Combating hair algae and "orange sand"

Schraufabagel

aka Schrauf_den
View Badges
Joined
Oct 29, 2020
Messages
2,215
Reaction score
8,522
Location
Madison, WI
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I am currently struggling with hair algae and my sand builds up an orange layer a few days after each water change. I usually hold my nitrates between 3-8 and my phosphates between 0.05-0.15. My cleaning crew is made of astreas, nerites, nassarius, dwarf cerith, florida cerith, peppermint shrimp, and a pincushion urchin. Is there any other livestock that would help combat the hair algae and better sift the sand?

I've looked at getting a fighting conch or a serpent sea star.
 
Could you take pictures of it with white light?
_1040169.JPG

_1040170.JPG

_1040171.JPG



_1040172.JPG


Normally it's worse, but I just cleaned off the rock earlier this morning.
 
Following, i'm getting the same 'orange' sand layer each day and I vacuum it, comes back. I have one diamond goby in a 110g tank but he's not doing much for it.
 
Im having this problem also. I started Vibrant last week, second dose went in last night. It cleared all the sand up, but nothing on the hair algae yet. Ive been pulling what I can off the rocks when I do water changes.
 
The solution to pollution is dilution. I have had some hair algae coming up recently. I did a bunch of water changes, sometimes daily and it's starting to die back. This is also how I beat cyano back in the day.
 
my tank was completely cover in gha.. I tried all the natural remedies, Astrea, Turbos , Emerald crabs and sea urchins. After i while of trying that and nothing, i dosed reef flux.. It worked great and had not adverse effects on my reef
 

TOP 10 Trending Threads

WHICH TYPE OF MISTAKE TAUGHT YOU YOUR MOST EXPENSIVE REEFKEEPING LESSON?

  • Moving too quickly or adding too much at once

    Votes: 7 35.0%
  • Skipping—or shortening—quarantine or dipping

    Votes: 5 25.0%
  • Buying the wrong equipment the first time

    Votes: 4 20.0%
  • Ignoring maintenance, warning signs, or redundancy

    Votes: 6 30.0%
  • Chasing numbers or making too many changes

    Votes: 3 15.0%
  • Choosing incompatible fish, corals, or invertebrates

    Votes: 3 15.0%
  • Poor aquascaping or tank-design decisions

    Votes: 1 5.0%
  • Failing to research an animal’s needs

    Votes: 1 5.0%
  • Trusting bad advice

    Votes: 3 15.0%
  • Doing something on the tank when you should've gone to bed

    Votes: 4 20.0%
  • Something else—tell us below

    Votes: 4 20.0%
  • I’m still waiting for my first expensive lesson!

    Votes: 2 10.0%
Back
Top
Home
Post thread…
Market
What's new