Chaeto Refugium AND Algae Scrubber but still tons of hair algae in display

[aleok]

Hello Everyone,

Tanks about 1 year old. Water chemistry is all normal. Currently I'm running a Clear Water waterfall type external algae scrubber, which produces like crazy. Also I have a ball of Chaeto in my refugium section of my sump, which seems to be slowly shrinking, turning to mush and being taken over by hair algae more than anything. And I still have lots of green hair algae (and some bubble) in the main display.

I do have a clean up crew, perhaps not enough..
I know having both the scrubber and cheatos may be way overkill, but could it be causing more harm than good? The cheato I have is going in the trash, but should I replace it?

What would your guys next steps be? Thank you

 

[SilvermistInc]

Have you considered manual removal combined with a blackout?

 

[theMeat]

Have you considered manual removal combined with a blackout?

This ^
While a 72 hour black out won’t kill hair algae it will put a hurtin‘ on it
While manual removal won’t get it all what you do get is out for good. Unlike the hair algae that dies and releases the nutrients bond up in it right back into tank.
What are your nitrate and phosphate levels?

 

[melonheadorion]

im in the same boat, minus an algae scrubber/reactor. i scrub my rocks every water change, and have chaeto in my refugium. still have hair algae in the display, and even with dosing carbon, my nitrates are steady at 20 with phosphates being .03. these numbers havent changed. so, my issue is obviously nutrients, and what the algae is consuming to just leave me at .03 and 20. i dont overfeed, and run my skimmer 24/7. i will be doing an algae scrubber in the near future, but im kinda concerned that its not going to help me either.

the most i can do right now is manual removal, but its getting tiresome having to pull rock every week, and being a reef tank, i cant blackout

 

[theMeat]

72 hour black out is reef safe and carbon dosing works. You keep upping the amount dosed until you get down to where you want. Then you half the dose to maintain. FWIW IME it takes a while to see it start to drop. Once it starts is happens pretty quick so keep testing

 

[Labridaedicted]

What's your photo period on the display tank look like?

 

[Crustaceon]

It's because the lighting in your display is better than the lighting in your scrubber and the fact that the hair algae in the display was probably already established when you tried to address it with the scrubber. An ATS isn't going to outcompete existing algae in the display. Sorry, but I've never actually seen this to be the case. What it will do is prevent the new growth of algae in the display if you manually remove all of the existing nuisance algae first.

 

[aleok]

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like manual removal is the only thing to do (which I do). It's just never ending. I was hoping for some kind of invert that'll eat it, but haven't found such luck yet.

 

[theMeat]

Sea hare

 

[IL-Reef-A4]

I've had the same problem with my chaeto growing nicely in concert with my turf scrubber and then it just stops growing and disintegrates into thin air in the refugium. While your issue is with hair algae, mine issue was/is with turf algae in the display tank. I have been successful using vibrant once a week - and only once a week - to slowly get rid of all the turf algae in the DT. Vibrant may work for your hair algae problem as well but it will take time and a lot of patience. I have also seen posts from more experienced reefers on R2R that have use H2O2 on hair algae with some success. Might want to take a look at some of those posts as well.

 

[bnord]

Sea hare

Donabella

 

[aleok]

I've had the same problem with my chaeto growing nicely in concert with my turf scrubber and then it just stops growing and disintegrates into thin air in the refugium. While your issue is with hair algae, mine issue was/is with turf algae in the display tank. I have been successful using vibrant once a week - and only once a week - to slowly get rid of all the turf algae in the DT. Vibrant may work for your hair algae problem as well but it will take time and a lot of patience. I have also seen posts from more experienced reefers on R2R that have use H2O2 on hair algae with some success. Might want to take a look at some of those posts as well.

I do think I have both. Mostly hair and 1 or 2 patches of turf. I read that Vibrant will kill some inverts and corals. Any experience with this?

 

[aleok]

Donabella

Thanks! I'll look into that

 

[IL-Reef-A4]

Uhmmm neverminded on the vibrant.... I must have just been extremely lucky... not using it anymore.

Here is some real hard core evidence it is Algaefix.

Understanding Vibrant: Algaefix, Polixetonium Chloride / Busan 77

I actually see the opposite on R2R, many report it quickly bottoms out nutrients and they end up with dinos. I saw phosphates go to zero in short order a couple years ago when I used it. More likely end up with Dino’s because of lack of competing microflora. Dino’s themselfs will bottom...

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