Hair Algae Problem

[AJP279]

Question: I have a 210-gallon salt water tank, which is drained through an inside wall…from my living room to my office…and into a 165-gallon refugium; best guess adds another 85 gallons of water. In the refugium there are 5 sections: ceramic balls; 300-gallon protein skimmer; 28” of Miracle Mud (or similar product, crushed coral, basketball size of chaeto; foam physical filter; and the return. The refugium is lit by a very small LED light I got from Amazon for about $25.00 USD, and is on 24 hours a day…7 days a week...brightest setting.


The tank is cleaned professionally once a month…about 65 gallons are cycled out and in each service. The tank is occupied by: 1 medium to large (not sure of the difference) Sailfin Tank…the good looking version. When he is all spread out he is about the size of an average man’s palm. In addition, the tank is occupied by a medium sized snowflake clown. There are a number of snails…no turbos, but I’m not sure of the exact count. I also have a long spined urchin. The entire back glass is covered in green polyp, which when view from the front gives a much deeper appearance. There are a few other corals…but all fairly small.


The tank is lit by four kessils, and a hybrid tube lighting system…not sure of the brand, but they are all rigorously controlled by the timed control box thingy.


Long story short…the water always tests great, and it’s been set up for about 2 years…maybe a bit more. Unfortunately, I’m battling this massive spike in hair algae that kills everything. I have tried various fixes…but nothing seems to work, and I refuse to believe that two fish are too much for the tank. As for feeding…there are days were I don’t feed…they eat the algae or starve.


As for feeding its small amounts of flake food…on occasions a mix of fresh sea food.


Any ideas on the cause and fixes for the hair algae?

 

[Bleigh]

Just spit balling, but have you tried a hair algae scrubber? Maybe intentionally growing it in a space where you can more easily remove it will help you keep it out of the actual tank?

 

[ZoWhat]

IME.... po4 is the culprit behind hard to fight GHA problems. no3 not so much.

I'd start an investigation on true po4 testing, then locate its potential sources. Phosphorus makes its way into the tank a multitude of ways, water source, food, food additives, you name it. PO4 is an abundant resource that easily makes it into the tank.

I'm a huge believer in using Lanthanum Chloride that can be bought as a Phosphate remover that sells swimming pool supplies....or on Amazon

I use this bottle:

But this stuff is wicked and is to be majorly respected and thoroughly knowledged on how to use it.

Mix at 0.5ml to 1ml per 2gals of RODI sloooooowly dripped at one droplet per 10 seconds into a 5micron filter sock that's simultaneously being fed 250gph of tank water thru a hose inside the sock with LaCl dripping ever so slowly.

Here's my setup (magnify it to read the different parts of the setup)

Driprate should be at 3 days to drip 2gals of RODI mixed with 1ml the above product. Any more than that (say 2x, 3x), you're likely to have stressed fish, potentially dying fish if too much LaCl is being dripped haphazardly

The filter sock filters out the bonded-PO4 to form a light brown film inside the 5micron sock. The film is the po4 coming right out of your water column.

You eliminate your po4, you'll starve out your GHA

 

[AJP279]

Just spit balling, but have you tried a hair algae scrubber? Maybe intentionally growing it in a space where you can more easily remove it will help you keep it out of the actual tank?

Not yet...looking into that now...thanks

 

[jt8791]

Pincushion urchins seem pretty good at at mowing it down if you want a natural option, I also just like urchins. Turning white, red and green lights down helps as well. Would think the fuge would be out competing it.

Worked for me but the chaeto did too well and bottomed nutrients out and ended up with dinos. So don’t overdo it, I’d rather deal with gha than Dino’s. Plenty of stuff to eat gha, I had bought some turbo snails as well but haven’t seen them since the Dino’s popped up.

 

[Pistondog]

Get a better refugium light
COB LED Grow Light Full Spectrum, CANAGROW 100W Waterproof Grow Lights for Indoor Plants, Plant Growing Lamp with New Technology, Natural Heat Dissipation Without Noise

 

[ColoredRock]

about 65 gallons are cycled out and in each service.

Im the last one to take advice from.. (just getting back in the game) but have you tested what they are using for the water changes?

 

[czoolander]

I recently had a really bad GHA problem too . I beat it in just under a month . I was dosing NOPOX daily depending what my phosphates and nitrates were reading. essentially dosing the NOPOX I starved out the GHA and it died off . Once the GHA was on the decline I started dosing vibrant once a week .

I also added some cats eye turbo snails and trochus snails. They helped I am sure but I would say the biggest difference was NOPOX . I instantly saw my phosphate and nitrate drop the next day after my first dose

 

[Bleigh]

Get a better refugium light
COB LED Grow Light Full Spectrum, CANAGROW 100W Waterproof Grow Lights for Indoor Plants, Plant Growing Lamp with New Technology, Natural Heat Dissipation Without Noise

I’ve used this same one for ages. Until I switched to an algae scrubber. Definitely a good light