HA is getting me down

[Koresample]

My tank is undergoing a surprisingly persistent growth of HA right now, and has been for about 2 months. I will tell you all the things i have, and have done, in the order i have done them in and include all my chemistry, any help is welcome!

40 gallon tank 24 x 24 x24
1 X Koralia 2
1 X Koralia 3
1 X koralia nano
AC 110 converted to a fuge
Tunze 9002
Odyssey 250w HQI + 2 X 65w PC fixture (brand new)
4 stage RO/DI water, TDS measures 0

2 False Percula Clowns
1 Mandarin dragonet
1 coral banded shrimp
clean up crew misc snails, crabs
Various softies and a few LPS

50 lbs LR + 60 lbs of LS
Ph 8.3, dKH 9.3, MG 1340, CA 440, Nitrate,nitrate 0, Ammonia 0, Phosphate 0
DD Salt


i have followed all the things in Mindy's guide to kill this stuff off;

Hacked at it with scissors, and did a 25% water change every two days four times

added a TLF Phosban reactor and have cycled 250 ml of rowaphos through once per month

Increased the Mg to 1600 for several weeks (lots of good corraline growth:lol:)

Upped the water changes to 50% once per week, for the last three weeks

removed about 5-6 lbs of rock to increase flow around and through the LR

There is so much flow that even the mandarin has to hang onto the rock for dear life and the Clowns have hosted in my Colt!

Arrrrrgh!

Does anyone have any other suggestions or ideas??

:deadhorse:

[Chin_Lee]

not joking and i've done this several times and it has worked everytime. I'm not going to take credit for this idea because I learned it from someone, somewhere, sometime ago (i have no idea.....)

This is the hard part: You will need to jury rig something to make this work but basically you need a bottle that you can attach a semi-stiff tube to the top of the bottle. I used a 1 liter rubbermaid plastic container that is flexible that had one of those tops with a white straw nozzle that folds down when you are not drinking (and fold up when you want to drink). Pull off this white nozzle and there should be a hole where the water comes out. Find tubing that will fit into this hole or drill a hole to fit the tubing you have. Insert the tubing only about half inch (don't push it all the way to the bottom)

Easy but a little risky park:
Fill the bottle with BOILING (on the stove and boiling like a stuck pig) hot water and screw on the top. Insert the tube into the water and invert the bottle upside down. Watch where you point the the end of the tube as you are capping as the hot water will push out easily.

Easy part:
Squirt the hot water slowly and steadily over the area of hair algae for about 5 seconds. You want a slow constant flow of hot water over the root area of the algae. Don`t worry about your fish - they will get out of the way. It won`t die right away, just wait about 2-3 days and you will notice that area of hair algae is melting away.

Try it and see if it works for you. It worked for me and it started a chain reaction through my tank. As soon as a large patches started dying, they started to all disappear. Ì`m not sure if the fishes are eating the cooked part of the hair alge but i never find any floathing around. they just kinda melt away or got eaten.

DONT use a turkey baster with the hot water. The hot water`s steam will expand and push the hot water out.

try it out and lmk if it works.

[BlueWorldAquatic]

I know I had a bit of an outbreak on my personal tank, and my Lawnmower Blenny wasn't keeping up. I added a Scopas Tang, and it was all gone in 3 days. Nothing has come back either.

I know thet the Lawnmower didn't like the long algae, but my dragon (brown bar) did.

Check your lighting too.


Ken

[Koresample]

thanks guys, i've tried both of those methods...Scopa died (then subsequently my clown skunk) and the boiling water didn't do much, even after trying it for several weeks (bottle method, not turkey baster) :laluot_14:

[tlo]

you could always get a sea hare. Hair algae is all they eat, so once it's gone -you;ll have to pass it on.

[Koresample]

the root problem must be coming from somewhere though...i have taken rock out and scrubbed it clean with a wire brush while changing the water and poof...one week later its right back again!

I was feeding my corals nutra kol nutra plus liquid food (about 15 drops/day) plus phytofeast (about 20 drops/day) for about 2 months. I haven't fed them that stuff for two months now and i only feed them about 1/4" x 1/4" of either flake or fresh mysis shrimp (minus the juice), once per day.

[tlo]

It may be leaching out of your rock. Did you get your rock from another reefer? It may have been soaking up all those phosphates from your previous feeding regieme and is now feeding the algae.

[michika]

It may be leaching out of your rock. Did you get your rock from another reefer? It may have been soaking up all those phosphates from your previous feeding regieme and is now feeding the algae.

And we have a winner!

I also did battle with hair algae, and ultimately the source was that phosphates were leaching from the rock and feeding the algae. The two options you have are a) let it cook in your tank, or b) remove and swap and either cook elsewhere, or dry it out.

I personally ended up letting it cook in the tank. I just did weekly maintenance of removing the hair algae and doing a regular waterchange shortly there after.

The best clean up crew I had, and still have, is a long-spine urchin. Great choice for a clean up crew, but they do grow very large.

Just so you have an idea of how bad it was in that tank:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b286/michika/DSC_0120.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b286/michika/DSC_0110.jpg

[naesco]

you could always get a sea hare. Hair algae is all they eat, so once it's gone -you;ll have to pass it on.


+1

BTW, blue water, a 40 gallon is much too small for any tang.

[noirsphynx]

a blue tuxedo urchin is working awesome in my tank (which is almost the same size as yours).

[Pier Pressure]

I, too, am having a brutal hair algae outbreak. We bought a sea hare but he died before he got even halfway through the algae. Our tank is only 28 gallons so a tang is out. What is the best small fish for eating this stuff? We could turn him shark-size with all the hair algae in the tank!

[fishytime]

I would agree with the "bio-organic phosphate leaching from the rock" theory.....how old is the tank?.....also PCs are great at growing algae.....try disconnecting the 10k pc for a while

[fishytime]

I, too, am having a brutal hair algae outbreak. We bought a sea hare but he died before he got even halfway through the algae. Our tank is only 28 gallons so a tang is out. What is the best small fish for eating this stuff? We could turn him shark-size with all the hair algae in the tank!

Mexican turbo snails?

[Pier Pressure]

Does anyone know who might have these Mexican turbo snails in stock?

[fishytime]

Well RC does of course:biggrin:....have seahares too.

[Myka]

I have been trying to help KoreSample for probably 3 or 4 weeks via PM, and I told him to post here to see if someone can figure something else out. I also came to the conclusion of the rock leaching - at least that's the only idea I have left! :lol:

[Koresample]

i just did another 50% water change (oh my aching back!) and i noticed the algae came loose much easier this time, so maybe i am making progress. I think you and Mindy are right, its probably leeching from my rock. My tank looks very similar in algae growth to what you posted. When you say 'cooked in tank' what did you mean by that?

I want to post a big THANKS! here to Mindy as well, you have been a huge help in trying to understand what is going on and your articles were great to get a handle on things!

And we have a winner!

I also did battle with hair algae, and ultimately the source was that phosphates were leaching from the rock and feeding the algae. The two options you have are a) let it cook in your tank, or b) remove and swap and either cook elsewhere, or dry it out.

I personally ended up letting it cook in the tank. I just did weekly maintenance of removing the hair algae and doing a regular waterchange shortly there after.

The best clean up crew I had, and still have, is a long-spine urchin. Great choice for a clean up crew, but they do grow very large.

Just so you have an idea of how bad it was in that tank:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b286/michika/DSC_0120.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b286/michika/DSC_0110.jpg

[michika]

I just let it stay in the tank and I waited it out. It all vanished in about 3-4 months. Bigger water changes don't help, FYI.

[Myka]

I want to post a big THANKS! here to Mindy as well, you have been a huge help in trying to understand what is going on and your articles were great to get a handle on things!

You're very welcome. :)

You can probably cut back on the water changes since the algae is growing so well, it will be absorbing all the nutrients that are leaching out anyway, and you're removing it with your scissors.

EDIT: Ooops, michika beat me to it. Bigger water changes do help if you're dealing with high nutrients in the water column, but your readings are all low, so the algae is eating it up well for you.

[Koresample]

Thanks for all the tips, i will go back to weekly 10% changes and just watch my garden grow.....well, make that die lol. I keep a detailed journal so it will be interesting to see how long this goes on for.

[michika]

I found photos to be most helpful in tracking the progress. Turning the rocks every once and awhile helps quite a bit.

[gbeef]

HA is caused from phosphates and overfeeding, i had the same thing happen to me. It was because i was using tap water.. Also there maybe phosphates in ur rock depending if your LFS store the rock in Tap water. And even if they did im sure they dont have light bleaming on the rock causing growth.

Turbo snails are the way to go. but really its a waiting game of water changes and time.