NEED HELP. hair algae getting worse

[enemec1]

I just ordered a phosban reactor may not be in untill friday or monday. what can I do untill than? I put a bottle of phosban media in a filter bag and placed that in the sump so far.
any sugestion please?

[kar93]

Get a sea hare maybe

[danferd2002]

Remove as much manually as you can, and do frequent waterchanges.

[enemec1]

it is tough to remove because it is like fuz on the rocks I can scrape the glass and blow off the rocks with a baster thats about it.

[Fun $ Pit]

#1 rule that I had to learn myself as a new reef addict - Patience.

#2 rule that I had to learn - see rule #1!

I have recently been battleing a hair algae problem all over my rocks, snails, substrate, etc. I have been using DI filtered water, but obviously something is feeding the algae.

Here are the possibilities:

Phosphates in water, food, etc.
Light

With that much algae growing.. it's soaking up the phosphates so you won't get a detectable reading on any tests. I've seen so many posts about this and so much advice given but the one I don't get is "Add a fish or 100 snails!" Why add more poopin bioload that may or may not fix the problem. Why buy a fish you may or may not have purchased if it were not for the algae problem. My opinion from experience now is fix the water problem.

This is what's working for me:

1. Patience
2. Phos reactor - your on the right track here
3. Removed all fish from tank - had to anyways due to ich/brook
4. Removed rock and scrubbed and put back
5. All lights out for three days, actinics only on fourth day, back on schedule on fifth day.

Here are my results so far with that plan:

I am on day two of lights out and most of the remaining hair algae not removed from scrubbing is nearly wilted and dead, gone. I have been running my phos reactor for three weeks now and it seems the lights out is doing the trick finally. I plan to scrub the rocks one final time and perform a large water change. After that I plan to get my calc/alk and mag in check so coraline with grow on the rocks where the algae was.

Point of this long-winded post? Have patience and learn to sift through all the advice given before jumping into a quick fix. The end result will be amazing I imagine.

[sundancer]

Yes,cut the lights for min. 3 days. You will see a big improvement. The algae will die without light. A skimmer will take out the dead,floating algae. I don't have algae in my QT because I don't run lights there. You will still need to find the root of the problem,though.

[enemec1]

what about the corals I have sps, lps and softys

[demonsp]

The phosban reactor is a tool we use to control water condition.This may help but if its outta control it may do no good.
Whats your water readings?
Whats the water source?
Whats used for flow?
What type of substyrate and the condition of it?
Look here.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/sta...opmistakes.htm

[chrismunn]

how do you know its phosphates?

[Lucky-rc]

this is what I would do in case of a algae attack. I would cut the lights for three days. Hook up a phos. reactor. When you hook it up test the water coming out of its return. Set the flow on it so you get a -0- reading coming out of the reactors return line. The flow will look something like the pic. This will not need changed ever. Then test your tanks phos. You'll ba able to see the reading drop in just a few days. It also helps if you increase your flow and skimming. But your rock and substrate will absorb phos. This is where you'll need to be patient. As it leaches out the algae will use it. But in time it will run out and your algae as well. But to keep it gone you need to use ro/di water, test it regular. And be careful what you feed and how much. Take notes to help you determine how the phos is getting into your tank. This will be your permanent fix to the problem.
good luck.


Lucky

[Lucky-rc]

your corals will be ok for three days. Think of it as a cloudy rainy day on the reef.

[enemec1]

Whats your water readings? PH 8.2, 1.024, NO3-0, PO4-0, CA 450,
Whats the water source? RO/DI
Whats used for flow? CLOSED LOOP ON A DART PUMP, SUPER DART AS RETURN

lucky-rc;
If I am reading 0 on the PO3 how will there be any different comming out of the reactor when I get it set up?

[da1jewfish]

I had a 150 that at one point almost completly taken over with hair algae. I got rid of ALL of it within a month in a half.
In order of importance for the most part:

1. Cut all the lights off for 3 days (like people said earlier, its cLoudy days; corals will be just fine)
2. Phosban reactor
3. Add Algone and replace every 3-4 days
4. Scrubb what you can off with a tube cleaner brissle bruch
5. 15% WATER CHANGES every 5 days or so
6. Poly filter
7. Turbo snails in bulk-1 per gallon at least, keep in mind once the algae is gone they will be too. So to stay away from too much die off 1 per gal
8. LAwnmower blenny(does a great job), emerald crabs, and tangs (depending on tank size, no less than 55 gal- prefer bigger
9. After you scrubb algae off siphon out with siphon for water changes.

All this combined, it can be done and completely eliminated without taking out rocks, boiling, or that.
Keep in mind youy have to find why you have this outbreak and solve the issue or it will be a chronic problem. Masking the problem will be temporary unless you find the cause and eliminate it.
Good Luck

[REEFY1]

AND GET A GOOD TOOTH BRUSH !!

[paveking1]

I have a 220 and had bad hair algae ,I put 5 emerald crabs in for about a month and it is all gone . I love those guys , now i got to catch them ,they are annoying my corals.

[demonsp]

If the returns are all you use for water flow then your lacking major flow.
DO you have any powerheads?

[Ebisan]

I am also battling hair algae and have tried the lights out method, phosban reactor, less feedings, etc. Wasn't sure where the source of the phosphate was coming from. Changed DI resin on my RODI system. Still had thick algae everywhere. Decided to change the RO filter. Now it seems I found the source of the problem. Since the new filter, the hair algae seems to have tapered off. Not entirely sure it's due to the filter. We'll see. I also upgraded my skimmer to a recirculating one. Need to plumb it in when it gets here.

[carlso63]

My 125 had a bad HA outbreak at about the 5 week mark (after setup)... I added a Foxface to my tank and didn't feed it... first 2 days it basically hid behind the LR. Day 3 it came out and started nibbling on the HA. By Day 5 the HA was completed gone and the LR had been stripped clean!

[Lucky-rc]

Originally posted by enemec1
Whats your water readings? PH 8.2, 1.024, NO3-0, PO4-0, CA 450,
Whats the water source? RO/DI
Whats used for flow? CLOSED LOOP ON A DART PUMP, SUPER DART AS RETURN

lucky-rc;
If I am reading 0 on the PO3 how will there be any different comming out of the reactor when I get it set up?

When you have algae its hard to get an acurate phos reading. The algea will find a ballance point where it will consume the po3 and your test will show 0.... But being that your algae is still spreading (getting worse) is an indication that it has not found this "ballance point" yet. Therefore I would tend to belive that you will get a reading. It may be low but should be there. Might want to consider the test kit you use?... On the other hand if it does read -0- then no you wont get a different reading coming out of the reactor. Should this be your case then I am sorry for the inacurate assumption.

Lucky

[IceWish]

just wait it out, an outbreak doesnt last forever....when theres nothing left for them to eat they will die off. You can try to manually remove them, an easy method is to put in a filter sock and just keep pulling them off the rocks and sand ...the sock should trap it for easy removal.Tangs also love hair algae, they would pull at it all day ..

[enemec1]

da1jewfish
3. Add Algone and replace every 3-4 days

what is this?

[zotzer]

Originally posted by demonsp
If the returns are all you use for water flow then your lacking major flow.
DO you have any powerheads?

Huh? That is one of the main purposes of a closed loop system....to have no visible powerheads in the tank. One can have PLENTY of flow without powerheads in the tank on a properly designed system.

What is the age of this setup, and what is the feeding regimen?

Tracy

[Marsala Man]

I am not an "expert" but I can tell you from my experience with a horrible outbreak from buying a "used car," I mean used tank and live rock that after months of battling massive hair algae that I eventually had to change out my sandbed and cure my liverock for 3 weeks and changed out 100% of my water. I tried many possible solutions from a friend that has a fish tank store to fix this problem and nothing seemed to work. I don't know your specific situation, but after spending ridiculous amounts of time and money, the solution really was in curing the liverock and letting it leach out the phosphates it has absorbed in an environment with no light. Good Luck!!!

[enemec1]

the rock in the tank all came from local RC members tearing down their tanks. so all rock has been cycled. the 210 is about 8 months old and had all live stock transfered over from my 75 that was running for a year and a half. I feed every other day frozen and flake. 3 cleaner shrimp in the tank that release eggs every 3or4 days also.

[zotzer]

What macroalgae do you have in your fuge? How fast is it growing? What is the fuge's lighting schedule?

How much do you feed every other day? Have you tried feeding tinier portions once per day?

Something is feeding that HA. Sorry for the twenty questions, but trying to figure out what is providing the nutrients for it, and why your refugium isn't helping. How long has the fuge been on line...all eight months?

Tracy