Losing battle with hair algae, thinking of throwing in the towel.

[IceNein]

Did you DIY a reactor? Assign equipment is tough with the limited real estate, as you know. I’ve though about a HOB fuge or adding a nano skimmer but I’d have to rearrange some equipment as my ATO and dosing tubing is hanging onto the main back filter compartment

If you're looking to DIY I saw someone post an upflow jobber contained in two half clamshells of plastic. The inside clamshell just has holes at the top and bottom for water flow, and air line to bubble air up through it, and a mesh for the algae to grow on, the outside clamshell had the light, the clamshell essentially shielded the light bleed.

It would be ugly to do in a display tank, but it would be totally feasible if you're interested in that option. It involves no electrical cords on the wet side, so pretty newbie friendly.

Given how expensive turf scrubbers are, it seemed pretty appealing. Maybe less effective, but pennies on the dollar.

 

[Kongar]

Dang that is expensive. Maybe down the road if I’m not able to get a handle on things haha

yup - or try a diy. I think there's an aquclear reactor out there for like $80. But you'll still be another benjamin for the pump, and I don't know what the strip lights will cost - probably another $50. I dunno, the cheapest DIY might still run $250ish. It's why I've had my tank for 4 years and never installed one - expensive AF. But I'm really tired of being the human snail/tang so I bit the bullet (and honestly expecting to fail again).

I think some people have done it with HOB filters and a stick on light - but nobody seems to think it makes a big difference. I tried the little mini protein skimmers - two of them in fact - they didn't make a difference. Nothing I couldn't achieve with an extra gallon or two of water during water changes. Only the urchin made a real dent in things - but he wasn't enough to keep up.

I'm hoping I can find stability by dosing nitrates, phosphates, and AFR - and not spend time scrubbing rocks and doing water changes. The water changes are easy, dosing is easy - it's the scrubbing rocks that I'm trying to eliminate. Scrubbing sucks.

 

[dvgyfresh]

Fight algae with algae , introduce chaeto in the display and add some more cleanup krew , you’d be surprised at how effective this is

 

[IceNein]

This was the one I was looking at yesterday. Considerably cheaper than $250, but it lacks in the aesthetics department, and it might not be the most efficient since it relies on a bubbler for forced flow instead of a pump. The bubbler is problematic in that bursting bubbles at the top of your tank are a recipe for salt creep. But still, it is an option.

My take on an a DIY Upflow Algae Scrubber

Here are some pics of my DIY algae scrubber. Based my design off Santa Monica's HOG. I used a bit of super glue and then silicon to incorporate the screen and tubing. Screen size is about 35 sq. Inches. I'm running it with a Whisper 60 gal air pump. I ordered an 18w deep red leds from ebay...

www.reef2reef.com

Upflow Algae Scrubber UAS

After reading a series of threads on various forums, I decided to make my own algae upflow scrubber. My design is inspired by @SantaMonica Thank you sir for all the information you have put out to the community! I originally started this thread on MASC, my local forum in Colorado, but decided...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[peterat33rpm]

Well, I got 4 turbos, 4 astreas, 5 nassarius and a small pincushion urchin today, they have plenty to munch on so hopefully they like algae. Pincushion is such a cool addition hopefully he’s less scarce than my rock boring that I barely see

 

[peterat33rpm]

Before getting dinos I had been dosing 5cc of Red Sea reef energy AB+ most days, does anyone have any experience with this when battling algae? Would it fuel algae or actually help my corals?

 

[CHSUB]

Before getting dinos I had been dosing 5cc of Red Sea reef energy AB+ most days, does anyone have any experience with this when battling algae? Would it fuel algae or actually help my corals?

I have been using for about 5 months; every other day mixed with reef frenzy, reef Roids, and brine shrimp. I directly feed it to corals. I thought maybe it was contributing to Cyano. However Cyano has completely disappeared and I have been using slightly more during feedings. It might fuel algae but it might also feed coral’s zooxanthellae. I’m extremely happy with my coral’s growth and color, believing that this product is at least partially responsible.

 

[cyclone21]

Get a bunch of Mexican turbos. I just put 18 in my 54gal corner tank for hair algae.. they are doing a really nice job.

 

[Kongar]

I'll also give an update with my chaeto reactor. It worked amazing for about a week and a half. However, now hair algae has invaded the reactor and surprise surprise, hair algae grows great in there too. :\ It's totally choking off the chaeto and now I'm having a hard time sustaining the reactor. I cleaned it out SUPER good - but you all know you never really get all the hair algae. I can see it's growing again pretty spectacularly inside the reactor.

That said - my display tank is better and my phosphates are lower. The hair algae isn't growing as tall and doesn't seem to be spreading as much. I'm thinking of holding the course for a while - do my best to keep the hair algae out of the reactor and outcompete it over time.

Not a magic bullet, as nothing in this hobby is, but progress. I wish I could find something that would touch the longer stuff. My blenny hates it, my urchin just rips it up and wears it as a hat, and I haven't seen any snail eat it when it's long. Maybe I'll try mexican turbos as Cyclone21 suggests.

 

[peterat33rpm]

I thought I would give an update to my tank about 5-6 weeks after posting this thread. I’ve been doing regular weekly 5 gallon (~20%) water changes with my own RODI water (Amazon RO buddy unit), and things are so much better. During changes I still scrub and manually remove algae but that now takes like 30-40 minutes rather than 2 hours to do a thorough job. I dose a capful of microbacter 7 with water changes when I remember to, not sure if it does anything. I had been dosing micro clean daily and didn’t feel like it was doing much. I also ditched the filter pad and now change filter floss in the first and third compartments of both sides of the rear chamber every 3-5 days.

My brain coral that started dying when things were at the worst is nearly dead, which sucks, but I’ve added a good chunk of GSP, a hammer, a hairy mushroom, and most recently a two headed torch all of which are doing really well. Some inverts have died recently but others are doing well, including both urchins which are probably significantly helping with the algae as well. I think frequent, regular water changes with full RODI water was the biggest thing.

Anyway, all this to say thanks for all the advice to everyone that posted in this thread, and maybe this experience can help someone down the line.

 

[Freenow54]

I thought I would give an update to my tank about 5-6 weeks after posting this thread. I’ve been doing regular weekly 5 gallon (~20%) water changes with my own RODI water (Amazon RO buddy unit), and things are so much better. During changes I still scrub and manually remove algae but that now takes like 30-40 minutes rather than 2 hours to do a thorough job. I dose a capful of microbacter 7 with water changes when I remember to, not sure if it does anything. I had been dosing micro clean daily and didn’t feel like it was doing much. I also ditched the filter pad and now change filter floss in the first and third compartments of both sides of the rear chamber every 3-5 days.

My brain coral that started dying when things were at the worst is nearly dead, which sucks, but I’ve added a good chunk of GSP, a hammer, a hairy mushroom, and most recently a two headed torch all of which are doing really well. Some inverts have died recently but others are doing well, including both urchins which are probably significantly helping with the algae as well. I think frequent, regular water changes with full RODI water was the biggest thing.

Anyway, all this to say thanks for all the advice to everyone that posted in this thread, and maybe this experience can help someone down the line.

Hang in there took me 6 weeks of relentlessly attacking it by scrubbing