I’m having algae issue

[Raazka]

Hi all, for the last 11 months I’ve been having serious algae issues in my tank that I just can’t pinpoint how to get rid of.

It’s green/brown in coloration and will either appear as long hairs on the sand and rocks or just as a fine layer on the sand. Snails and hermits don’t seem to touch it at all.

At first I thought it was a phosphate issue (parameter was always at 0) but I’ve stopped doing water changes for almost 4 weeks now and phosphates/nitrates haven’t gone up at all and the algae hasn’t stopped coming back.

Any idea what this algae could be and how to get rid of it? I only have a 30 gal so no tangs for me and already have a blenny (not a lawnmower).

Here a link to a video I took of the algae in question ;



TYI!

 

[commod0re]

My first guess would be that that algae is consuming all of your nitrate/phosphate
you will probably need to get in there and manually remove it

 

[Dragen Fiend]

Looks like your standard case of hair algae.

Its sucking up all the nutrients. So while your reading 0. Its actually higher but its consuming it rapidly.

So how do we go from here?

First and foremost. I would add CUC's to help clean the tank up. Sand sifters like nassarius snails. Mexican turbo and trochus snails will tackle hair algae. Mine like to mow through it. You can add a urchin to help.

You can also hand pluck as much as you can. Dial back feedings slowly while you tackle the hair algae.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I also noticed no flow in the video, nothing is moving. Algae loves low flow area's, trying increasing the flow. More flow also pushes more water into your filtration system, and helps in having an overall healthier tank.

 

[Raazka]

My first guess would be that that algae is consuming all of your nitrate/phosphate
you will probably need to get in there and manually remove it

I’ve been doing that as much as I can but I’ll try and do it everyday if that can beat it aha

 

[Raazka]

Looks like your standard case of hair algae.

Its sucking up all the nutrients. So while your reading 0. Its actually higher but its consuming it rapidly.

So how do we go from here?

First and foremost. I would add CUC's to help clean the tank up. Sand sifters like nassarius snails. Mexican turbo and trochus snails will tackle hair algae. Mine like to mow through it. You can add a urchin to help.

You can also hand pluck as much as you can. Dial back feedings slowly while you tackle the hair algae.

I do have a tuxedo urchin but he’s been mostly hanging out on the rocks and the walls, I’ll add in more sand-shifters tho. We have red turbos at my job would they help a lot?

 

[Raazka]

I also noticed no flow in the video, nothing is moving. Algae loves low flow area's, trying increasing the flow. More flow also pushes more water into your filtration system, and helps in having an overall healthier tank.

I have two powerheads but they’re aimed at the surface, I’ll change the direction of my weakest one towards that area. Didn’t know that flow helped with algae ty :)