I have just had it!

[johnnstacy]

A year ago or so I started this reef tank. Bought the best equipment, read all I could and spent hours on reef central....

About 6 months into the tank I got this bloom of a very tough brown hair algae. Couldn't get snails to touch it. Here is a photo of it in the old tank:



I tried waiting it out. It just grew more and spread over most of the tank before I finally just said forget it and cooked the rock. 3 months I waited wanting to make sure it was all gone. After 3 months there was no sign of it. Put the rock in my new 180g and got it all set up again.

Now, about 2 months since I set it up, I am getting the same algae. So my question is this? Has anyone every just thrown away 250 lbs of beautiful rock because they found a type of algae that was resistant to everything? Here is my tank now. May as well get one last look:



In a couple more months it will likely cover most of the rock and will be encroaching on the corals.

I guess I just wonder I should actually just throw it out and start with new rock.

[gkarshens]

Did you try hermits? They did great for any hair algea I had.

[johnnstacy]

I have hermits. BL and scarlet. I also have 100 astrea and 300 cerith and another 5 or so mexican turbos.

[physicslord]

I will assume you are using Phosban or something like that.

The best way to remove stubborn algae from LR is with a really stiff brush, like a barbecue cleaner or something. Believe me, no algae is tough enough to resist that.
Forget snails or blennies...

[scottywags]

Try a Foxface, I just got one a week ago and he is now my best friend!

[bj32482]

foxface is currently tearing through my brown algae

[phoenix001]

I doubt the problem is the live rock. Are you using RO/DI? What is your fish load? How often do you feed and what? Water parameters? What is your lighting and how old are the bulbs?

[johnnstacy]

The problem is the rock....without question. Same algae as before I cooked the rock. RO/DI, huge flow with 2 barracudas, oceans motions, sea swirls. My Deltec is rated for a 530g! I only have 200g total water! Nitrates and PO4 are always undetectable and I test every week. I feed a couple of times a day and feed corals at night but no one is going to convince me that this is a feeding issue. BB and no detritus in the tank. I vacuum it at least once a week. If it was a nutrient issue, I would at least have some green hair or diatoms or something else besides this nasty stuff.

As for the stiff brush, yes, I could use it but I certainly can't reach all of the rock unless I tear it all down and do this once a week. Last time I had this problem, I even took the rock outside with a pressure washer and blew the stuff to kingdom come and 3 weeks later, it began sprouting again. The rock is not a popular type. It is really cool looking but I don't know even one other person who has bought it. Here is a link:

http://reefermadness.us/Buna_Branch.htm

[johnnstacy]

I have not tried a foxface yet.......

[lpkirby]

John I had the same problem, I did not cook the rock. I went BB and scrubbed all my LR except for the ones with corals. Put everything back in and the first week it started to come back. But in the 2nd week it started to go away because of the low nutrients of a BB tank. I saw that you are BB, mayber try to scrub the LR.

Dont give up!!!

Leon

[Dubbin1]

Do you have a sump/fug growing some macro in it? If not then that is a good place to start.

[johnnstacy]

My sump has chaeto in it.Doesn't grow to much but it's there.

[Dubbin1]

Maybe you should find some lighting to put over the sump that will make it grow.

[wrangler99tj]

red leg moon snails

[johnnstacy]

Originally posted by Dubbin1
Maybe you should find some lighting to put over the sump that will make it grow.

I have great lighting over the sump. There have been periods where it will grow quickly but it doesn't seem to grow much now.

[rizkeeper]

let it grow...sooner or later it will absorb it's food sorce and die off....

[MAreefer1]

I had the same problem in my ten gallon, and it was gettin pretty dam bad... so all I did was get 5 big snails...about 2-3 inches wide ea... they cleaned up my tank in about 10 hours...they eat algea like a fat man eats cake

[johnnstacy]

I see a few kinds of foxface here:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/s...fm?pCatId=1465

Which one should I be looking at getting?

[stevebydac]

You've got to try (and I know you are trying hard already) to make it as inhospitable as possible for that algae to grow. Considering moving some/all of your fish to another tank for several months. While you are vacuuming the tank, you are not removing all of their hard waste (some is in the crevices here and there) or their urine. Less fish = less waste. Also, if you are not doing it already, put the lights on your fuge 24/7 and DECREASE the light photoperiod on your main tank. This will help grow your macro (which will eat up more nutrients) and slow the hair a bit. Hair algae loves light. If you haven't, be sure to change your bulbs at the recommended intervals.

Also, though you have an oversized skimmer, make sure it is operating at peak efficiency. If you're not collecting enough skimmate, watch it each day and tweak it as necessary. Also, if you have any foam prefilters or socks, clean them daily.

You'll win the battle -- don't give up. My suspicion -- and it is just a guess -- is that the rock had a lot of living matter inside it when you got it, and it is still dying off. Eventually this (or whatever is the cause of this) will be overcome.

And, of course larger and/or more frequent water changes.

Best of luck to you. I've gone through it and it is a b****. But the war can be won if you resolve yourself to it.

[donfishy76]

you wanna get rid of your rock, i will take it and all the hassles that come with it!

[johnnstacy]

Originally posted by stevebydac
You've got to try (and I know you are trying hard already) to make it as inhospitable as possible for that algae to grow. Considering moving some/all of your fish to another tank for several months. While you are vacuuming the tank, you are not removing all of their hard waste (some is in the crevices here and there) or their urine. Less fish = less waste. Also, if you are not doing it already, put the lights on your fuge 24/7 and DECREASE the light photoperiod on your main tank. This will help grow your macro (which will eat up more nutrients) and slow the hair a bit. Hair algae loves light. If you haven't, be sure to change your bulbs at the recommended intervals.

Also, though you have an oversized skimmer, make sure it is operating at peak efficiency. If you're not collecting enough skimmate, watch it each day and tweak it as necessary. Also, if you have any foam prefilters or socks, clean them daily.

You'll win the battle -- don't give up. My suspicion -- and it is just a guess -- is that the rock had a lot of living matter inside it when you got it, and it is still dying off. Eventually this (or whatever is the cause of this) will be overcome.

And, of course larger and/or more frequent water changes.

Best of luck to you. I've gone through it and it is a b****. But the war can be won if you resolve yourself to it.

Housing the fish somewhere else can't happen but I will continue to vacuum the bottom. Right now, I vacuum about every other day and each day I turkey baster the rock. By the way when I use that baster I'm getting very little free floating junk.

If it were green hair then I could blame it on nutrients but this brown fuzzy stuff started growing on a rock in the back of the tank where there was a sea swirl and a tunze stream hitting it. You can see it in the full tank shot. It is to the right of that pink sps near the top right. Problem is, like before, the snails won't touch this stuff. I did order the foxface today. We'll see how it goes.

Water changes are 30g once a week right now. I have 2 filter socks that get changed out every other day. My skimmer is set to wet skim.

Although I feed the fish twice a day, there isn't much left to break down once the fish get done. I did make this nutrient rich food from Eric's recipe here:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=176530

The stuff is nasty but the corals are going great and their color is getting better as a result. Perhaps the downside is the algae but with undetectable nitrates and phosphates, I don't get it. Also running phosban and carbon.

The one thing I have certainly learned is that it doesn't matter how much money you have and what equipment you buy, a reef tank is still a challenge.

[BurntOutReefer]

johnstacy...I agree with Donfishy...

[smiller]

Originally posted by rizkeeper
let it grow...sooner or later it will absorb it's food sorce and die off....

Agreed. I fought this same algae for a few months after rebuilding from a tank crash. Nothing wanted anything to do with it that I tried. I pulled it with hemostats a couple of times a week. Finally it started dying off and I haven't seen it again since.

I sure wouldn't waste my time scrubbing it.

[Cutiewitbooty]

What about a UV Sterilizer (if you don't already have one), I know they can help with algae breakouts, it's just a thought....

[physicslord]

Have you considered a phosphate absorber? Have you tested your phosphate level?

Otherwise, it really doesn't make sense to scrub it.
But if you are using Phosban it will be worth it because it will take a heck of a long time to grow back and it wont be nearly as thick.