Hair algae overload

[rbickle38]

Question for the gurus,

I have been keeping saltwater tanks for 30 plus years now. Recently moved my 125 gallon tank to a new house. Old live rock and coral sand. Built a new 40 gallon ṛefugium for it. Filled the tank with rodi water, coralife salt. Started with a few clowns. After a few weeks the hair algae started going nuts. I added a phosphate scrubber, adding algaefix, and physically removing it weekly. No sunlight to the tank. Cut down the lights to 4 hrs per day. Added snails and hermit crabs and 3 starfish. 0 ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Alkalinity is a little high. Ph is good. Just did a 30% water change. Still the algae is growing and the chaeto is dying off.

Any ideas?
Thanks
Rick

 

[JumboShrimp]

If you get desperate, at the office our FOWLR tank got neglected, so I added a Tuxedo Urchin, large Mexican Turbo Snail, and a Sea Hare all at once... we were desperate! Every spec of algae gone in 3-4 days. (24 gallon tank.) We had to start feeding seaweed pellets and Nori; Sea Hare got gigantic, and finally returned it to the LFS.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I would beef your CUC. Add some urchins, turbo snails, and some conch's. That should take care of your algae issues

 

[W31Olds]

You probably had a large nutrient spike after the move causing the Algae to explode. Most likely from the sand and rock. The Algae is probably taking up all the Nutrients and starving out the Chaeto. I also like Tuxedo Urchins. Your current CUC won't touch GHA. If you don't have Coral, I would lower the lights more or don't even turn them off. And continue with Manual removal.

 

[Pistondog]

Algae control is all about how much your herbivores can consume.
Get the algae amount to where the cuc can keep up, or get more herbivores.

 

[sgdnycct]

GHA can be tough. There’s a bunch of threads about it where you can read all kinds of opinions on dealing with it.

WC’s wont help much. The issue is nutrients le aching back into the water from the rock and substrate. You need to capture this nutrients before the GHA gets a chance. This is hard to do because GHA grabs it almost instantly.

You mentioned macro algae. Assuming you have a refugium. If so, what worked for me was increasing my fuge photo period to 16hrs per night. I kept my Chaeto large and only trimmed it in small amounts. The larger the Chaeto the faster it will grow- hopefully to the point where it’s starts to beat out GHA.

In the DT I used an Urchin to help control along with manual removal.

Things that won’t help are wc and lights out in the display. Scrubbing the rock will probably make it worse. You need the biofilm and healthier algae’s to survive. That leaves manual removal.

Anything that directly pulls phosphate out of the water consistently is the best way to go.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Nuclear Weapon (a/k/a giant Sea Hare)

 

[sgdnycct]

Nuclear Weapon (a/k/a giant Sea Hare)

These guys seem to work when they survive. From what I’ve seen sadly most die before they get a chance to do much.

I’m not clear on the right environment needed to be successful.

 

[JumboShrimp]

I've had several over the years, and probably had this one eating post-algae Nori for about 4 extra months, then returned him to the LFS. I agree. They are probably more utilitarian for a time, and not long-term pets. Plus, I didn't want to live on borrowed time and have it 'ink' the tank.

 

[kevinf]

Turbo snails are your friend. Theyre work horses

 

[Naturalreef]

Micro, and i mean micro dose reef flux. There is a thread on here, and a reef bum podcast on youtube where jason fox micro doses it. I have also done it successfully in a sps dominant tank. 2-3 week treatment. Have to address the problem, or it will come right back.

This treatment is meant for people that already have coral being choked out by gha. If time is on your side, use the starvation method.

 

[rbickle38]

Thanks for all of the replies. I have ordered some large turbo snails and urchins.
Forgot to mention that I am also running a large UV sterilizer and 3-165w led lights.

I also read on a faq here, that it's good to have activated charcoal in the sump. Do you all do that, and if so, where do you locate it in the water flow?

Thanks,
Rick

 

[sgdnycct]

Thanks for all of the replies. I have ordered some large turbo snails and urchins.
Forgot to mention that I am also running a large UV sterilizer and 3-165w led lights.

I also read on a faq here, that it's good to have activated charcoal in the sump. Do you all do that, and if so, where do you locate it in the water flow?

Thanks,
Rick

Watch the turbograzers. They come from cooler waters. If you run your temperature on the warmer side they could die. I’ve never had luck with them. Trochus work well for me and have a high survival rate.

 

[Bear22]

No mention of bacteria (change in biome) in this thread? There's heck of a lot more to do with algae blooms than just sand and live rock.

 

[sgdnycct]

No mention of bacteria (change in biome) in this thread? There's heck of a lot more to do with algae blooms than just sand and live rock.

The only connection I’ve seen with GHA and biome is the scraping of rock which kills off the biome in an attempt to control GHA.

Are you saying a biome change could trigger the GHA? If so would love to hear more.

 

[Bear22]

The only connection I’ve seen with GHA and biome is the scraping of rock which kills off the biome in an attempt to control GHA.

Are you saying a biome change could trigger the GHA? If so would love to hear more.

Yes, that's exactly what I am saying.

Harmful algal blooms are preceded by a predictable and quantifiable shift in the oceanic microbiome - Nature Communications

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) pose negative worldwide impacts that could be minimized through the development of a forecasting tool. Quantitative analysis of peptides produced by a coastal microbiome prior to a HAB reveals predictive biomarkers that can forecast bloom events over 24 hours in advance.

www.nature.com

 

[sgdnycct]

The only connection I’ve seen with GHA and biome is the scraping of rock which kills off the biome in an attempt to control GHA.

Are you saying a biome change could trigger the GHA? If so would love to hear more.

Yes, that's exactly what I am saying.

Harmful algal blooms are preceded by a predictable and quantifiable shift in the oceanic microbiome - Nature Communications

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) pose negative worldwide impacts that could be minimized through the development of a forecasting tool. Quantitative analysis of peptides produced by a coastal microbiome prior to a HAB reveals predictive biomarkers that can forecast bloom events over 24 hours in advance.

www.nature.com

How do we correlate this to a home aquarium? Water column in aquaria have lower quantities of planktonic life and tanks are rarely deep enough for light to be deeply affected by the bloom.

I’m not saying this article doesn’t apply, I just don’t see how it correlates.

 

[Mac8128]

One quick note that I'm pretty sure you are aware of. If you are running filter floss or socks, change them every day. Quickest way to export detritus before it breaks down into algae fuel.

I had some issues with GHA, I wound up taking five or six rocks that were fully covered with GHA out of the tank. I then covered all the GHA with straight 3% Hydrogen Peroxide using a turkey baster. Kept a constant stream of Hydrogen Peroxide on them for about 5 minutes. I manually removed what I could and then rinsed in old tank water and back into the tank. By the next day most of the GHA was turning white.

I added a Turbo snail and started changing my filter floss every night. I also started 1g water changes every 4 days, I have a 13.5g nano tank so it was pretty easy to get to the worst of the rocks and very small water changes are very easy, but bottom line, my tank is 90% clear of the GHA and my CUC seems to be able to keep up with what's left.

 

[Bear22]

How do we correlate this to a home aquarium? Water column in aquaria have lower quantities of planktonic life and tanks are rarely deep enough for light to be deeply affected by the bloom.

I’m not saying this article doesn’t apply, I just don’t see how it correlates.

The point of the article (you read the entire thing in 5 minutes?) is to illustrate how change(s) in the bacteria biome can trigger algae blooms. Not just live rock and sand bed upsets.

There are a ton of threads that talk about this via this forum. That is, changes in the bacteria biome.

Couple of empirical points from my own experiences:

I agitate my sand bed with a turkey baster 2-3 times a week religiously. I don't get algae blooms from disturbing the sand bed. I might get a bit of a bacteria bloom that lasts 15-30 minutes (sometimes less). My little redheaded goby loves this as he likes to follow along and scarf up the pods that I kick up.

Second, dosing something like Prazi-pro in your DT out of necessity is almost a guarantee to trigger some kind of algae bloom due to a bacteria upset. This is a common side-effect with the use of Prazi-pro.

Point being in all this? The same talking points get parroted on this topic and I thought I would add some other possibilities to consider.

 

[sgdnycct]

How do we correlate this to a home aquarium? Water column in aquaria have lower quantities of planktonic life and tanks are rarely deep enough for light to be deeply affected by the bloom.

I’m not saying this article doesn’t apply, I just don’t see how it correlates.

The point of the article (you read the entire thing in 5 minutes?) is to illustrate how change(s) in the bacteria biome can trigger algae blooms. Not just live rock and sand bed upsets.

There are a ton of threads that talk about this via this forum. That is, changes in the bacteria biome.

Couple of empirical points from my own experiences:

I agitate my sand bed with a turkey baster 2-3 times a week religiously. I don't get algae blooms from disturbing the sand bed. I might get a bit of a bacteria bloom that lasts 15-30 minutes (sometimes less). My little redheaded goby loves this as he likes to follow along and scarf up the pods that I kick up.

Second, dosing something like Prazi-pro in your DT out of necessity is almost a guarantee to trigger some kind of algae bloom due to a bacteria upset. This is a common side-effect with the use of Prazi-pro.

Point being in all this? The same talking points get parroted on this topic and I thought I would add some other possibilities to consider.

Wish I could read that fast. I skimmed through. It’s stuff that’s been mentioned in different ways before.

I do agree 100% that a healthy biome helps manage and stabilize our systems and there isn’t enough focus in that. I myself don’t run any mechanical filtration or do water changes in an attempt to keep as much living microfauna circulating. I’ve been doing that the last 5 years. Except for a mishap with the auto feeder during a long vacation- which ironically triggered a GHA infestation- this method has worked well for me and kept nuisance algae under control.