Hair algae I’ve tried everything!!!!

[ReefJake123]

Hey guys I’ve been in this hobby for just about a year and I’ve been dealing with my hair algae in my 13.5 gal since the beginning of my tank on May 24 2017 and it’s driving me crazy everything in my parameters are perfect I’ve tried algae fix I recently got a sea hare but it cut its back on my rock and died[emoji20] I have whole bunch of hermits and snails I have emerald crabs I only have two fish a cinnamon clown and a yellow clown goby I’ve brushed it with tooth brush this is killing me it’s crushing my spirit of this hobby I’m only 14 so I don’t exactly the money for expensive alternatives someone please help me!

 

[ReefJake123]

 

[Maritimer]

Chin up, Reefjake123 - your tank is looking pretty good, and relatively algae-free!

I think that the ideal situation would be to have enough stuff you _like_ growing in the tank to take away the nutrients the algae is using now - that will take time.

I have heard of folks acclimating and introducing freshwater mollies to help with hair algae, something like a tuxedo urchin might be an assist as well. Rainford's and Hector's gobies also take filamentous algae, IIRC.

~Bruce

 

[Watevadog5]

For a smaller tank like yours scrubbing rocks and a few larger water changes should really help. Also some gfo in a bag in a filter compartment will also be a step in the right direction. Make sure the water you add is 0 tds. Like Maritimer said keep your chin up, EVERYONE goes through the ugly phases

 

[ReefJake123]

Yea you haven’t seen the back of it I’ll get some pics when I get home but you guys don’t understand this has been going on for a year and it sucks

 

[brandon429]

You have a super easy fix. I have collected many after shots of fixing that

All we do is part clean the tank and put it back using skip cycle cleaning. The sandbed will no longer cloud if disturbed


Your coralline and coral anem quality indicate no param issues, this invasion isn't param related. You are merely lacking the ideal grazers to prevent light growth, which a reef should have, but that doesn't mean to go adding grazers

We fixed a hundred of those. Let me know when ready 101

 

[jakeh22]

Looks light you have a lot of white light and low flow =outbreak

 

[ReefJake123]

I have good flow and a lot of blue light trust me

 

[Somuchflo99]

I bought one conch and it seriously did work also added one turbo snail and now I can see the sand bed and also most of it is off the rocks in 3 weeks

 

[Somuchflo99]

Took time but I didn’t add any chem

 

[ReefJake123]

Ok I’ll look into it thank you guys

 

[ReefJake123]

What type of conch

 

[Tanglover11]

Fluconazole

 

[jakeh22]

I have good flow and a lot of blue light trust me

From my experience it stems with too much light and for too long as well as nutrients my father just had a bad outbreak of it and it’s because of his lighting we switched his t5 bulbs to coral plus and blue and took out one 10k so there is only one not 2 and did the trick. These things take time and a lot of learning experience I started when I was about 10 with a 120 gal I would take care of for my father and now he looks up to my tank and his is still flourishing. You’ll get there bud it’s a learning curve

 

[Somuchflo99]

Tiger sand conch

 

[Kirschy17]

Im kinda curios what perfect parameters are for you? Phosphate and nitrates are what matters. If phosphate is above 0.1 or nitrates are above 10-20 an algae issue is pretty obviously caused by high nutrients.

 

[ReefJake123]

All three ammonia nitrites and phosphates are 0

 

[Kirschy17]

Nitrates?

 

[cracker]

Honestly , The tank looks pretty good ! Trust me Your prob isn't the only one ! If Your wanting a "sparkly white sand bed , tank of the month,"it takes a lot of work & expertise . At least for us beginners !
So, where do You get your water? How much do You feed? How do You test the water parameters?
A good test kit can be pricey but a real good spend. Also the rock & all looks pretty good the sand bed is where You get the Hair algae. Can you rake it off the sand bed? You will lose sand but it will help.
One more thing Brandon 429 on post #6 Can help ya get a nice clean sand bed .

 

[ReefJake123]

Nitrates are 0