reef.com

you for sure have the sunday option and nothing will beat it.

if you use any dosers or chems to kill the algae, you have the prior detritus loading in the tank, plus new dead algae, plus coming detritus loading. You will age your tank fourfold without the benefit of seeing it age if you kill the algae in a nano internally.

we take nanos apart to clean them from bottom to top, thats why Seabas's setup above took two days to turn around, and was detritus free in the end that way cyano isn't the next full invasion by september.

our way is more work than dumping in a solution, but it will also de-age your tank and keep it in the correct waste balance vs boost waste and overly age the tank.

so, wanna get elbow deep in a rip clean or kick the can down the road

a premium way to keep disease at bay for uber sensitive horses is to keep the system clean, free of eutrophic conditions, and of strong ORP rating, and our method attains that, by Sunday.

you'd clean the tank using our surgical procedure, and put it all back re acclimated and skip cycle like new. some of that is hitching macro you want to keep, we need to be targeting in our approach and keep some vs broadcast attack all via the water. Your corals and gorg and fish have done no wrong.

 

[Knight_Solaire01]

so was that one above/a ~32 from Seabass at nano reef.com

you for sure have the sunday option and nothing will beat it.

if you use any dosers or chems to kill the algae, you have the prior detritus loading in the tank, plus new dead algae, plus coming detritus loading. You will age your tank fourfold without the benefit of seeing it age if you kill the algae in a nano internally.

we take nanos apart to clean them from bottom to top, thats why Seabas's setup above took two days to turn around, and was detritus free in the end that way cyano isn't the next full invasion by september.

our way is more work than dumping in a solution, but it will also de-age your tank and keep it in the correct waste balance vs boost waste and overly age the tank.

so, wanna get elbow deep in a rip clean or kick the can down the road

a premium way to keep disease at bay for uber sensitive horses is to keep the system clean, free of eutrophic conditions, and of strong ORP rating, and our method attains that, by Sunday.

you'd clean the tank using our surgical procedure, and put it all back re acclimated and skip cycle like new. some of that is hitching macro you want to keep, we need to be targeting in our approach and keep some vs broadcast attack all via the water. Your corals and gorg and fish have done no wrong.

It is from Coralife and I got in a store instead of online.

 

[brandon429]

which method do you want to do to fix the tank

doser vs thorough all in one pass clean

its not a question of safety; we have about 500 rip cleans on file they always work. its whatever you have in mind for the long term detritus forecasting in the system. Everybody's keen on attacking the cause when dealing in GHA, we sure do.

 

[Knight_Solaire01]

which method do you want to do to fix the tank

doser vs thorough all in one pass clean

Which one is the most cost effective? I am currently working on a tight budget.

 

[andrewey]

I am rather embarrassed that It got that bad. To be honest I didn't know I had a problem until it was this bad. Kinda like if you have an outbreak of fleas in a house with a lot of cats and dogs. I am thinking about getting a long pair of gloves and a algae siphon.

I wouldn't be so hard on yourself! It's really not that bad and shouldn't be too hard to remedy. Beautiful horse by the way!

I'd skip the coral dip at this point and focus on manual removal first and foremost. You may have to repeat the manual removal several times, but that's perfectly normal and to be expected I'd try and remove as much as you can on your first pass and measure your nitrates/phosphates. The values may be misleading at first as much is currently in the algae, but continued testing will reveal the real levels in the tank. Between getting your nutrients under control and manual removal every few days/week, you should be back on track. I'd avoid any really extreme options given your ponies and how sensitive they are to change. Just remember, it took weeks/months to get to this point- it's ok if it takes longer than a day or two to get back to the tank that made you happy. Plus, you'll get to practice consistent good husbandry so it doesn't get to this point again

 

[brandon429]

to clean your system our way you need a bucket to rinse the sand in, 75 cent bottle of peroxide for rock detailing when outside the tank, and 32 gallons of new water not full of rotten algae contaminants/irritants to fish and coral.

for the doser, 20 bucks is the sole purchase, and then all the stuff in september to offset cyano

our way isn't for the partially committed, if you aren't already sold on tank deep cleans dont choose it, do the doser loop its far less commit

 

[Cell]

I'd recommend Vibrant or Brandon's rip clean. With Vibrant and that much algae, you will have to aggressively clean + water changes anyway to avoid nutrient build up from the dying algae so while Vibrant may seem easier and less intensive at first, it might end up being more work overall.