How else to do battle with hair algae

[michika]

I'm suffering with a really nasty green hair algae break out, and I've run out of things to do to try and curb, and eventually cure it.

The outbreak started in late May, but really became uncontrollable in early June. I am 90% sure the original trigger was my switch to tap water in conjunction with prime from RO/DI. Since the outbreak started to get worse and worse I started researching how to get rid of it, and causes. I've never really had to deal with hair algae before, so this is pretty new for me.

Possible cures
- reduce feedings - DONE, tank only gets fed once a week.
- increase water quality - DONE, switched back to RO/DI
- increase flow, and or distribution of flow in tank – SEMI-DONE, added Hydor powerhead. Changing out spraybars for shorter bars, with loc-line fitting at the bottom.
- changing lighting spectrum - SEMI-DONE, changed out 10K PC to actinic, still debating on 175w MH
- more frequent and larger water changes - DONE, I'm still doing weekly water changes, but I've uped the amount to 7-10g per change.
- reduce photoperiod - SEMI-DONE, reduced artificial light sources, and I try to keep sunlight out of the tank as much as possible.
- manually remove algae - DONE, this nasty job is done a few times per week.

Today's parameters are as follows:
pH (8.0-8.2): 8.2
temperature: 79.5
Specific Gravity (1.025): 1.024
Ca (420): 360 ppm
Alkalinity (7-9): 4 dKH <-- I dosed for this after the tests.
Magnesium (1280): 1170 ppm
Nitrite, Nitrite, and Ammonia (0): 0 ppm
What else, other then working on getting my chemistry more in line, can I be doing?

June 30th
http://www.marineatomica.com/24gnano_june30_fulltank.jpg

July 9th - note the increased algae on the right, and on the gigas clam. It has also increased on the colony pictured in the center of the tank, which is directly in the path of flow of the hydor powerhead.
http://www.marineatomica.com/24gnano_july9_fulltank.jpg

[marie]

You forgot to add to your list "get more clean up crew" . I would recommend an abalone and/or some turbo snails.

Bristle worms are amazingly helpful as well. My husband spent 10 min one night watching a particularily large worm (12+ inches) clear a inch square patch of hair algae off the back glass.

My husband is away from home 6 weeks at a time and what do we do when he is home? Watch worms :redface:

[michika]

Thanks!
I added a larger clean up crew once I noticed the issue was getting out of hand, but I haven't seen an impact yet. Any other clean up crew recommendations? Snails in particular?

[Clown]

Just bought a Arrow crab and it ate just about all the crappy algae

[marie]

astreas are good for the glass but in my experience they very rarely go on the rock, cerith keep mostly to the sand and i have never had any luck keeping margaritas for any length of time. Turbos seem to make the most obvious dent in the algae.
I haven't had any experience with sea hares but I've heard they are wonderful algae eaters maybe you could borrow one from somebody for a few months

[Chowder]

You can also try a seahare but make sure your powerhead intakes are covered. They have a tendency of getting sucked into them. Have you tested for phosphates. Those can also feed algae .

[Snappy]

Catherine I would call Neil and get about 50 blue legged hermits and your algae will be gone by Sept - Oct. It worked for me last fall. You saw my tank so imagine it full of hair algae and then gone 3 months later from hermit crabs.:wink:

[Delphinus]

I'll second the abalone suggestion, they're very very cool. Almost as good at nuisance algae control as a seahare, but seem to be less prone to starving themselves out (seahares eventually eat all the hair algae, then starve, unless they adapt to other food, but more don't than do).

There are some smaller abalones that would do well in a tank this size. I know Elite here in Calgary usually has the ones that are about 2" in size. Mine that I've got is a solid 8" so maybe a little too big for a tank your size, so watch out for the smaller ones. Mine is green, but these smaller ones at Elite that I've seen were more brownish.

Another wicked algae eater I've got is a green urchin. I have not been able to ID the species of urchin as it does not match any of the ones I've been able to research. It looks just like the temperate species urchin "green urchin" but a smaller scale model thereof. Basically, think a decorator urchin or blue tuxedo urchin, but all green.

Seahares are basically the ultimate algae eaters though. Just be advised that they starve once the tank is clean. Although I did have one that took a liking to the nori I feed my tang everyday, so he did fine for almost two years before meeting his end in a powerhead. :( (Which was weird, because he crawled onto powerheads without incident all the time, just eventually one time it ended badly.). But I think it's more the exception than the rule, if they won't eat any offered foods you're better off to lend him out, or sell him, to the next tank that has an algae problem.

Anyhow hope these suggestions help..

[andresont]

http://www.hiddenreef.ca/storefront/storefront.php?function=viewproduct&productid=370&categoryid=112

This Phosban Reactor works good for me, when i got this running in my system algae got down very fast thogh i had way less then you are.

[michika]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions.

I'm hesitant to add more to my clean up crew as they aren't currently making any dent in the issue. I currently have ~35 hermits, the bulk of which are blue legs, 15 various snails, turbos, astreas, and cerith's. I also have a handful of bumble bees, and a lipstick conch. I'm worried that adding more will have the same effect of nothing. Am I seeing no direct benefit from my clean up crew because its too small?

Does anyone have a link for abalones? I want to research their care and requirements more before I look into purchasing one.

My tank is quite small, so I will have to pass on a seahare, or an urchin, as they will probably be too large in my system. What about a lawnmore blenny?

Can anyone make other recommendations, other then adding livestock, and other then what is on my list above?

[dreef]

I second the phosban reactor..i too tried everything,better husbandry,snails,urchins,rabbit and tang.Was fighting a losing battle.Bought a reactor and three weeks later, gone..nothing i now feed nori to the tang and rabbitfish :)

[Delphinus]

Lawnmower blenny doesn't eat filamentous algae, what they eat is film algae. Actually some don't adapt to prepared foods very well and tend to starve out.

The green urchin is not very large. It's about 1.5" - 2". We're not talking diadema type urchins, indeed, too big for your tank. It looks like a blue tuxedo urchin but is green.

Abalones are awesome. Hardy, not too demanding. Here's a link: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/abalones.htm

I do feed nori to my tank and suspect that the abalone probably gets some of that at night. Also sometimes I put in some chaeto for the rabbitfish and I think he also cleans up whatever the rabbit doesn't do in.

[Slick Fork]

Is this a bryopsis algae? I have been pulling my hair out with that stuff for ages and have recently tried the magnesium treatment. Sorry I can't find the link but a search on this site should give the link to the one on reef central.

I am 2 weeks into it and almost 100% algae free. I had a blenny pass away on me earlier this week but I don't know if the magnesium had anything to do with it. I've been adding it much slower than everyone else did (haven't even hit target levels yet) and my other fish are ok so I'm hesitant to blame magnesium for his death. I did have a small ammonia spike when the algae started dying off as I think the algae was sucking up a lot of pure ammonia and just died too quickly. Otherwise no negative effects.

Another tactic would be to try 3 days of darkness. Again there's a thread on RC and I believe it was in reef keeping magazine a month or two to ago as well so digging it up shouldn't be too hard. People seem to have had good results with that.

[michika]

I know what the Mg treatment is. I don't think its bryopsis, well at least not the larger portion of the algae. I'm still trying to raise my Mg levels, anyways because I feel they are a bit on the low side.

I haven't yet tried the darkness method yet, but maybe I will try it out.

Delphinius,

What does the urchin eat after its devoured all the GHA in my tank? Did you ever have problems with them picking up or moving too much around? I'm worried that it will devistate my SPS field, and hurt my clams.

I'm going to skip on the lawnmore blennie. I've never had one before so I thought I might as well ask.

I'm going to try and source out an abalone, and then go from there.

For those who have suggested a phosban reactor, I don't have the room for one. I already have a phosban reactor running as a kalk. reactor in my top off bucket. How has everyone else plumbed a reactor into their system? Photos if you have them.

So for now I'm going to try and do the following:
- Add more clean up crew, more snails
- Try a few days of complete darkness
- Look into an abalone & or an urchin
- Try to see if I could add on a phosban reactor.

Any other suggestions?

[Okguy]

Regardless of what critters you use to help control to outbreak, you still need to address the source or the problem. I agree with you that the tap water caused the problems by probably adding phosphates to the system.

Have you tested for phosphates? Do you use phosphate remover?

Even if the phosphate readings are 0 they still may be present since hair algae is very efficient at using it. Also remember that as the hair algae dies it puts the phosphates back into the water column which is then available to help colonize other areas of your tank. If you currently don't use phosphate remover, you may want to consider doing so. I know you don't have room for a phosban reactor but you may have room to put a bag of phosphate remover in.

I'm just getting over a bad outbreak of hair algae but mine was caused by an old bulb (you might want to check this as well). When I replaced the bulb the problem didn't go away, but as soon as I started using phosphate remover the algae began to subside.

[ponokareefer]

Hi there,

I battled hair algae for a couple of years trying all of the things you have tried, even an abalone, with little success. The phosban slowed things down, as did all of the other things, but what cleaned out my tank almost completely was a tuxedo urchin. Best $15 I ever spent. In a matter of 2 months, it is almost completely gone. It only took about 2 weeks to see most of it gone, now it slowly nibbles at the rest. It was fun watching it rip the algae right off the rocks and carry it around for a while! And unlike slugs, when an urchin dies, it doesn't take out part of your system with it, like the one I tried. If you are worried about feeding it after all the algae is gone, just pick up some Ocean Nutrition Algae Sheets. They love them!
Good luck with whatever choice you make in the battle.

[michika]

Okguy,

I've already changed out my bulbs. I do run a phosphate remover in a filter media bag just below the return pipe.

The difference between running it in a filter bag, and running a reactor is that I have to find how to push most, if not all, of my water through the reactor. If you have a suggestion for how to add in or run a reactor in a small space, please let me know.

Ponokareefer,

Did you ever have problems with your urchin knocking stuff over, or causing damage?

[Reefer Rob]

Second the Tuxedo. It eats the soft algae and doesn't strip the Coraline like my short spine does.

Best thing I ever did for algae in my tank was set up an algae refugium with Chaeto. All the nasties grow in the refugium due to the more favourable light spectrum and not in the display.

You can also blast the patches with hot RO/DI water. It will die overnight. Just be careful around your corals, and don't do too much at once in a small tank.

[ponokareefer]

My urchin does occasionally pick up rubble, but hasn't moved any larger items, and my rock structure is not glued together. I do glue down my frags though, and it hasn't moved any of them. It has taken one of my clips off the glass that held the algae strip and hid it under a rock on me. I don't have clams, but do have anemones, frogspawn, blastomoussa, an open brain and branching hammer corals, and it doesn't bother any of them. My frogspawn, brain and hammer's are not glued down, and it doesn't move them. It has carried a couple of snails around and some crabs, but put them down after a while. It did clean a little coraline algae off my conch, but didn't move it.
I also set up a refugium with chaeto, and the algae was slowly dwindling, but the urchin sped things up for me. I think that I had corrected the problems that led to the algae, but just couldn't get rid of what was there. At least not fast enough for my liking.

[michika]

I already have a refugium set up, and it doesn't seem to be doing much. My cheato is growing at what I would call normal pace.

I can't blast anything with hot RO/DI as my tank is just too small and I have too many corals. It would for sure kill something.

Okguy,

I have tested for phosphates, but it reads 0. Obviously because there is still growth in the tank there are still phosphates in the system. At this point in time I'm starting to think testing for phosphates is a waste of my time. I know I have them, as they are contributing to the algae growth, yet all tests show that there is 0.

[Delphinus]

Hey Catherine,


Delphinius,

What does the urchin eat after its devoured all the GHA in my tank? Did you ever have problems with them picking up or moving too much around? I'm worried that it will devistate my SPS field, and hurt my clams.

It seems to me that urchins are more adaptive (or adaptable) than, say, seahares.

Each species has their own preferences though, making them better or worse than others for particular algae types.

For example, I have a diadema urchin, and... to be honest I'm not sure what his preference is. But this thing eats like a pig. I can feed it pellets, flake, chaeto, .. you name it, as long as it's a herbivore feed he seems to eat it like nuts. I really need to film a video of it catching flake and eating it because it is like nothing I have seen before. He does actually pick out flake from the water column.

The tuxedo type urchins seem to rasp the rockwork and glass. They're after coraline algae usually, but something you get this fuzzy hard algae that grows on coraline, they'll totally remove that in the effort to get at the coraline.

I bought a "math" urchin in an effort to get at some problematic caulerpa on my rocks. While he took care of it, he's also a "boring" (I don't mean "uninteresting") type urchin meaning he actually burrows into rock (by eating the live rock to make a hole large enough to fit into).

This green urchin of mine, that I have not been able to ID, has been a hair algae eating machine. I see him on my nori feeding stick at night so I think that's what he eats now that the tank has been cleaned of hair algae (for the most part). I'll try to snap a picture of him. Think "blue tuxedo urchin" but completely green. I've not seen an ID of this species anywhere online. Colby at Elite seemed to know it though, he said "this one is good for algae" and he called that one right. I wish I could find you an ID because this is the one you want. The others, .... probably not so much.

I have a blue tuxedo and the math urchin in the tank with my clams, there are no issues of interaction with them whatsoever.

Anyhow, I hope some of this info helps. At some point, I'll try to get a picture of the green urchin to show you so that you know what to look for.

[ponokareefer]

I initially tested for phosphates as well, and they were 0, and the algae was growing. I switched my water source to RO, along with all the other suggestions and just stopped checking. I know everyone says you need to find the problem, but mine wasn't going away, and until I got the urchin, it was only shrinking barely.

[michika]

How about a photo? Something I can take with me when I go shopping.

Is the green a dark green or more of a turquiose?

[Delphinus]

Ummm ... sort of a "light green" I guess. I'll take a photo of it tonight and post it.

[christyf5]

I had a tuxedo urchin that cleared up some hair algae I had growing on the underside of my centerbrace (eventually I took some teeth out of the overflow to reduce the water level). He was a great addition to the tank, ate various types of algae, constantly plastered various rocks, caulerpa and stray zoos all over himself and (most importantly IMO) stayed small.

Currently I have a diadema urchin which arrived as a hitchhiker on a rock. He was about the size of a pencil eraser when I moved at the beginning of April. "So cute, I think I'll keep him" His test is now the size of a small mandarin orange and his spines are easily 12-15 cm long. So suffice it to say they are speedy growers. He also eats rock. He makes lovely little piles of granular sand all over the place. I often wonder how long it would take him to whittle all the rock in the tank down to just sand (not to mention how long it will be before I stick myself with one of his spines):razz:

IMO, hair algae is one of those things that come on fairly quickly, and like everything else in this hobby takes forever to get rid of (ie. browning out of corals in like 2 days then months to color up again :confused). Between RODI usage and a phosban reactor (or even phosban in a filter bag in a high flow area) it should clear up on its own albeit slowly. It may help to pull some of the longer bits out by hand and then siphon any stray bits.

[Pescador]

My old 125 looked just like your tank and I was just about ready to throw in the towel.
I don't know what the solution was for sure but I put in three diadema urchins, a new skimmer, and changed to Tropic Marin salt. It cleaned up pretty fast after that.
I still think it was switching salt but that's pretty hard to prove. It's never come back anyway.
Good luck and hang in there.

[michika]

I'm thinking that I will look for an urchin, but only after I've found a way to secure all my SPS frags down.

Until then I guess I'll just conitnue with the points I outlined above, and with what I've already been doing. I hope this nasty outbreak takes care of itself soon, because its making my tank look like quite the eyesore.

[Delphinus]

Honestly, I think it's an unadvertised rite of passage for most reef tanks to go through a cycle like this in their first few months or so... This tank is about that, isn't it? If so ... continue on, as you are doing, and it should clear itself eventually. It's when the tank does have measureable nasties like nitrates and phosphates that you can't account for when you start to have REAL headaches. For example, my ritteri tank, just can't keep nitrates under 30. :( I can't keep any corals in that kind of sewage. Where do they come from? I have no idea, it's not like I overfeed, it's not like I don't have a good skimmer. I guess it's just having a 24" anemone turns out to be a bioload beyond my wildest imagination. But weirdly I dont' really have any filamentous algaes in the main tank except for in the overflow strainers. I guess the urchins, rabbit and abalone are basically keeping things clean that way. But I do get the occasional bad bout of cyano, man I wish I could figure out a way to deal with this nitrate problem (tank is about 1.5 years old now).

[Okguy]

Okguy,

I've already changed out my bulbs. I do run a phosphate remover in a filter media bag just below the return pipe.

The difference between running it in a filter bag, and running a reactor is that I have to find how to push most, if not all, of my water through the reactor. If you have a suggestion for how to add in or run a reactor in a small space, please let me know.

What about a small hang-on filter? Anything that forces the water through the media bag should do? I'm using my fluval 304 that I normally run empty obviously too big for you but, I've seen small hang on fluvals for dirt cheap at local pet stores (of course I can't find one online to show you). :redface:


Okguy,

I have tested for phosphates, but it reads 0. Obviously because there is still growth in the tank there are still phosphates in the system. At this point in time I'm starting to think testing for phosphates is a waste of my time. I know I have them, as they are contributing to the algae growth, yet all tests show that there is 0.


I agree with you all my phosphate readings were also 0 but thought it might be worth a try....

I just finished reading the blog on your website and it basically shot down some of my other theories (contaminated base rock and lighting).

But there was some info I couldn't get that might be contributing to the problem.

1) How many and what type of fish do you have in the tank? I see you have at least 1 Tang in there, which will create a lot of waste for the algae to feed on.

2) What is the flow rate. I think you're somewhere between 20-30 times but I couldn't find what return pump you are using.

3) What salt are you using? I've read that some salts can cause the problems (of course I can't remember which or find the thread) :redface: but maybe someone else can chime in on this one

4) How many pounds of live rock do you have in the system?

5) Is the tank 3 months old? If so this might be part of it's maturing process. If this is the case you might just have to wait it out.

I'm willing to bet it's #5 but you never know. If you find a way to get the water to flow through the phosphate remover you can turn algae cover rocks over (if no corals are attached to it). The lack of light should kill it and the phosphate remover will lock up the phosphates they release. Just don't turn them all at once as this would probably cause a nitrate spike in your system.

I agree with Delphinus this is a rite of passage and it will only take a few minor adjustments and time before you are algae free.

Good Luck!

[michika]

Okguy

To answer your questions:
1) fish are the orange shoulder (~1"), who is leaving in the next few weeks, and a six line wrasse.
2) Off the top of my head I don't know what the flow rate is. The return pump is a mag 7, and I'm using a hydor koralia 1 in the display for additional flow. The returns, which come through spray bars, are on a SCWD.
3) I'm using Red Sea Coral Pro.
4) I guess around 30lbs in the display, ~5lbs in the sump, but really its just a pile of frag plugs for pods to propagate in.
5) The tank is actually parts from my 230g, so everything in the tank (aside from new SPS additions and a clam) is around 2-3 years old. The rock has been with me since I started in 2003, so its certainly not new rock.

If its a right of passage, shouldn't this have happened in one of my first tanks? This is like my 5th tank, and I've never had to deal with this stuff before. Sometimes I wonder if its the PC bulbs, because before this system I never used supplimental lighting... This is so frustrating.

The strangest thing is that this tank used to be set up in the basement of my house while I was preparing to move, and while the 230g tank was dismantled, I didn't have any algae problems before. The only things that changed between then and now are that I used tap water for a few weeks, I added a chiller, added the hydor powerhead (to combat the algae), and some SPS frags.

I have to say GHA is worse then getting your tank wiped out by red bugs.

[Okguy]

1) good
2) flow is about 800 gph or 33 times which is Ok
3) did a quick search on another site and found most people felt it had phosphates in it and also messed with Alk and Calcium levels. I can't confirm this personally but maybe worth investigating
4) personally think it's a little low but close enough not to worry about (I like 1.5 x 2 times the volume)
5) a new tank is a new tank, even if it's part of an old tank. It takes time for a new setup to find its equilibrium. Everytime you make a change a new equiliqrium needs to be reached.

[michika]

I doubt its the salt, half of the same batch is being used in our other tank, no algae issues there. I've also used Red Sea for almost two years now, and I quite like the results, I'm not seeing any of the issues that other people are staying they've found.

I don't think I could safely put any more rock in the display or sump, so I've personally reached my maxium. My water volume is only around 40g total, so 35ish lbs is enough for me.

Regardless, I got what I asked for from this thread, other suggestions to combat the hair algae. I know what caused it, and now I have a few more options with which I can choose from and implement when the time is right. So that being said, thank you everyone for commenting and providing me your suggestions.

[mark]

A cure for algea http://216.187.96.54/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=259464#post259464

[michika]

A cure for algea http://216.187.96.54/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=259464#post259464

My tank is far too small for a foxface, but thank you for the suggestion.

[Delphinus]

Here's a pic of the green urchin I was able to grab tonight..

http://members.shaw.ca/hobiesailor/aquaria/misc/greenurchin.jpg

(If anyone can take a stab at an ID I'd love to hear it ... :) )

[michika]

Thanks for the photo. Now I have a good idea on what to be on the look out for.

Sorry, no guesses on the ID.

[Snappy]

[quote=michika;259382]Thank you everyone for your suggestions.

I'm hesitant to add more to my clean up crew as they aren't currently making any dent in the issue. I currently have ~35 hermits, the bulk of which are blue legs,quote]

Put your hermits in the sump to starve for a few weeks and then they will eat whatever you place them on. Just place them right on a patch of algae and let em' go. It worked for me.

[michika]

Thanks!

[christyf5]

Here's a pic of the green urchin I was able to grab tonight..

http://members.shaw.ca/hobiesailor/aquaria/misc/greenurchin.jpg

(If anyone can take a stab at an ID I'd love to hear it ... :) )

Lytechinus variegatus ??

[Delphinus]

That's my best guess but it doesn't look quite right. The distribution for the species is Carribean and eastern U.S. seaboard so that fits. But the "needles" don't look quite right and also the max size seems a bit larger than what this is (test max 85mm, overall size 110mm) which is about twice as large as what this one is. Maybe he's still a young'un..

See how the needles are quite stout looking, mine doesn't have those:
http://www.dpo.uab.edu/~acnnnghm/BY255L/BY255LImages/Echinodermata/Lytechinusvariegatus-1-Aboral.jpg

Anyhow, sorry for the hijack/tangent there Catherine .. Whatever this urchin is that I've got, he's been a good algae muncher.