Brown hair algae

[Heather w]

I am having a nightmare with brown hair algae. It destroyed my tank. I did a total breakdown of EVERYTHING. Soaked in bleach and vinegar. Soaked it all in ro water. It took me weeks to soak and scrub a 125g tank in the middle of a north Dakota winter. eassembled and its back! My tank has been back up for 4 months with just rock. I scrub almost daily with a wire brush. It's lighter in color than before, but it's not going anywhere. My parameters are all dead on. I have been so destroyed over this. It was a thriving gorgeous reek tank. Now it's been barren for so long. I don't dare stock it. I need help from the pros

 

[Tcat1k]

Do you have an adequate size clean up crew? I'm new to reefing but had a big hair algae bloom. I added a clean up crew, particularly snails, and they decimated it. My tank was started with dry rock and bacteria.

 

[Troylee]

Pics?

 

[Heather w]

Pics of the monster

 

[Erasmus Crowley]

If the tank has no livestock, then I would definitely try blacking out the glass and turning off the lights and just running in the dark for a week or two.

Eventually, every photosynthetic thing will die off in total darkness. Then you can start again with a truly clean slate.

If you do go that route, I would also suggest adding something with some seeds of copepods and amphipods. As the algae dies, they'll eat it and clean the rocks off for you. That way you'll turn the lights back on to see nice clean rocks and not a bunch of decaying dead algae.

That seems like it'll get all the pain out of the way up front, and you won't drag the battle out over months or years.

 

[Troylee]

What’s your po4 look like? Running any gfo or anything?

 

[Heather w]

Do you have an adequate size clean up crew? I'm new to reefing but had a big hair algae bloom. I added a clean up crew, particularly snails, and they decimated it. My tank was started with dry rock and bacteria.















I don't have a cleanucrew other than a couple of turno snails whom I am not sure are even viable. I juust p







If the tank has no livestock, then I would definitely try blacking out the glass and turning off the lights and just running in the dark for a week or two.







Eventually, every photosynthetic thing will die off in total darkness. Then you can start again with a truly clean slate.







If you do go that route, I would also suggest adding something with some seeds of copepods and amphipods. As the algae dies, they'll eat it and clean the rocks off for you. That way you'll turn the lights back on to see nice clean rocks and not a bunch of decaying dead algae.







That seems like it'll get all the pain out of the way up front, and you won't drag the battle outThat is the over months or years.



If the tank has no livestock, then I would definitely try blacking out the glass and turning off the lights and just running in the dark for a week or two.



Eventually, every photosynthetic thing will die off in total darkness. Then you can start again with a truly clean slate.



If you do go that route, I would also suggest adding something with some seeds of copepods and amphipods. As the algae dies, they'll eat it and clean the rocks off for you. That way you'll turn the lights back on to see nice clean rocks and not a bunch of decaying dead algae.



That seems like it'll get all the pain out of the way up front, and you won't drag the battle out over months or years.


That is brilliant!

 

[Heather w]

What’s your po4 look like? Running any gfo or anything?

Vodka vinegar. And it's dead in the middle of the range.

 

[Troylee]

Vodka vinegar. And it's dead in the middle of the range.

That’s for nitrate reduction.. carbon dosing doesn’t really bring down phosphates.. what’s you nitrate and phosphate reading?

 

[Heather w]

That’s for nitrate reduction.. carbon dosing doesn’t really bring down phosphates.. what’s you nitrate and phosphate reading?



Phosphate..03 Nitrate 0

Nitrate 0

 

[Heather w]

Nitrate 0

Phosphate 0

 

[Troylee]

What test kits are you using? I could see phosphates at 0 only because the algae is consuming it.. either way with both at zero “if correct” you’re asking for a disaster! Dinos will break out and it’s a never ending cycle! Get your nitrates up and work on the po4

 

[Erasmus Crowley]

What test kits are you using? I could see phosphates at 0 only because the algae is consuming it.. either way with both at zero “if correct” you’re asking for a disaster! Dinos will break out and it’s a never ending cycle! Get your nitrates up and work on the po4

If they raise nitrates and phosphates and the hair algae then absorbs those nutrients, then won't that make the hair algae healthier and help it grow even faster and become even more of a problem?

 

[Troylee]

If they raise nitrates and phosphates and the hair algae then absorbs those nutrients, then won't that make the hair algae healthier and help it grow even faster and become even more of a problem?

It can but there’s way to compete with it.. bottomed out no3 and po4 is all bad if it truly is.. a clean up crew of turbos will knock out most hair algae along with a fuge and some macro algae as in chaeto etc..uv light would help also. once you get Dino’s from zero nutrients most people quit and give up because it’s a never ending battle! It can takes months to years to eradicate. There’s plenty of chemicals you can add also but that’s a last resort.. it seems there’s nothing in this tank but rocks so it a option honestly.. not sure how it was cycled either..

 

[Heather w]

What test kits are you using? I could see phosphates at 0 only because the algae is consuming it.. either way with both at zero “if correct” you’re asking for a disaster! Dinos will break out and it’s a never ending cycle! Get your nitrates up and work on the po4

Hanna instruments

 

[Erasmus Crowley]

It can but there’s way to compete with it.. bottomed out no3 and po4 is all bad if it truly is.. a clean up crew of turbos will knock out most hair algae along with a fuge and some macro algae as in chaeto etc..uv light would help also. once you get Dino’s from zero nutrients most people quit and give up because it’s a never ending battle! It can takes months to years to eradicate. There’s plenty of chemicals you can add also but that’s a last resort.. it seems there’s nothing in this tank but rocks so it a option honestly.. not sure how it was cycled either..

If you added chaetomorpha into a refugium, wouldn't that soak up even more nitrates and phosphates leading further into dino territory?

If a person has a hair algae problem, and then you add herbivores who eat that algae... Wouldn't that naturally raise nitrates and phosphates as the algae is turned into snail poop?

Your advice seems to conflict with itself.

This person asked for specific help, "How to resolve this algae problem". If I were them, and I were trying to follow your suggestions, then I would find myself very confused.

 

[Heather w]

It can but there’s way to compete with it.. bottomed out no3 and po4 is all bad if it truly is.. a clean up crew of turbos will knock out most hair algae along with a fuge and some macro algae as in chaeto etc..uv light would help also. once you get Dino’s from zero nutrients most people quit and give up because it’s a never ending battle! It can takes months to years to eradicate. There’s plenty of chemicals you can add also but that’s a last resort.. it seems there’s nothing in this tank but rocks so it a option honestly.. not sure how it was cycled either..







Cycled with live rocks from a good tank and let iT roll. Set up my doser. That's it

 

[Heather w]

Of course it's true. I use Red sea and Hanna instruments.

 

[blaxsun]

I can't really tell from the images, but some of this looks like GHA. Basically everything @Troylee said.

 

[Heather w]

Does anyone have chaeto? I can't get it here