Huge Hair Algae Issue, Struggling to keep it away?

[KK's Reef]

Hi All,
I'm fairly new to the hobby, my tank is just over 1 year old now, for the last 3 months or so I have been battling a Horrendus hair algae outbreak, I think I have found one or many of the causes however id like to ask some questions and get a game plan for going forward? Ive read allot of forum posts about Tank Cleans H202 Treatments, using Vibrant and picking it out.

So far I have hand-picked it out and dosed some vibrant to try and get ontop of the outbreak as its been getting rather messy.

So the 2 reasons I suspect for my issue is 1 overfeeding, I have x2 clowns in a 130L tank and I feed them half a cube of frozen food each day, I use to feed a pinch of pellets but they seem happier with frozen food and tend to eat it all however it seems like way to much for them, but its a hassle to cut the cubes down to smaller portions so I stick with half a cube. i think the water in these cubes is full of nutrients and its going straight into the water and giving me a spike? Im not sure how to fix this issue as the food like brine is so tiny you cant really strain it? so is it worth going back to pellets full-time for them? to try and resolve this?

Secondly, I found out my LFS TDS reading on the last batch of water I got is 8 TDS is this good bad or normal? I know we aim for 0TDS but is there a desired range to be in? I think I remember them telling me it can be up to 14TDS but never anymore. Should I be worried about this? Or is this a acceptable range?


I just want to get rid of this issue really, my tank looks awful and each time I spend an hour picking some of the tufts it's back within a week, I now believe this is my own fault for my feeding habits and perhaps partly my LFS stores fault for higher than expected TDS?



There's no direct sunlight, and I have taken my lights from 100% (Blue, Purple, Cyan) Down to around 80%.




Im not really sure if my params are useful as there is so much algae that the phos and nitrate will likely be actively consumed by the algae to grow, but my recent tests shown:

Phos 0.10
Nitrate 20
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Salinity: 1.025
KH 6.0
PH 7.8

Im considering getting a RO unit and doing a 50% water change for the next 2-3 weeks with a better quality ref salt to get the tanks water params in a better position with a higher PH and ALK, and hopefully kill off this alga with some Vibrant dosing. I know its controversial but the corals don't seem to unhappy with it and if it can kill off a good amount and some 50% water changes can export the nutrients I think I might get through this.

I also added a Tuxedo Urchin last week, and have 4 Nass Snails, 4 Trocus Snails & 3 Redf hermits in QT ready to go in at the end of Feb.

Is there anything else I can do?

Cut your photo period.
Cut down the amount of white light.
Keep peak intensity to about 4-6 hours.
Add hermit crabs and various snails.
Manually remove as much of the hair algae when you do water changes.
You should notice a reduction of the algae in a week or two.

I battled hair algae a few weeks ago. Cutting the photoperiod to 11 hours, reducing the white light to 40% (Kessils), and restocking the CUC helped tremendously.

 

[brandon429]

@Thales am glad you posted I just saw your recommend.

 

[David100]

You’d be amazed at the abrasive cleaning energy created on a reef when a big swell or storm hits. I’ve seen back reef lagoons in Indo that had a very healthy algae growth stripped clean after one good swell event. It’s quite impressive. In saying that, I don’t think rip cleans are the solution for everything though.

If David100 wants to put in the work though, some type of manual intervention will at least get him back to a fair fight position. He’ll obviously need to identify the underlying issues and address them going forward.

David, I didn’t see any mention of the light fixture you were using. If it’s a decent LED fixture even 80% is a heck of a lot of light energy for a few sarcos and a hammer.

I think the rip clean is my next likely tool to tackle this! nothing else I have used seems to work,

This Tank is a Fluval m90 and the light is

Marine Spectrum Bluetooth LED, 46 W, up to 122 cm (48″)​

Perhaps half of my issue is light and some is the TDS, I think after the Rip clean and a fresh start I will be using my own RODI System as well as a lower light (80%) Intensity, this may help me get back to good position.

I will contact @brandon429 soon when I have the time to commit to this and get a plan made up and see if I can get back on a decent track.

At the moment everything I have tried seems subjective and like snake oil. Lots of £ spent on stock and solutions that don't seem to do anything visual over months of use. I do think its time for something drastic (Rip Clean) as the GHA does destroy the passion for the hobby.

 

[brandon429]

The one downside we have is that really large tanks can’t work the method due to practicality, it’s for medium to small systems.


I ask to be evaluated from rip clean threads vs the theory of rip cleans or how it feels in concept

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

You know why I'm impressed? Because that final assembly tank looks empty/ no water/ that's the sign of one heck of a pre rinse! Well done and thank you so much for the pictures and documentation this is really looking sharp Probably wouldn't come out looking as clean as it did without the...

www.reef2reef.com

if any of those outcomes are bad, we will stop the science from developing.

medium to small systems are now a subsection of reef tanks, perhaps more than half the total tanks on this site, which cannot ever be lost to an invasion again. You have a ’red button’ move that simply fixes your tank, preserves your investment, until you can align methods that make you never need to deep clean again. That’s 54 pages of rip cleans, in order to state they’re bad or don’t work we need to find that evidenced in the work logs.


this system isn’t exclusive to the ways the masses want you to work on your tank, hands off and via chemistry approaches and with animal grazers. Those are ok things to do, but at a different stage. We do those from the clean condition, not the invaded and plugged up condition. (Am posting this for new readers into the thread seeing the debates and options, David is resolved I can see)



what this does is change the order of the operations the masses want, thats all. We fix the tank first, make it look sharp, remove the circulating algal compounds, we remove any chance at tradeoff invasions due to mass rotting in the system, then the aquarist does all the preventative adjustments


the sole thing we are doing is changing the timing for the ways the masses want you to use, I personally see it all as very harmless means of fixing up a reef tank. It sure is on the continuum of positive outcomes logged that’s for sure, not like a new method we are trying

private message sent/ thank you for being so calm and level about it all David it’s much appreciated. I’ll be present 100% for the ongoing care for the system, we appreciate the work logs added to

@CoastalTownLayabout that was a neat perspective to read thanks for posting. I haven’t seen that action in nature before, the only reef I got to see was on a cayman dive it didn’t have the zones you’re mentioning, would be neat to see.

 

[olonmv]

I think the rip clean is my next likely tool to tackle this! nothing else I have used seems to work,

This Tank is a Fluval m90 and the light is

Marine Spectrum Bluetooth LED, 46 W, up to 122 cm (48″)​

Perhaps half of my issue is light and some is the TDS, I think after the Rip clean and a fresh start I will be using my own RODI System as well as a lower light (80%) Intensity, this may help me get back to good position.

I will contact @brandon429 soon when I have the time to commit to this and get a plan made up and see if I can get back on a decent track.

At the moment everything I have tried seems subjective and like snake oil. Lots of £ spent on stock and solutions that don't seem to do anything visual over months of use. I do think its time for something drastic (Rip Clean) as the GHA does destroy the passion for the hobby.

FWIW: my son has a Mexican turbo snail and off the charts N03 and probably PO4 with zero GHA. (He does bare minimum maintenance to his tank, teenagers ) He had a huge patch prior to adding the turbo snail and a tailspot. Within a few weeks it was gone. I’m currently fighting GHA in a tank with 5-10 NO3 and under .1 PO4 and thinking of buying a turbo for my tank…can’t be bothered to do a rip clean. I like my downtime and prefer not using it to clean grass off of rocks.

 

[KStatefan]

I would turn off the lights for 5 days, and storm the tank and brush rocks that need it daily.

What do you mean by "storm the tank"?

 

[JoJosReef]

Still having issues?

You have the tux urchin. If you don't have yet, get 2 big turbo snails. Also get a whole bunch of dwarf ceriths. Usually when I get them from ReefCleaners, I order 20 or so and 50 arrive because it's easier to grab a handful than count each one out--should be similar at other sources. Get the dwarfs, very important. Mix of other ceriths, trochus (dwarf trochus good too) or astraeas are good to add.

Now the most important part.

Drain the water down to about an inch (obvs take out the clowns for a bit). Corals will be fine. Get a whole roll of paper towels. Use paper towels to grab and pull out all of the GHA you can. Get those rocks clean. Occasionally pour some water over your corals to keep them wet. Just keep going till you only see rocks and no more mats of GHA.

Most important part, part 2:

Get a spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide or dropper and drop/spray the surface of the rocks. Make sure to get all of the surface, but NOT saturate the rock itself. Obvs, don't spray/drop on coral polyps, but around is fine. Let it site for a couple minutes. Then start adding your water back.

Over the next few days, what's left on top of the rocks will die off. Then the new GHA will start growing. That's where your urchin/turbos/dwarfs come in. They will keep all that new growth at bay. You'll want to start feeding the turbos little pieces of nori ever few days, because they will eat everything else and be hungry--my tux urchin isn't impressed by nori, but a little broken piece of soaked algae tab he'll eat right up.

Important point #3:
Get some macroalgae to soak up some of the extra nutrients and keep the GHA growing at a slow enough rate that the CUC takes care of it. Codium is great for this, because it grows well and is too dense for the turboa and tux to completely eat up (as opposed to Botrycladia which will get demolished by the tux, and Gracilaria hayi will be chopped to bits and floating everywhere in your tank). Anchor a couple of handfuls of codium to rocks and place in the corners of the tank with medium light and it'll do just fine (I use zip ties to fasten them to rocks and retie as needed).

I battled GHA for a year, and that is what did it for me. Almost no traces if it now, although I do have to feed the turbos and urchin manually. Kind of fun to watch though.

Good luck!!

 

[Jared Bryant]

What do you mean by "storm the tank"?

He means stir up all the funk that doesn't get caught in normal flow. Use a turkey baster or a small powerhead in you hand and blast the rocks in every direction. I do it weekly.

 

[brandon429]

Quick update relevant to the plans here

DNR88's Blue Marine Reef 90 (24 gallon) - Sand bed rinsed

Soo, here we are with something new. Goodbye to the Blue Marine 60 and hello to the Blue Marine Reef 90 with 24 gallon . That's a 50 percent increase! Latest FTS (2023-03-20). After the sand bed rinsing (2023-02-26) Older Inhabitants: - NEW! Two Azure Damselfish - Six line wrasse - Halloween he...

www.nano-reef.com

We just closed out that ripper 24 hours ago it's a fresh recent job to scan

His was a cyano or dinos+cyano complex challenge. Can't be sure of the ID because ID isn't factored in nano tank rehab jobs. We wouldn't have altered course even if he presented with ten different species, or solely ostreopsis dinos etc: speciation doesn't matter for us. That's one hesitation- free dude lol= that mattered.

24 hours later