Reef nutrition

Dealing with hair algae

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Ayman

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Hi All

I have been dealing with hair algae for a while now and i am curious what methods people use here to eliminate growth or at least control.

I been running Rowa phos in a reactor slowly bringing my phosphate levels down for about two weeks now.

Is this the right direction or any other recommendations I should take?

Also I have a bunch of clean up crew crabs,snails,urchin.

I have not been testing for nitrate as of lately.


My phosphate levels are high at 0.14 as of three days ago.



pic taking at night under flash light.

IMG_6970.PNG
 
Looks like a lot of that could be turf algae.

For hair algae, first step is to get your nutrient levels in check, second step is manual removal as much as possible, and third would be to increase cleanup crew (sea hare, turbo snail, emerald crabs).
Also, confirm that your water is at 0tds as that can cause issues as well.
 
Sea hare!

Sea hares will eat filamentous algae so effectively you will need to rehome it once it eats all your algae. It essentially does the manual removal part for you.

You need to get snails and/or urchin to keep it down once it’s done, but once algae gets long like that, snails can’t do much about it.

Once the sea hare is done, rehome it, add snails and other CUC, and do a couple large water changes to get nutrients in check. The algae will come back if your nutrients are high so you’ll need to stay on top of that

Your phosphates are fine. Check nitrates please
 
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Ayman said:
Hi All

I have been dealing with hair algae for a while now and i am curious what methods people use here to eliminate growth or at least control.

I been running Rowa phos in a reactor slowly bringing my phosphate levels down for about two weeks now.

Is this the right direction or any other recommendations I should take?

Also I have a bunch of clean up crew crabs,snails,urchin.

I have not been testing for nitrate as of lately.


My phosphate levels are high at 0.14 as of three days ago.



pic taking at night under flash light.
View attachment 62503
Click to expand...


Not sure if just getting numbers in range will ever make it go, I would think only make it stall and stop spreading.

Maybe get in there is a toothbrush or small firmer non metal brush scrub it off, suck it out with a big water change.

Keep doing it for a few weeks to get the bigger portion of it out any way, than entrust the rest of it to to cuc. They won't touch the longer hair alage I've often seen mentioned.

If you can't scrub it off +1 to tuff alage /bryopsis not sure anything works beyond reef flux when I had it before.
 
Btw: Keep in mind right now the hair algae is consuming your nutrients. Once it’s gone, you’ll need to address it another way, like increased water changes, a refugium, carbon dosing, etc.
 
Invictus said:
Looks like a lot of that could be turf algae.

First step is to get your nutrient levels in check, second step is manual removal as much as possible, and third would be to increase cleanup crew (sea hare, turbo snail, emerald crabs).
Click to expand...
I have read about sea hare, wondering if any of our LFS have them.

Water is at 0 tds i have just recently replaced all membranes.
 
If your able to get the rocks out after scrubing them pour proxicide over then let sit for 2-3 mins and it will kill the algae. I do it for frag plugs.
 
Don’t get a sea hair. It will eat your algae then hid and die. Best is reduce nutrients and grow algae in another area like your sump to out compete the algae in your display. Don’t do over night cures. You’re going to hurt your biome. Go slow. Think about the side effects. Do research.
 
I think reducing nutrients to battle algae is nonsense, which is also pretty much exactly what Rich says in his presentations on the topic, definitely watch the one @Srt4eric shared above. Your corals need nutrients too, so you can't reduce them to zero or your corals will die...algae and corals basically grow in the same conditions. My nutrients are higher than yours and I have zero issues with algae, this is true for many many successful reefers.

The answer is just more cleanup crew, but they don't like the really mature stuff - so manual removal to get on top of it. But mainly CUC. One Urchin is worth about 50 snails in my experience, though snails are good and easy to get. Tangs are awesome too.

Edit - start watching around 7:50.
 
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I do think the green hair and turf algae’s consume nitrate and that is important to make sure it’s not crazy high.
Haven’t seen anyone mention yet, besides manual removal and stuff to eat it, you can do 3 day blackout and it will help weaken and slow it down. Easier to remove after that too.
I know I get weak after a 3 day blackout…
 
Coral reefer said:
I do think the green hair and turf algae’s consume nitrate and that is important to make sure it’s not crazy high.
Haven’t seen anyone mention yet, besides manual removal and stuff to eat it, you can do 3 day blackout and it will help weaken and slow it down. Easier to remove after that too.
I know I get weak after a 3 day blackout…
Click to expand...
pretty much what I did and I did add a turbo and it plowed threw it
 
Manual removal of as much as possible, then increase your cuc numbers (or add tangs if the size of the aquarium is appropriate for them). For manual removal, I find removing the rock and scrubbing with a hard bristle tooth brush the easiest in a separate container then give them a rinse and put them back in the tank. If it needs to be done in tank then a tooth brush on the end of a 3/8in siphon tube while you're doing a water change works great.

Definitely start testing nitrates though this whole process and get it in check (mainly after you've removed a good portion of the algae).

But just for reference on the controlling nutrients vs excessive algae front, I've had both ends of the spectrum.

My 225gal with plenty of herbivores was at 170+ppm nitrates and over 1.0ppm phos and algae never got to the point where I could see it growing.

I've also had a tank with 0 nitrates and 0 phos and had plenty of algae growth.
 
I did manual removal, nutrient drop, and added this thing to outcompete algae in the display tank - Algae Scrubber - no problems since. And this is with me purposely keeping my phosphates a little on the high side because I like happy torches.
 
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