Possible causes for sudden massive green hair algae bloom.

[sixline]

I've got a 100 gallon mixed reef. Stocked very lightly with fish (a pair of false percala, a royal gramma, a trio of cardinals, engineer goby, and starry blenny). Mostly soft corals, a few LPS and a monti cap. All corals are more of less healthy. Sand bed is 2-4". The engineer goby moves the sand around on ocassion.

I use RODI water that shows 0 TDS and change about 5 gallons a week. I rarely test, and usually only salinity, calc and alk. Pretty stable at 1.024, 350ppm Ca and 7.0dKH. I feed pretty lightly due to the low number of fish. Lighting is a pair of Hydra Twentysix HD LEDs.

I've always had a bit of algae, and cleaned it out during water changes. Since there was so little, I only removed it every second or third water change.

It's been a few years since I added or changed anything in the tank. No new corals, no fish coming or going, no new equipment, no changes to my regimen for caring for the tank. I know it's rare in the reefing hobby, but I decided I liked the tank the way it was and decided to not add anything for a while to limit the risk of pests. So far, so good.

However, a couple of months ago, the green hair algae has been going crazy. One of the worst algae blooms I've seen. Just seemingly out of nowhere.

Any ideas on what the cause might be and how I can go about trying to stop it?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Do you have any pictures? What about your other parameters, how are those? Any changes to lighting or just general changes to your tank recently?

 

[twentyleagues]

If you are not testing nitrate and phos id start there. Build up over time with out any real method of export. 5g wc on 100g system wont do much. Do you have a refugium? Protein skimmer functioning correctly? Air hoses and venturi clean?

 

[sixline]

If you are not testing nitrate and phos id start there. Build up over time with out any real method of export. 5g wc on 100g system wont do much. Do you have a refugium? Protein skimmer functioning correctly? Air hoses and venturi clean?

No refugium ( I wish but no room). Protein skimmer is working very well.

I'll have to get test kits of nitrate and phos and see.

 

[twentyleagues]

No refugium ( I wish but no room). Protein skimmer is working very well.

I'll have to get test kits of nitrate and phos and see.

ill bet (obviously) that you are at a level that your corals are not able to use so algae uses it. Im not sure how much you get from feeding per day but say its 1ppm in 7 days thats 7ppm a month 28ppm and so on. Weekly you do a 5% wc so we can say 6ppm worth of nitrate is removed. Net is 1 ppm not removed weekly. No idea how much corals you have and at what percent the corals use. It may be as high as .99ppm still leaves .01 ppm after a couple years you get a slow build up. Im making numbers up but you get the idea.

 

[sixline]

Im making numbers up but you get the idea.

Yes, I definitely get the idea. It makes sense and seems like it might be a good explanation for the algae bloom.

I'm investigoogling a bit and reading about cheatoreactors, GFO and other phosphate management strategies. Thanks!

 

[heathermoor]

Yes, I definitely get the idea. It makes sense and seems like it might be a good explanation for the algae bloom.

I'm investigoogling a bit and reading about cheatoreactors, GFO and other phosphate management strategies. Thanks!

I've just done a separate thread on what happened in my nano tank when I added additional waste removal - purigen in my case but I expect there are others. Hair algae seems to be dying out now. It could be just co incidence but thats whats been happening to me.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I've got a 100 gallon mixed reef. Stocked very lightly with fish (a pair of false percala, a royal gramma, a trio of cardinals, engineer goby, and starry blenny). Mostly soft corals, a few LPS and a monti cap. All corals are more of less healthy. Sand bed is 2-4". The engineer goby moves the sand around on ocassion.

I use RODI water that shows 0 TDS and change about 5 gallons a week. I rarely test, and usually only salinity, calc and alk. Pretty stable at 1.024, 350ppm Ca and 7.0dKH. I feed pretty lightly due to the low number of fish. Lighting is a pair of Hydra Twentysix HD LEDs.

I've always had a bit of algae, and cleaned it out during water changes. Since there was so little, I only removed it every second or third water change.

It's been a few years since I added or changed anything in the tank. No new corals, no fish coming or going, no new equipment, no changes to my regimen for caring for the tank. I know it's rare in the reefing hobby, but I decided I liked the tank the way it was and decided to not add anything for a while to limit the risk of pests. So far, so good.

However, a couple of months ago, the green hair algae has been going crazy. One of the worst algae blooms I've seen. Just seemingly out of nowhere.

Any ideas on what the cause might be and how I can go about trying to stop it?

This time of the year, its often having a tank at or near a window as UV is at its strongest and will penetrate shades-blinds-curtains and cause havoc with algae growth. I generally recommend placing a sheet of black construction paper from walmart on the side of tank that faces the window and you will see a drastic reduction.
Any pics you can provide under white lighting will help with seeing the amount you are referring to. Also reduction of white intensity and amount of hours of white light help as well as a couple of pencil urchins, and even fighting conchs