prcardinal91
Active Member
I am going through a tough hair algae battle currently and am looking for advice. Here is some background -
In October I transferred an established 75 to a 150 sps dominant. I went through some uglies (hair algae, cyano, dinos) before things settled in and really started to grow again. I ran into a serious dino outbreak when nutrients bottomed out and have since remedied that issue. I also attribute the dino outbreak to a lack of biodiversity in the new tank. This happened in January. In order to battle dinos, I was dosing potassium nitrate and neophos and some bacteria products MB7, dr tims waste away and refresh. I stopped dosing nitrate and phosphate in Feb and started to let my nitrate come down with an end goal of about 5 and phosphates below 0.1. Hair algae was always present but I wasn't worried about it too much.
My issue now is that since my nitrate and phosphate have been relatively low (10ppm and .05 ish) since Feb I still have a major hair algae issue. I typically spend 2 hrs or so every week doing manual removal. Every other day I spot treat with 3 percent peroxide with the pumps off. No more than 15 ml per day. My refugium grows hair algae faster than the sea lettuce and cheato I have in there. It is wild to me how fast this stuff grows in my system. I have a large marine pure brick in the refugium.
I do not want my nitrates at zero so I began dosing potassium nitrate again. At this point I feel like I am dumping gas on the fire. I can pull handfulls of this stuff out weekly. If I dont pull it out it starts to choke out my corals. It is not bryopsis algae. My corals all look pretty good with the exception the the setosa I pictured which I started to notice washing out today. I know the tank is still "new" but I am looking for advice on mitigating this algae. I feel the nitrates get used up so quickly by the algae no other organisms in the tank can use nitrate effectively without dosing.
I have two tangs, 2 urchins, and a bunch of snails and hermits. 8 Emerald crabs. Starry blenny. They eat but they can not keep up.
I am not new to reef keeping but this tank transfer and algae issue has humbled me. My first reef tank was in 2013. Always learning I guess. I will include my most recent ICP results and general params. I appreciate any responses! - Paul
2 part dosing with BRS 2 part
Redsea AB+ daily 20 ml
Benepets once a week
Tropic Marine A and K daily 5ml each
ph - 8.1 to 8.3 - skimmer line to outside air. Refugium light on pm light cycle
Nitrate - Currently zero. Typically 5-10
Phosphate - .04
Calcium - 415
Alkalinity steady 8.4
Mag - 1415
temp 78.5
In October I transferred an established 75 to a 150 sps dominant. I went through some uglies (hair algae, cyano, dinos) before things settled in and really started to grow again. I ran into a serious dino outbreak when nutrients bottomed out and have since remedied that issue. I also attribute the dino outbreak to a lack of biodiversity in the new tank. This happened in January. In order to battle dinos, I was dosing potassium nitrate and neophos and some bacteria products MB7, dr tims waste away and refresh. I stopped dosing nitrate and phosphate in Feb and started to let my nitrate come down with an end goal of about 5 and phosphates below 0.1. Hair algae was always present but I wasn't worried about it too much.
My issue now is that since my nitrate and phosphate have been relatively low (10ppm and .05 ish) since Feb I still have a major hair algae issue. I typically spend 2 hrs or so every week doing manual removal. Every other day I spot treat with 3 percent peroxide with the pumps off. No more than 15 ml per day. My refugium grows hair algae faster than the sea lettuce and cheato I have in there. It is wild to me how fast this stuff grows in my system. I have a large marine pure brick in the refugium.
I do not want my nitrates at zero so I began dosing potassium nitrate again. At this point I feel like I am dumping gas on the fire. I can pull handfulls of this stuff out weekly. If I dont pull it out it starts to choke out my corals. It is not bryopsis algae. My corals all look pretty good with the exception the the setosa I pictured which I started to notice washing out today. I know the tank is still "new" but I am looking for advice on mitigating this algae. I feel the nitrates get used up so quickly by the algae no other organisms in the tank can use nitrate effectively without dosing.
I have two tangs, 2 urchins, and a bunch of snails and hermits. 8 Emerald crabs. Starry blenny. They eat but they can not keep up.
I am not new to reef keeping but this tank transfer and algae issue has humbled me. My first reef tank was in 2013. Always learning I guess. I will include my most recent ICP results and general params. I appreciate any responses! - Paul
2 part dosing with BRS 2 part
Redsea AB+ daily 20 ml
Benepets once a week
Tropic Marine A and K daily 5ml each
ph - 8.1 to 8.3 - skimmer line to outside air. Refugium light on pm light cycle
Nitrate - Currently zero. Typically 5-10
Phosphate - .04
Calcium - 415
Alkalinity steady 8.4
Mag - 1415
temp 78.5
