Hair algae is getting worse and I can’t stop it.

[Reef Devils]

Hey,

I’ve been dealing with hair algae for the past month and a half or so. I can’t seem to stop it from growing like crazy. I know my nutrients aren’t high because I have tested them and I think the hair algae is consuming a lot of the nutrients. All of my corals still seem super happy, but some are starting to get covered by hair algae.

I ordered a tuxedo urchin and a bunch of snail but they haven’t done much. I think they haven’t done much because the hair is so long. I go in there and do a lot of manual removal, but it keeps coming back. what am I doing wrong here? Is there something that I could dose to kill his hair algae?

Thank you

 

[Reefering1]

What is your current nutrient export strategy?

 

[Reef Devils]

What is your current nutrient export strategy?

I usually do weekly water changes. I have a skimmer and ReefMat.

 

[Reefering1]

If you manually remove the gha, how long does it take to come back? What fish/ cuc is in the tank?

 

[Magic031707]

You could try hydrogen peroxide and mb7 along with getting as much out manually..some good success stories myself included. Took about 17 days for it to be completely gone and I upped my CUC.

 

[Reef Devils]

If you manually remove the gha, how long does it take to come back? What fish/ cuc is in the tank?

Maybe 3 - 4 days.
I don’t know the exact amount of snails and hermits I have but probably a total of 35. Also 1 tuxedo urchin

 

[Reef Devils]

You could try hydrogen peroxide and mb7 along with getting as much out manually..some good success stories myself included. Took about 17 days for it to be completely gone and I upped my CUC.

How much of the hydrogen peroxide do you dose and what is mb7?

 

[Spare time]

I would up the clean up crew drastically and see what happens. If nothing works, try flux rx.

 

[aSaltyKlown]

You will need to remove most of it by hand. If you can take out rocks, you can scrub them and rinse in old tank water. I rinse under tap water once scrubbed, I'm sure that's frowned upon, but I've seen no I'll effects. I will also scrub in tank right before a large 50% or more water change.

"I know my nutrients aren’t high because I have tested them and I think the hair algae is consuming a lot of the nutrients." This means more phosphate is going in and not necessarily that you have a high value in the water.

The cleanup crew won't do anything when the algae is long. How large is the current CUC?
How long are you running the lights?

 

[santeeeyyy]

the worse is when you start getting it under control and then your tank crashes

 

[Reef Devils]

I would up the clean up crew drastically and see what happens. If nothing works, try flux rx.

What other clean up crew do you recommend?
I might go ahead and order flux rx. Is it reef safe?

 

[Reef Devils]

You will need to remove most of it by hand. If you can take out rocks, you can scrub them and rinse in old tank water. I rinse under tap water once scrubbed, I'm sure that's frowned upon, but I've seen no I'll effects. I've will also scrub tank right before a large 50% or more water change.

"I know my nutrients aren’t high because I have tested them and I think the hair algae is consuming a lot of the nutrients." This means more phosphate is going in and not necessarily that you have a high value in the water.

The cleanup crew won't do anything when the algae is long. How large is the current CUC?
How long are you running the lights?

Yeah I can’t take the rocks out. Most are glued together.

Maybe a total of 35 snail/ hermits combined in a 90 gallon. 1 tuxedo urchin.

The lights come on at 9:30 and go off at 7:30. Maybe light intensity is too high? I have 2 Red Sea 90 led. 70% blue and 10% white

 

[Reef Devils]

the worse is when you start getting it under control and then your tank crashes

Well I really hope that doesn’t happen lol.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

Yeah I can’t take the rocks out. Most are glued together.

Maybe a total of 35 snail/ hermits combined in a 90 gallon. 1 tuxedo urchin.

The lights come on at 9:30 and go off at 7:30. Maybe light intensity is too high? I have 2 Red Sea 90 led. 70% blue and 10% white

I agree with regular manual removal. As frequently as you can manage. In my case I was doing it at least twice a week for a year ( because after the hair algae comes the cyano!) if you can’t remove the rock and scrub off into a bucket, then siphon out with scrubbing with a stiff nylon brush/toothbrush. It’s frustrating but part of the maturation process.

 

[Jimbobalou622]

Hey,

I’ve been dealing with hair algae for the past month and a half or so. I can’t seem to stop it from growing like crazy. I know my nutrients aren’t high because I have tested them and I think the hair algae is consuming a lot of the nutrients. All of my corals still seem super happy, but some are starting to get covered by hair algae.

I ordered a tuxedo urchin and a bunch of snail but they haven’t done much. I think they haven’t done much because the hair is so long. I go in there and do a lot of manual removal, but it keeps coming back. what am I doing wrong here? Is there something that I could dose to kill his hair algae?

Thank you

How much are you feeding per day? Tank inhabitant list?

 

[rhduggan]

Do you have Astrea snails? Because those guys go through green hair like crazy. We only have three in our 42 gallon and they scraped our rocks so clean my daughter is worried we don’t have enough algae in our tank now. We also have three Turbo and three Nassarius snails, but it’s the little Astreas that attack the long, wavy stuff. My only concern now is the copious amount of snail turds everywhere!

 

[reefbliss2344]

Just out of curiosity...when was the last time you flushed your sump out for detritus?

 

[Reefering1]

Maybe 3 - 4 days.
I don’t know the exact amount of snails and hermits I have but probably a total of 35. Also 1 tuxedo urchin

There is no long term fast easy fix here, otherwise nobody would have gha problems. Chemicals can have a snowball effect for most except the most advanced reef keepers. I would start by manually removing as much as possible from the rocks, leave it on the back glass. This should keep it from smothering corals while you get things right, ime it seems continue growing on glass rather than sprout new growth on rocks. Add a couple grazing fish and ensure microfauna id robust. What size tank do you run? There are many options for nutrient removal, to keep residual levels reasonable enough for herbivores to keep up. Vodka dosing is my ticket to effortless and clean tank, but requires research, and close observations. There are many other tools(carbon dosing, refugium, ats, etc), all work best with herbivores.
Unless you want to poison your tank every time a problem arises and hope you're left with a healthy ecosystem

 

[aSaltyKlown]

I might go ahead and order flux rx. Is it reef safe?

I was corrected and Flux RX is good. I'd still manually remove as much as you can and make sure you get to the root of the issue.

I'd stay away from the likes of Vibrant that has algaecides that can cause other issues as it is non-discriminate on the algae it kills. This could lead to other organisms taking over.

The best thing I ever did for my first tank was to stop fiddling with it and adding this and that as a reaction. It will almost always cause another reaction that you must now resolve. Make sure to test at least twice a week, do you water changes and adjust feeding as needed. Use something like GFO, Phosguard or Phosphate RX to bring down po4 if it is high. Try to maintain a no3 of 10-20 and po4 from .05-.10 a little above either range is ok too.

I'd go down to 8 hours for your lights.
How old is the tank?

 

[Reefering1]

Is coraline growing?