Brown or Red Hair Algae?

[SpyC]

I have been fighting this algae for 6+ months now. Manual removal, shortened light period, heavy skimming, cut down feeding to every other day, and introduced biopellets to help with nitrates and phosphates, gfo (but in a bag, best I can do right now). I am hoping an identification or confirmation of the algae will help me come up with a new plan to fight it. I do have a mandarin that I add pods for monthly and wouldn't be surprised that this is part of my problem. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Rodi: 0tds
Temp: 76.5-77.5
pH: 8.15-8.24 depending on the time of day
Nitrates: 15
Phosphates 1.8 (previously 2.0 before biopellets, but I don't want to rush adding more. Maybe I should go with a different method like bacto balance and swap the pellet reactor for a gfo reactor)

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Bump

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Pictures in white light will really help, these pics are too blue.

Phosphate level is very high, I would be running gfo? Phosphate should be lower than .1

What is the size of the tank and how many fish? How much do you feed the fish at one feeding? What type of filtration are you running?

How is the flow in the tank? Algae loves low flow.

What clean up crew do you have? Do you have any turbo snails? Urchins?

Personally I don't agree with reduced feeding for fish, its not their fault and they shouldn't go hungry for it.

Basically need more info and better pics to help.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Rodi: 0tds
Temp: 76.5-77.5
pH: 8.15-8.24 depending on the time of day
Nitrates: 15
Phosphates 1.8 (previously 2.0 before biopellets, but I don't want to rush adding more. Maybe I should go with a different method like bacto balance and swap the pellet reactor for a gfo reactor)

What are you testing with? Phosphates seem abnormally high.

May want to get some phosgaurd to help lower it, unless that reading is wrong.

What are you feeding the fish? I think sometimes it’s not how much we feed but WHAT we feed and if we have the appropriate cleanup crew to eat the leftovers.

Frozen foods tend to be less full of crud that can up our phosphates and nitrates. I don’t feed flake food. I do sometimes throw some TDO pellets in.

Do you feed any types of powdered food to your corals? This can also up phosphates.

How long between the 2 phosphate reading and the 1.8??

Have you tried manual removal? Pulling it off the rock with your fingers or pulling rocks and scrubbing with a toothbrush?

You could also look into hydrogen peroxide dosing for the tank.

You should still determine how to eliminate the cause of the algae. Do you have a refugium area in your sump?

 

[SpyC]

What are you testing with? Phosphates seem abnormally high.

May want to get some phosgaurd to help lower it, unless that reading is wrong.

What are you feeding the fish? I think sometimes it’s not how much we feed but WHAT we feed and if we have the appropriate cleanup crew to eat the leftovers.

Frozen foods tend to be less full of crud that can up our phosphates and nitrates. I don’t feed flake food. I do sometimes throw some TDO pellets in.

Do you feed any types of powdered food to your corals? This can also up phosphates.

How long between the 2 phosphate reading and the 1.8??

Have you tried manual removal? Pulling it off the rock with your fingers or pulling rocks and scrubbing with a toothbrush?

You could also look into hydrogen peroxide dosing for the tank.

You should still determine how to eliminate the cause of the algae. Do you have a refugium area in your sump?

I use hannah checkers for phosphate and dkh. Nitrate, ammonia, and nitrite are RedSea. Calcium and Mag are Salifert.

I feed LRS. I was also using reef jerky in an auto feeder, but I don't have enough live stock to take advantage of all of the tyes of food in it. This was stopped 2 months ago.

I test weekly, but it has taken 6 months to go down to 1.8.

I scrub the rock weekly then do a water change.

The 'refugium' area is a small 5"x6" area that I tried using as a refugium previously, but had issues with alagae gettingout and clogging the return pump.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

I use hannah checkers for phosphate and dkh. Nitrate, ammonia, and nitrite are RedSea. Calcium and Mag are Salifert.

I feed LRS. I was also using reef jerky in an auto feeder, but I don't have enough live stock to take advantage of all of the tyes of food in it. This was stopped 2 months ago.

I test weekly, but it has taken 6 months to go down to 1.8.

I scrub the rock weekly then do a water change.

The 'refugium' area is a small 5"x6" area that I tried using as a refugium previously, but had issues with alagae gettingout and clogging the return pump.

Hmmm

Should have gone down more unless something is leaching phosphate back into the tank

I would throw a bag of phosgaurd in there and retest in 4 days