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Hair Algae Bloom

DJDavis1790

DJDavis1790

Hey folks, so I have a 55 gal converted FOWLR to reef tank that has a awful case of hair algae. I do a test on all levels weekly. See below.

PH 8.0
Amon. 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
Gravity . 1.022
Phosphate .25mg
Calcium 400ppm

The algae is consuming all of my live rock. I have tried hermits snails and crabs and have had no luck. I am currently running led lights, a skimmer, a phosphate reactor and sump. I have been doing regular water changes. That said, I'm using RODI water with instant ocean salt. I know the test for nitrates is bull because of the physical presence of the algea. I am at my wits end and want to kill this stuff once and for all. I m considering a Sea Hare. Does anyone have any experience with one? I am open to any and all suggestions. Thank you in advance for your help.

DJ
 
Sobo's Reef

Sobo's Reef

Well your phosphates are really high too begin with. They should be between 0.00-0.03ppm ideally for a reef. What kind of rock do you have? How often do you change/add phos media? Is it just on the rocks?
Edit: just realized you wrote .25mg. Not sure what that converts to in PPM to be honest lol
 
Zippy69

Zippy69

Agree about the phosphates being too high. The specific Gravity is also low. You want at least1.025 for coral. Is your ro/di water carrying in the phosphates? Check your output ppm on the ro/di. What foods do you feed and how much/often? You may be adding more nutrients than your media can remove before the next feeding. Just some thoughts...
 
R

reef boy

What test kits are you using for your phosphates? I have not had personal experience with sea hares but I have heard people say they work great but the only problem is that when the algae is gone, they will starve to death so you would have to have someone to give it to after you use it. As said above I would slowly raise the salinity to 1.025. Also do you use a hydrometer or a refractometer to test your salinity? If you use a hydrometer then I would highly recommend switching to a refractometer. Also as said above you have to be careful what you are feeding because they can leach phosphates etc. Also since you have converted to a reef tank, I would switch to reef crystals instead of instant ocean. What kind of protein skimmer do you use? I might also consider adding another reactor and putting GFO in it to help reduce the phosphates.
Hope this helps,
Andrew
 
G

GROSSR

I too have a reef tank with coral. In that environment phosphate should never be at 0.00 . A reef system needs some, even a small amount. Less than .03 is an good place to shoot for. How often do you feed?

What is very likely, but not 100% is your rock could be leaching phosphates. Lanthanum Chloride could be helpful. I am at .30 and I have a ton of hair algea. I am using GFO like a crazy man. I even have lye to regenerate it. I get it down to .08 and within a couple of days over .20 and back up to .30. I have old tank syndrome. I bought live rock from a fellow reefer and ever since then I have been fighting phosphate. I recently removed 1/2 of my live rock, removed about 90% of my sand bed, water changes, I only feed once a week, and still the Hair grows.

The concept of lanthanum chloride is - Purchase Seaklear Phosphate remover - it is a pool product. Take 1 or 2 ML in 1 or 2 gallons of water and drip it slowly into a 10 micron sock. You only do this as needed. The sock clogs up with Phosphate that binds to this chemical in the 10 micron sock. Some reefers have said the sock can clog up in a few hours. You also don't want to drop the phosphate too quickly in that corals will be affected. There have been some reports that dripping to quickly, fish, get the escaped precipitate in their gills and have died. Hence the need for less. Also, an extremely wet skim, in essence so much skim you are doing almost a water change.

How you prepared your live rock for this system could be informative.

If you want to go this Lanthanum chloride route let me know and I can explain further. I just spend 3 days reading 52 pages on Reefcentral on the topic and it appears to have excellent, but not guaranteed results. I am waiting on my SeaKlear and 10 micron filter socks and a plan to get rid of my phosphates.

rich
 
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MadReefer

MadReefer

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
I had this problem with my 45g recently. I took the rocks out and scrubbed the algae off, rinsed clean and replaced. Did a water change, added phosban media to HOB filter and started dosing magnesium. I have a small bit but its manageable for now. You will need to do water changes as you see the algae die off.
 
rkalola

rkalola

I battled it without doing ANY water changes. I'm running the poor mans triton system and changing out 1 gallon of water every few weeks in my 75g just to replace trace elements using high quality salt mix (coral pro). My bioload is very low, only 5 small fish. I have no sump and only an HOB skimmer for filtration. I test only alkalinity/calc/mag and dose accordingly. My tank was also completely covered in hair algae. Every inch of the tank, including the back wall and all the silicone seams. It was horrendous.

Every 5 days I would fire up all the powerheads as high as they go. Then I would take a toothbrush and brush the entire tank, getting all the hair algae into the water column. Then I'd take a net and catch whatever I could. I did this for two months and eventually the hair algae completely disappeared. I'm hypothesizing that there must be a limiting nutrient in the water other than nitrate and phosphate as because the tests showed the same results during the algae outbreak and after when the algae all died away.

I'm not saying you shouldn't do water changes, I'm saying manual removal was extremely successful for me without doing any water changes.
 
MadReefer

MadReefer

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
I always thought the readings would show no issues because the algae is using it up. Therefore goes undetected when testing the water.
 
Bad Fish

Bad Fish

Officer Emeritus
I will swear by this product and it was absolutely reef safe http://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-BioCo...qid=1452882985&sr=1-1&keywords=TLC+Marine+SAT. My ro was spent and I didn't realize it so I was adding high tds to my tank and it caused a major outbreak. At first it didn't look like anything was happening but then boom all gone. I used it on my 180 reef with corals and fish. Also if possible get an inline TDS meter about $22 on amazon worth every penny and extremely easy to install. Check your tds coming out from the RO
 
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