Help… hair algae out of control

[littlefoxx]

Hey all so my 70 is fallow from velvet, end period is in a couple days. I have SO MUCH hair algae and Im constantly scraping it off sand, rocks, glass and now its suffocating some of my corals!!! Had to move them to my biocube for the moment. Plan on doing a big water change this weekend to prepare to put fish back in but what can I put in there to help eat this crap??? Its EVERYWHERE. Also have lost 2 urchins within a week of putting them in… not sure why that was to be honest, water parameters were testing normal and good. Suggestions???

 

[MikeCRK]

Hey all so my 70 is fallow from velvet, end period is in a couple days. I have SO MUCH hair algae and Im constantly scraping it off sand, rocks, glass and now its suffocating some of my corals!!! Had to move them to my biocube for the moment. Plan on doing a big water change this weekend to prepare to put fish back in but what can I put in there to help eat this crap??? Its EVERYWHERE. Also have lost 2 urchins within a week of putting them in… not sure why that was to be honest, water parameters were testing normal and good. Suggestions???

I would suggest attaching a photo

 

[spectral_ranger]

Can you quantify normal and good? Nitrates and phosphates, primarily. Clearly something is amiss with water quality! Where are you supplying water from? If your own unit, have you changed filter cannisters recently? TDS on the RO/DI unit?

 

[littlefoxx]

Can you quantify normal and good? Nitrates and phosphates, primarily. Clearly something is amiss with water quality! Where are you supplying water from? If your own unit, have you changed filter cannisters recently? TDS on the RO/DI unit?

I will test those and let you know! I cant test phosphates right now, the tester is in the mail, my LFS was out!

 

[findingsimple]

I see you mention a big water change - @brandon429 might have some tips on doing a rip clean if it is needed

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey all so my 70 is fallow from velvet, end period is in a couple days. I have SO MUCH hair algae and Im constantly scraping it off sand, rocks, glass and now its suffocating some of my corals!!! Had to move them to my biocube for the moment. Plan on doing a big water change this weekend to prepare to put fish back in but what can I put in there to help eat this crap??? Its EVERYWHERE. Also have lost 2 urchins within a week of putting them in… not sure why that was to be honest, water parameters were testing normal and good. Suggestions???

Please post pics under white lighting.
Also:
- What is your phos level?
- Are you using RODI water or tap water from the faucet
- Is your tank at or near a window?
- What clean uop crew if any are you utilizing ?

 

[littlefoxx]

Please post pics under white lighting.
Also:
- What is your phos level?
- Are you using RODI water or tap water from the faucet
- Is your tank at or near a window?
- What clean uop crew if any are you utilizing ?

Okay so I cant test for phos at the moment, the testing kit is being mailed to me as my LFS was out. I will post under white light when I get home from work! I am using a RO unit that attaches to my faucet! And the tank is near a window but sunlight does not come close to touching the tank. And my CUC right now are a serpent star, halloween, blue leg and red leg hermits, a single emerald crab, a skunk cleaner, coral banded, blood and two aptasia eating shrimp, and various small smails like margarita, the cone ones (forget the name), and some tiny guys I think are nassarus snails and two big butt turbos. Keep trying urchins, but my tuxedo died within 12 hours and my long spine died within the week. I do desperately need a water change as ammonia is 0.3, but I have to wait until payday on the 7th to buy more reef salt as I am out. Been a rough couple days

 

[Harold999]

Clearly something is amiss with water quality!

People can be haunted for years by some nasty types of hairalgae while having pristine water.
It's more that bio is out of balance. Lack of competition from other algae's incl. corralline.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Okay so I cant test for phos at the moment, the testing kit is being mailed to me as my LFS was out. I will post under white light when I get home from work! I am using a RO unit that attaches to my faucet! And the tank is near a window but sunlight does not come close to touching the tank. And my CUC right now are a serpent star, halloween, blue leg and red leg hermits, a single emerald crab, a skunk cleaner, coral banded, blood and two aptasia eating shrimp, and various small smails like margarita, the cone ones (forget the name), and some tiny guys I think are nassarus snails and two big butt turbos. Keep trying urchins, but my tuxedo died within 12 hours and my long spine died within the week. I do desperately need a water change as ammonia is 0.3, but I have to wait until payday on the 7th to buy more reef salt as I am out. Been a rough couple days

RODI- do you know what the TDS of the water is? Are the cartridges expired?
Window- Its not the sun but likely the UV that is the issue as i suspected window from your description. UV will penetrate shades/blinds/curtains. Simply place a sheet of black construction paper from walmart stationary section at the side that faces the window and it will reduce problem drastically. Pull as much GHA as you can by hand to reduce work of clean up crew.
Cleaner crew- Best participants are:
SNAILS: Astrea, cerith, turbo grazer, nerite and trochus
Crabs: 10 caribbean Blue leg Hermits
Urchin: pencil or tuxedo

If heavy GHA- Dolabella sea Hare

 

[littlefoxx]

RODI- do you know what the TDS of the water is? Are the cartridges expired?
Window- Its not the sun but likely the UV that is the issue as i suspected window from your description. UV will penetrate shades/blinds/curtains. Simply place a sheet of black construction paper from walmart stationary section at the side that faces the window and it will reduce problem drastically. Pull as much GHA as you can by hand to reduce work of clean up crew.
Cleaner crew- Best participants are:
SNAILS: Astrea, cerith, turbo grazer, nerite and trochus
Crabs: 10 caribbean Blue leg Hermits
Urchin: pencil or tuxedo

If heavy GHA- Dolabella sea Hare

 

[littlefoxx]

Sorry those are the best pictures I could get. It covers all my rocks, its covering my sand, the back wall, even growing on my corals and shells of my hermits and on the legs of my emerald crab!

 

[brandon429]

it is dangerous to do anything to this tank other than a rip clean. if you kill/rot this stuff in your tank, everything could die.

rip clean=https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/official-sand-rinse-and-tank-transfer-thread.230281/

thats 54 straight pages of examples, all doing the same exact cleaning method (take apart, clean, put back 100% clean)

there isn't a way to fix the tank without disassembly cleaning, it's why no other example threads are shown

your p04 levels don't matter in the least. they only matter once your tank is ripped clean. any testing, ID, hesitation at this point is very dangerous, notice in that thread all the end pictures look the same: the tanks are laser clean, that's what yours needs

your fix is physical, not chemical at all.

 

[brandon429]

the system is fully eutrophic, and must be exported surgically, anything shy of that is dangerous for this specific presentation. it's not a like a typical GHA challenge, it's more pronounced.

 

[littlefoxx]

the system is fully eutrophic, and must be exported surgically, anything shy of that is dangerous for this specific presentation. it's not a like a typical GHA challenge, it's more pronounced.

Ah okay, would the sea hare vetteguy suggested help at all?

 

[brandon429]

those are very good algae eaters, among the best.

there are reasons I've never recommended them: they convert plants into waste pellets and you have too much mass to reconvert and because there aren't 54 page threads using them to gain our results. if you want to use one as growback prevention, from the clean condition, that's ok to do and you can feed them nori sheets until some hair algae grows to feed them.

 

[brandon429]

littlefox check out that thread, some of the linked jobs in them, how we disassemble tanks and put them back together clean. it's a big job for a 75 gallon setup, curious if you've seen any other means of fixing your condition as a linked thread

 

[vetteguy53081]

Black off that side of tank facing window also.

 

[littlefoxx]

Thank you guys! I am going to try the sea hare first and see if it makes a dent in the hair algae with me continuing to scrape it off and that water change I need to do anyway before livestock can be added, got to get my fish out of the biocube since they have been in there for the fallow period after velvet outbreak. If this doesnt seem to help then I will do the cleaning that brandon429 suggests just because of the situation I am in with my fish currently!

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

Long growth GHA is incredibly good at mechanically capturing uneaten food, fish / CUC waste and other detritus. You’ve got to get it short and keep it that way. Manual intervention, addition of appropriate CUC and beefing up your flow simultaneously should get you to where you want to be. Best of luck with the battle.