Removed some hair algae, now some fish are suffering

[Ezeric123]

So I've been battling hair algae for awhile, and I removed a bunch manually today. I also recently set up a GFO reactor to help this issue. But after removing the algae today, some of my chromis and clownfish are freaking out and gasping for air on the bottom of the tank. I possibly may have stirred up too much "junk" when manually removing the algae. Any thoughts or recommendations? I put an air stone in the main display, and I'm mixing up fresh saltwater now to do some water changes, but any additional recommendations would be welcome. Thanks!

 

[WIReefer]

I would point all powerheads towards the surface as well. Would test parameters and keep testing them to make sure something isn’t off

 

[Ezeric123]

I would point all powerheads towards the surface as well. Would test parameters and keep testing them to make sure something isn’t off

Good call, will do. Thanks!

 

[taricha]

Yikes. Low oxygen events are bad news.
Aerate as much as possible. Run skimmer, air stone whatever.

I can't see how whatever is stressing your fish could be related to pulling out GHA or stirring up gunk. Something else is going on.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

If you're doing manual removal, then it should be done right before you plan on doing a water change, the phosphate/nitate levels can get pretty high, since it was probably held in the algae itself and is now in the aquarium.
At least this is what I would do every time I did manual removal of GHA, keep attacking it, it'll be gone soon.

 

[Ezeric123]

Yikes. Low oxygen events are bad news.
Aerate as much as possible. Run skimmer, air stone whatever.

I can't see how whatever is stressing your fish could be related to pulling out GHA or stirring up gunk. Something else is going on.

Yeah, I dont understand it either. I've pulled GHA before with no issues, or I've moved rock work around and stirred tons of junk up without any issues. The only change I've recently made to the tank was adding a GFO reactor, which shouldn't do anything harmful like this. I've placed the air stone right in front of my power heads and my skimmer is going as well. Throw some more power heads in the tank right at the surface to aerate more?