Hair alage

[Anthony Malagisi]

I think I'm having a hair alage break out on my zoas can anyone confirm this,, also how do I stop it before it's gets outta control

 

[ATB USA]

Yes it is. Use "Vibrant Aquarium Cleaner for Marine" You dose 1ml per 10 gal each week till it is gone and then every 2 weeks for a month.
That will take care of the issue. but you need to determine what the cause was.
Too much food?
Too much light?
Had a mini cycle due to?? Adding more rock, fish, ....

 

[Fish Think Pink]

I think I'm having a hair alage break out on my zoas can anyone confirm this,, also how do I stop it before it's gets outta control

Also, reach in there and pull it off... Vibrant is not an overnight solution for most... This is the Vibrant I use:

Medications

Bulk Reef Supply - Saltwater Aquarium Supplies for Reef Tanks

www.bulkreefsupply.com

in this hobby the only things that happen fast are bad things <wink> so patience for clean-up. I'm almost 2 months into Vibrant treatment and beginning to see the light, but feel it got worse before it got better (just recently... like last few days!)

Measure your nitrates and phosphates. My phosphates were out of control - use Hanna ULR and didn't realize it tests *phosphorus* so after doing their conversion I was 3x worse off than I had even realized... Its been a long, green, fuzzy/hairy path back to cute tank - but cute tank is re-emerging for me. Know you will get yours back too

 

[dvgyfresh]

I would steer clear of vibrant as you are putting a band aid on a nutrient problem , for me I would buy something like a lawn mower blenny or more CUC to eat the algae, depending on tank size a tang would eat that instantly lol

 

[Pistondog]

Manually remove it.
Vibrant takes 4 to 6 weeks and is algae eating bacteria, so will kill any macro in fuge.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Its bryopsis and vibrant will do very little with it. These are fast growing, and form a mat like root system on the rocks. Algae that grows from mats, instead of singular holdfasts, are harder to remove if they spread in your tank. This is due to the tedious work that is required to remove all of the algae from the surface it is growing on. Any piece that remains will likely continue growing. You can control it by:
1. Removing all you can by hand. Just be careful about it, and if you can pull the rock out to remove it all the better. If it has taken hold in the sand, sift it out with a net. If you don't remove the rhizomes (roots) it will grow back.
2. Starve it out - if you can lower nutrients nuisance algae has a harder time taking hold, or coming back after manual removal.
3. Repeat every time you see a little bit come back. Try to be aggressive when removing these species.

Some cleaner crew that should help are: Pitho Crabs, urchins, Emerald Crabs, chitons, and even larger Astraea snails.

Fluconasal (flux will work also but make it a last resort.

 

[danschoenherr]

Agree.....it does look like Bryopsis. If these are the only areas that it is showing up, I'd pop those frags off the rocks. That way you can work on them outside of the tank in a small container ( I use white, pint/quart sized sour cream containers....clean of course. The white color gives you some light teflection to see better) Then take a tweezers and pull as much algea off of the plugs. After that I take the frag and place in a holder out of the water and take an eye dropper and drip the standard 3% hydrogen peroxide over the frag.....let sit for 3-4 minutes, then place into a container of tank water and let sit for 5-10 minutes before returning to the tank. If you have a small frag rack to keep these on for observation, that would be best. If it keeps coming back, you may want to just remove the frag(s) so you don't risk an infestation.
Fluconazol does work very well for advanced infestastions. There are some good posts here with instructions

 

[Fish Think Pink]

I would steer clear of vibrant as you are putting a band aid on a nutrient problem , for me I would buy something like a lawn mower blenny or more CUC to eat the algae, depending on tank size a tang would eat that instantly lol

Agree.....it does look like Bryopsis. If these are the only areas that it is showing up, I'd pop those frags off the rocks. That way you can work on them outside of the tank in a small container ( I use white, pint/quart sized sour cream containers....clean of course. The white color gives you some light teflection to see better) Then take a tweezers and pull as much algea off of the plugs. After that I take the frag and place in a holder out of the water and take an eye dropper and drip the standard 3% hydrogen peroxide over the frag.....let sit for 3-4 minutes, then place into a container of tank water and let sit for 5-10 minutes before returning to the tank. If you have a small frag rack to keep these on for observation, that would be best. If it keeps coming back, you may want to just remove the frag(s) so you don't risk an infestation.
Fluconazol does work very well for advanced infestastions. There are some good posts here with instructions

I reminded my tangs frequently but apparently mine don't like that type of algae

Reef Flux/Fluconazol should be used with care if you have yellow tang. Mine nearly died from tank treatment, but fortunately QT was up running as replacement refugium algae red ogo growth center for tang snacks (and when Vibrant over ogo going back in sump to be refugium) ... Yellow tang was so lethargic caught by hand, lifted up towards bright light, woke in heaven - QT surrounded by as much red ogo as he could eat for 3 weeks... For yellow to return, my sailfin has had to move to sump for next few weeks as he'd treat yellow return as 'new' fish and I didn't need death on my hands...

Hammers look strange during and even after Reef Flux/fluconazol treatment, but everything else (many other corals, flame angel, sailfin tang, 6 line wrasse, 7 clowns, 6 anemones, 3 peppermint shrimp, 2 skunk cleaner shrimp, 3 emerald crabs, conch and other assorted snails) did fine during fluconazol 3 week treatment. Followed treatment doing major water change(s) and active charcoal thru reactor.

Here is how I got all this experience with bad algae types... My advice is not to buy some guys macroalgae for your sump because I wanted diversity no matter how impatient you are when AlgaeBarn is out of stock... I suddenly got all sorts of nasties showing up, different types of bad algae, colonial hydroids, pineapple sponges (yes these are BAD too as can get 5" if not removed and some VA guy had them clog & shutdown pump)... it's like I tongue licked people with COVID, herpes and HIV and brought it all home Painful learning experience... and of course the months spent cleaning up after my mistake would have only been a week or couple to wait for clean macroaglae return from clean online seller... And all the good macroalgae types I had in sump refugium died from Vibrant treating the other types of bubble & etc algae...

 

[dherman15]

I've got the same problem...i think...

 

[Fish Think Pink]

I've got the same problem...i think...

treat it like above and/or pull it out by hand and siphon, siphon, siphon that other algae showing in your photo. I use a little tube slightly bigger than airline tubing, but any size for sucking algae off rocks would work too.

Good luck to you!! It didn't get there that long overnight, and it will take a while to go away too but know you can do it.

 

[dherman15]

treat it like above and/or pull it out by hand and siphon, siphon, siphon that other algae showing in your photo. I use a little tube slightly bigger than airline tubing, but any size for sucking algae off rocks would work too.

Good luck to you!! It didn't get there that long overnight, and it will take a while to go away too but know you can do it.

thanks for the support.
today I am doing a 30%-40% water change, scrubbing all rocks, and pulling out anything I can get my hands on.

 

[Hooz]

I use a well tuned clean up crew to combat hair algae in my zoas, but turbo snails are the real Rockstar.

First picture I took just as a snail was approaching a "problem" plug of Rainbow Hornets. Second pic is 30 minutes later.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

thanks for the support.
today I am doing a 30%-40% water change, scrubbing all rocks, and pulling out anything I can get my hands on.

found smaller but more frequent (like every 2 days after work) worked best for me, but everybody and every tank different.And I was sucking out my 10% water changes with small siphon hose directly on rocks so your scrubbing is better approach... wondering if peroxide dip might also work... but if you have anything like corals on rock, don't get peroxide on it. And if scrubbing and leaving rocks in tank (if you can remove and scrub external to tank, then replace might be better, well then agree large water change is due... will defer to others here...