Hair algae problem

[Guest D33rex]

Ok--who has had a serious hair algae problem and what did you do to get rid of it short of smashing your whole system to pieces and starting over again?

 I have been dealing with this for a while now, Ive tried.....huge water changes, getting more cleaners (maybe not enough or the right kind), decreasing the light cycle, (bicolor and lawnmower blennies--neither ate it), got a huge skimmer for my size system, increased water flow......ahhh.

PLEASE HELP....its driving me insane.

[lowsingle]

Do you have any tangs in your tank?  If not, you may want to get one if you have the bio-load room.

 

good luck,

Darren

[flowerseller]

Are you using "clean" water? It's a nutrient problem - too much.

Try a phospate sponge or similar, they work.

[miller]

using ro/diwater? thats what made the difference for me but i also did have to take all the rock out and scrub it with a steel brush but i would only recomend that as an absolue last resort

[Guest Lori's Reef]

I feel your pain  [tr] I am going through the exact same thing for the past month or so.  A fellow reefer recommended that I work on balancing the Alkalinty, Temperature, and PH as if they are not insync with each other, would certainly cause excessive hair algea growth.  He also pointed out that I need to "buffer" my top off  and change water to ensure that I am not dumping excessive amounts of low ph water into the show tank and disrupting its chemistry everytime I do a water change.  Especially if you use RO/DI water (as I do) the ph is extremely low.  It makes sense and I am working on it.  

 

I'm not sure if I have explained any of this correctly, but I am doing my best to keep touch with my water quality both in the tank and with the change and top off water in order to maintain the proper condition.

 

I know it is a tough situation, my tank is smack in the middle of my family room and looks like crap at this point.  

 

Keep the faith.  I'm told it will turn around (some day!)

 

 

[Guest Lori's Reef]

One other mistake I was making was with temperature.  In the summer I was unplugging the heater.  As autumn approached, I had not plugged it back in and we had a few cool days.  The temp in the tank dropped 6 or 7 degrees in one day.  This was around the time the algea started growing wild.  Someone told me I should work on maintaining temperature through heater/chiller system and not by plugging and unplugging the heater.  Changes in the temp like like just create havoc in the tank.  Again, makes sense and I'm working on it.....

[Guest tgallo]

Once Green Hair Algae gets a foothold in a saltwater aquarium, it can soon cover everything in your tank if prompt measures are not taken.  The cure for Green Hair Algae is the same as the prevention: Starve it into oblivion. Green Hair Algae require not only light, but also nitrates and phosphates in order to survive.

 

Nitrates can be introduced into an aquarium not only as the end product of the Nitrogen Cycling Process

(ammonia/nitrite/nitrate), but also via some brands of commercial sea salts and tap water.

 

Phosphate (PO4) is a part of life on earth.  Virtually every living thing contains some phosphates and they can enter the tank in a number of ways. Fish & critter foods, tap water and carbon are some of the phosphate generators in your tank.

 

 

What You'll Need:

 

Low range Phosphate (PO4) Test Kit (to measure in the .05 mg/L range).

Low range Nitrate Test Kit (to measure in the 10 mg/L range).

Tank siphon kit.

Sea Salts (or ocean water).

Test your tank water for nitrates and Phosphates.

If you have Green Hair Algae in your tank, your phosphates should read well above .05 mg/L., which is considered by many to be the lowest level at which Green Hair Algae will grow.  The most common source of phosphates in an aquarium is from the FW used for top offs and water changes.  In this case, doing water changes to reduce phosphates will only continue the problem unless the water source is changed.  There are two basic methods of reducing phosphates in your tank.

 

 

Use only RO or RO/DI water whether you purchase an RO/DI unit or purchase RO/DI water from a commercial source. (Recommended)

Purchase and use a good "nitrate sponge".  Many of the nitrate absorbing materials also absorb phosphates.

Use Mangrove Plants in your system to reduce phosphates.

Nitrates will always be something to contend with in your tank.  For fast, immediate reduction, you can do a water change, using the Instant Nitrate Reduction Method. This will reduce your nitrates at the fastest rate, using the least amount of time and water. This will also get your nitrates down to a workable (10 mg/L area) level but it is only a Bandaid and does nothing to remove the source of the nitrates. Siphon out as much of the Green Hair Algae as possible. You will probably find that you will have to use several other methods (many of which are part of a good Aquarium Maintenance Routine) to keep your nitrates in check.

 

[michaelg]

See this- we need more details to help here.

http://www.wamas.org/cgi-bin....;t=2878

[flowerseller]

Do either of you use kalkwasser?

One of the best of many advantages is the high PH.  12ish

A rich solution added slowly over the course of a 24hr period it has 2 main benifits.

Helps increase your PH and adds to your KH buffer bank.

[HowardofNOVA]

Dittos above response!

I had similiar problems in past and now NO MORE

Recap:

#1 Starve it out to kill it....shut off lights for a couple of days.

    YES, Do it now! It took 2 days to reduce my Red

    Cyanobacteria outbreak, ok, I think I spelled that wrong.

#2 If your not using RO/DI water, don't ask again!

    NO uncured tap water....sorry to be blunt, but that will

    cure 99% of problems.

#3 Cure: Phosban helps with reducing the Phosphates

            Skimmer adequate for system, you don't mention

            how big your system is?

            Keep temperature constant, unless you must, most

            get along fine without an expensive chiller

            ALSO, is this an established tank or new? Cycling?

#4 Cleaner Crew: Red Legs, Blue Legs, Red Tipped Legs Crabs

                       Cerith, Magarita Snails, Tangs, etc

Good luck!

Howard

[michaelg]

One of the other benefits of kalkwasser drips are the precipitation of phosphates which will help with the algae problem as well.

[ReefMon]

Especially if you use RO/DI water (as I do) the ph is extremely low

RO/DI is 99.99% pure, it has no measurable pH.  The only "buffer" you should add to your RO/DI make-up water is Kalkwasser, the commercial RO aquarium buffers are for freshwater and have no place in a marine aquarium.  

 

 

HTH

Glenn

[Guest D33rex]

Thanks everyone.  My system is a 40 breeder with a 20 gallon sump.  I do use RO water, but maybe I need to change out the filters.  I have reduced my lighting from 12 total to 8.        

 Also no the tank is not new, but I did move it this summer, and now that I think about it I probably added a lot of crappy tap water to the system the first few days before I set back up my RO, which is probably where the problem originated.

  I do drip kalk as well, but not too strong of a solution, so I will up that.  And I also do have a slight problem with temp control I think, my tank is on the top floor of my townhouse, but theres not too much I can do about that...no such spare couple hundred dollars around for a cooler...ha.

  But here is what I am thinking let me know what you think.....1)A huge water change while getting out as much of hair algae as possible...followed immedietly by 2) turning the lights off for 2-3 days...3) adding a phosphate sponge for a few days 4) and dosing with a heavily loaded kalk mix. I am also going to rearrange my circulation to get much more flow.

[Guest D33rex]

Also, while I do not have a refugium.. I do have several kinds of Algae growing in a few spots, as well as the back corners of the tank. Thought this would help but, not so much.

[Guest D33rex]

And I did test my water for nitrates, nitrites, and alkalinity, which all appeared to be good, so it must be the phosphates like many of you said.

[miller]

what is your alk? and what do you use to keep it there (daily additives,reactor...etc)

[ReefMon]

When did you last change your bulbs?  Old bulbs will shift red and fuel the algae growth.

[quazi]

Glenn,

 

RO/DI is 99.99% pure, it has no measurable pH.

ooh

 

Huh? You didn't really mean that.  I am sure you meant to say it has a pH of around 7.0 tng

[ReefMon]

Yes, it should have a pH of 7, but because it's 99.99% pure there is nothing buffering it, and that makes it practilly impossable to measure.

 

Randy Holmes-Farley

Trying to measure the pH of pure water with a kit will not work. The buffer provided by the indicator dye itself overrides any native pH in the water.

 

Trying to do the same with a pH meter is also fraught with problems. pH meters simply do not work well in very low conductivity water. pH is actually an electrical measurement, and the low conductivity causes problems with the ability of the glass electrode to sense voltage and compare it to the reference electrode in the pH probe.

 

Also, there is very little buffer there, so any stray bits of any acid or base can greatly skew the pH. Also the CO2 from the air can drive the pH of pure water way down. All the way down to about 5.66.

[Guest D33rex]

Ahhh, the lights could definately be doing it then.  I have 2 175 MH and 6 32watt PCs.  I got new MHs this summer, which were supposed to XM 10Ks that I got off ebay, but I believe was 'taken' because there was no brand name, and the light is of a yellowish tint ( could be fueling algae growth as well?).  And my 50/50 PCs are just plain old, need to get them replaced immiediatly also.

[Caribbean Jake]

I think we all go through this in our tank cycles and normally the following procedures work to get rid of the alage before it becomes a big problem.

 

1.Turn lights off for 5 days.

2.Use Phosphate Silicate for the next 4 month.

3.Replace light bulbs for brand new bulbs.

4.Minimize feeding

5.Do not add IRON or IODINE to your system for 2 weeks minimum

6.Replace RO/DI filters now.

 

You will see improvements in two (2) days but need to keep the  above procedures in order to get rid of ALL the problematic algae.