Unusual hair algae issue

[RazorD]

so i had a bad hair algae issue in my old tank. I ended up beating it with a ton of water changes, scrubbing rocks and treating with fluconazole. A few weeks later I upgraded tanks and added some additional new rock. I’m a month or so into the new tank and now hair algae is growing again but only on the old rocks.

Could there be some sort of growth in these rocks I need to resolve?

 

[Brad Miller]

If you tell us more about how old the tank is, lighting, parameters, etc... we can. Enter answer this for you

 

[RazorD]

Sorry. Old tank was a 55g sumpless tank with a hob skimmer. I didn’t see the algae issue until it was about 2 years old and chalked it up to being neglectful over the summer without frequent water changes. Lights were LED and I had poor flow because the power heads were way overdue to be cleaned.

New tank is a 170 with a sump, growing chaeto, great flow (about 5 weeks set up- no real cycle though using new sand, life rock, my old rock, as much old water as possible, and added bottled bacteria). I have been feeding a little heavy lately to make sure fish aren’t being aggressive as I get ready to add more. I can post specific parameters later, but they’ve been in the correct range. The fact that it’s only growing on the old rock is why I’m starting to think it was some sort of fungus on them. Not sure though. Just ordered more flux and will try that next week.

 

[Brad Miller]

If you used the old water, added new fresh (rodi I hope) and used the old rock while also adding new rock.....
Maybe your new setup is battling old algae issues, plus some new tank cycling going on.

If that the case, I would try to treat this naturally and not with chemicals.

Pics under full white lights would help too.

 

[RazorD]

Thanks! It could be battling an old algae issue, but it was resolved (at least visually) before I upgraded tanks.

If it was new tank issue, wouldn’t it be everywhere? Not just old rocks?

(Yes, RODI water used)

 

[RazorD]

Here’s some photos for reference: