Why All The Hair Algae?

Mushroom Boy · Nov 4, 2015

Hello,

I'm new to the forum, but not to reefs. I've been out of the hobby for a couple of years and am just now getting back into it. I have a 29 gallon BioCube that has been up and running for about 3 months (I understand it’s still VERY new), but I’m a bit puzzled as to why I’m getting such a large growth of what appears to be brown hair algae. My parameters are as follows (new Red Sea test kits) :

80 degrees (F) +- .5
1.026 (Salinity salt mix)
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrate
7.7 dKH
420 Ca
8.2 pH
.01 PO4
1440 Mg
My RO reads 1 on my TDS meter

I have a tail spot blenny that I feed every other day (flake) and a CUC from reefcleaners.org. I use BRS two part to maintain parameters and do monthly 5 gallon water changes. I have LED lighting that is on ~ 9 hours / day. Tunze 9002 skimmer, and I have chaeto growing in my media basket that I harvest at water change time. I feel I have adequate flow in the tank and the algae seems to be growing most where the flow is highest. I also run carbon in my media basket.

The rock that I bought (roughly 30 pounds) was from someone moving and tearing down their tank and it came with Heliopora, some sort of acropora and various zooanthids so I’m inclined to maintain the lighting through all of this. The rock came from a successful aquarium and had no sign of hair algae when I bought it.

Any ideas what I could try to help beat this algae, or should I just be (more) patient and let it run its course? Thanks for the help!

twilliard · Nov 4, 2015

It may be your po4
Manual removal is a good choice but if your able to take the rock out and use peroxide it will kill it.

twilliard · Nov 4, 2015

@brandon429

ReefMadScientist · Nov 4, 2015

Since it is a Biocube, I would run a media bag with GFO. What I think is happening is you have more PO4 in your tank BUT the GHA is eating is up before you are able to accurately see it, hence the .01 reading.

Along with manual removal, stop using GFO once you see the GHA gone.

Mushroom Boy · Nov 4, 2015

Crud, I just re-read my post and realize I neglected to indicate that I am running PhosGuard in a media bag. Is PhosGuard GFO, and/or does it serve the same purpose?

Peroxide the rocks, or just target the algae? I'm hoping to not remove the rocks from the tank.

Thanks you two!

twilliard · Nov 4, 2015

Mushroom Boy said:
Crud, I just re-read my post and realize I neglected to indicate that I am running PhosGuard in a media bag. Is PhosGuard GFO, and/or does it serve the same purpose?

Peroxide the rocks, or just target the algae? I'm hoping to not remove the rocks from the tank.

Thanks you two!

Just the algae

brandon429 · Nov 4, 2015

in my opinion its ok to do any of the factors considered, leave the algae and see what it does over time, or spot kill it out by end of week and then see what it does over time in the current settings, or change up the overall nutrients of the tank. the fact is, many tanks don't need to manage nutrients beyond normal work and bioload, they can spot kill algae occasionally and be free of it, my own tank hasn't had green hair algae in 4 yrs after I killed a few patches, nutrients unchanged.

some will have regrowth so quick the spot kill wasn't a long term solution and a nutrient sink needs to be addressed and removed, so either mode to choose is ok. the benefit of spot killing is that the algae w be gone before you find its causes first, and if it stays gone that's great. If it comes back slowly, then the nutrient changes you make will have less to remove since you took care of the initial mass independent of nutrients. if you want to run a peroxide method you can read about it first from others tanks, two peroxide threads are running well here at R2R, one up top about dino invasions shows how many people are just adding it to tanks without much ado, and a pest algae challenge thread in the macroalgae forum here is running tank examples for green hair algae as well

twilliard · Nov 4, 2015

brandon429 said:
in my opinion its ok to do any of the factors considered, leave the algae and see what it does over time, or spot kill it out by end of week and then see what it does over time in the current settings, or change up the overall nutrients of the tank. the fact is, many tanks don't need to manage nutrients beyond normal work and bioload, they can spot kill algae occasionally and be free of it, my own tank hasn't had green hair algae in 4 yrs after I killed a few patches, nutrients unchanged.

some will have regrowth so quick the spot kill wasn't a long term solution and a nutrient sink needs to be addressed and removed, so either mode to choose is ok. the benefit of spot killing is that the algae w be gone before you find its causes first, and if it stays gone that's great. If it comes back slowly, then the nutrient changes you make will have less to remove since you took care of the initial mass independent of nutrients. if you want to run a peroxide method you can read about it first from others tanks, two peroxide threads are running well here at R2R, one up top about dino invasions shows how many people are just adding it to tanks without much ado, and a pest algae challenge thread in the macroalgae forum here is running tank examples for green hair algae as well

Thank you Brandon!

mikesilverado8888 · Nov 4, 2015

Got any pics

john.m.cole3 · Nov 4, 2015

Brandon and Todd are good guys and help make this forum what it is. Thanks!

Mushroom Boy · Nov 4, 2015

Yeah, thanks you guys I really appreciate the help. I'll take a look at the threads you're talking about.

Here's a pic...

mikesilverado8888 · Nov 4, 2015

Mushroom Boy said:
Yeah, thanks you guys I really appreciate the help. I'll take a look at the threads you're talking about.

Here's a pic...

I had that it was my phosphate

mikesilverado8888 · Nov 4, 2015

Mushroom Boy said:
Yeah, thanks you guys I really appreciate the help. I'll take a look at the threads you're talking about.

Here's a pic...

And how's your clean up crew? I needed more

scottrik77802 · Nov 4, 2015

i had that at one point i removed the phosphates and kept my mag at least 1300 and it was gone within a week never to be seen again

Mushroom Boy · Nov 5, 2015

Thanks again. I tested my RO and it's putting out .08 ppm phosphate. So, I'm assuming with evaporation top up and BRS additions (mixed with the same RO), I'm supplying a steady stream of phosphate into the tank. Looks like it's time to add DI to my RO system. What do you guys thnk of this unit? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JZIDI2K?ref_=cm_cd_al_qh_dp_t