So my tank is 4-5 years old and has within the last year had bad hair algae. It was taking over all of my rock. I had success using 2x 16 oz bottles of Vibrant dosed as recommended, but when I stopped using Vibrant (after I saw the thread saying that it wasn’t just bacteria) the hair algae came back.
Most recently I had a tank sitter overfeed during Christmas, which caused my nitrates to skyrocket to 100. In addition to water changes I re-started dosing vodka. My nitrates are now near zero. Phosphates were only 0.1 so I wasn’t worried about them.
After several weeks of dosing vodka my nitrate is (also) 0.1, and the hair algae is melting away. I also started running carbon a few weeks ago, but don’t expect that it contributed. FWIW I keep my Alk at around 8.5, Ca=415, Mg=1500, sal=1.025. I also now dose 1 ampule weekly of Biodigest.
Most recently I had a tank sitter overfeed during Christmas, which caused my nitrates to skyrocket to 100. In addition to water changes I re-started dosing vodka. My nitrates are now near zero. Phosphates were only 0.1 so I wasn’t worried about them.
After several weeks of dosing vodka my nitrate is (also) 0.1, and the hair algae is melting away. I also started running carbon a few weeks ago, but don’t expect that it contributed. FWIW I keep my Alk at around 8.5, Ca=415, Mg=1500, sal=1.025. I also now dose 1 ampule weekly of Biodigest.