Please help before I walk away from reefing

[StrangeDejavu]

Never thought i'd make one of these threads. I remember seeing them where people sold all their reefing stuff and left the hobby over hair algae and I remember thinking "really...? over hair algae? wow, talk about dramatic.". Ironic as it may seem, i'm there now.

I set my BioCube 29 up March 12th, 2016. Around the 4.5 month mark (end of July), I came home from vacation to a tank that suddenly exploded while I was gone. My pristine tank was covered in hair algae, bryopsis, dinos and spirulina cyano. A quick scan of the tank and I found a dead trochus snail in the sand which i'm guessing caused my headaches while I was away. I treated the spirulina and the bryopsis seemed to stagnate as time went on. The hair algae though, it is unrelenting, I can't think of another way to put it. Since day 1, I have done weekly 25% WC every 7 days with 0 TDS RODI water and Reef Crystals. The filters in the RODI get changed every 3 months like clockwork and the inline TDS meter was calibrated with manufacturer fluid. I have 2 small fish (Ocellaris Clown and a Bangaii) and 1 cleaner shrimp. I feed LRS Reef Frenzy once a day. I was running a Tunze 9001 skimmer but literally no change in anything with it online or off so I removed it. I have an InTank media basket which runs filter floss (changed every 3 - 4 days), Purigen, ROX carbon and GFO. Even with the BRS calculator recommended amount of GFO for my tank, which some would say is more than you need, the hair algae absolutely flourishes. A week ago, I started reducing my lighting intensity but left my 8 hours a day schedule. I don't even feed my coral anymore. I am at my wits end and want to save this tank because I really, really enjoyed it the first few months.

My question: i've already siphoned out 1/4 of my sandbed over the last few months since I grow a fantastic carpet of hair algae on it. Since it's very likely this sandbed is packed full of PO4, would it be a good idea to get rid of it and run BB for a while? I'm moving next month so I figure this is a better time than any to do this. If I suddenly remove my sandbed, would I be looking at an ammonia spike in the following days? My other plan of attack was going to involve a 3 day blackout and every other day water changes for a few days to remove any nutrients released into the water during the blackout.

Anything else I can add to this? Thanks in advance.

Edit: Here's my most recent test results, parameters don't change too much from what's seen here.

Temp: 78 degrees
pH: 7.8
Salinity: 1.026
Cal: 480
Mag: 1440
Alk: 8.0
PO4: zero
NO3: zero

 

[Salty1962]

Have you checked out the Vibrant thread? People with hair algae have had great success using it to get rid of HA. I got rid of my bryopsis with it. Worth a try! Good Luck and hang in there!

 

[StrangeDejavu]

I'm currently using Vibrant and was seeing really great results with it actually. Around the 3rd week though one of my fish quit eating so I stopped dosing. After a 5 day hunger strike and a WC later, he was slowly starting to eat again. I figured it was a fluke though because i'm on my second week again and he's fine, but the hair algae came back with a vengeance during the down time. It's just crazy that I do these WCs, I run 5 tbsp of GFO and dose Vibrant, hours worth of maintenance on WC day ripping this stuff out and it's like nope I think i'll continue growing but thanks anyway!

 

[deaclauderdale]

Have you thought of trying a sea hare?

 

[StrangeDejavu]

Have you thought of trying a sea hare?

I haven't but i've not had great luck adding CUC so far. Trochus snails always seem to die in my tank and I think the dinos are to blame. My first batch is gone, but not before releasing eggs. One of those was successful and I got to watch a baby Trochus go from the size of a dot to a full sized snail. Unfortunately, he and the 3 other Trochus I bought all died within a 1 - 2 month period. I've pretty much given up on CUC since then.

 

[jasonb87]

I had the same problem with hair algae. Multiple water changes, days syhponing it out etc. I put in a ATS (algae turf scrubber) along with my cheato, GFO and started dry skimming. I went from once a month water changes to twice a month. i switched from red sea coral pro salt to kent marine. I made a cover for my overflow to block the light and keep algae from growing in my overflow box. I start feeding once a day on monday, wednesdays, fridays and sunday mornings. I also took out each rock that i could that had HA on it one at a time (usualy 1 per water change) and sprayed it with hydrogen peroxide let it set on the HA for a few minutes and put it back in the tank within 3 days that rock will be clean.
My issue was high phosphate even with alot of algae i was still reading 0.36po, i didnt have any nitrates and still dont. I have finally beat it (with the exception of one small spot that i will pull out on the next water change.)

What lights do you have?

 

[knoxmandan]

I have a sea hare and

he does well. I had the same issue as you at the three month mark and between the 3 and four month mark it went away with the addition of ten turbo snails they knocked it out in two weeks in my 80 just continue the gfo it's good stuff and hang in there it will pass.

 

[knoxmandan]

I have a sea hare and

he does well. I had the same issue as you at the three month mark and between the 3 and four month mark it went away with the addition of ten turbo snails they knocked it out in two weeks in my 80 just continue the gfo it's good stuff and hang in there it will pass.

Those pics where takin with the gfo running

 

[Vaughn17]

Wow, Knoxmandan, that's some hair algae...even your tang looks overwhelmed, lol. I feel your pain.

 

[knoxmandan]

Yeah it's gone now and I know your pain as well the hare and the Mexican turbo snails really help I feed 2 times a day 3- 4 cubes total

 

[1Mjiggy]

1.Do your routine water change
2.scrub as much hair algae off the rock
If possible move fish to another tank and shrimp to try and get all your spikes down that feed the algae
3.clean filter media
4.shut off light from your tank for 3 days and after that do a 20%water change
5. I recommend you start back to basics test water to see if it's safe enough to add some clean up crew with out them dying grab emerald crabs and snails nasaria work best
6.continue regular water change and add fish back when u see it fit best
!!!!!!!MOST IMPORTANT!!!!!!
Relax, acknowledge the situation and fix it don't give it all up especially with all the time you have put into it
-I went through this not too long ago I did everything I just listed and my tank is way better now

 

[Diesel]

1.Do your routine water change
2.scrub as much hair algae off the rock
If possible move fish to another tank and shrimp to try and get all your spikes down that feed the algae
3.clean filter media
4.shut off light from your tank for 3 days and after that do a 20%water change
5. I recommend you start back to basics test water to see if it's safe enough to add some clean up crew with out them dying grab emerald crabs and snails nasaria work best
6.continue regular water change and add fish back when u see it fit best
!!!!!!!MOST IMPORTANT!!!!!!
Relax, acknowledge the situation and fix it don't give it all up especially with all the time you have put into it
-I went through this not too long ago I did everything I just listed and my tank is way better now

I like this except the fish thing.
I have had frag tanks that I let go on purpose to let ppl see how I battle HA.
Just recently I had a frag tank with bunches of algae, did a manual removing treatment plan, turn light off and skimmed heavy.
During I didn't fed the fish in there or corals and within a week HA was almost gone.
It must be a nutrient problem in your system as you measure 0.0 on the No3 and Po4.
Your HA is getting it all out before you can measure it.
Just remember that HA will out compete it's self as long you don't add anything to the tank.

 

[knoxmandan]

Yeah it's gone now and I know your pain as well the hare and the Mexican turbo snails really help I feed 2 times a day 3- 4 cubes total

I just took this pic tonight and the pics above where takin a month ago.
When I did my water changes I would take the hose an suck the hair algae in and put my thumb on the end of the hose and rip it off the rock and it would all go in the bucket that helped remove a bunch of it the nesaurus snails I had only eat fish food and the asterea snails would just fall off the rock land in the sand and die as you can see under the tang the snail graveyard.

 

[Diesel]

Snails aren't very good in taking on HA, the Mexico turbo's can help you out in some way but a seahare will beat them to it.

 

[Traderdan]

My sea hair is a green algae eating machine. He took care of my 66 gallon tank is about one week. Plus they are just cool.

 

[dieselkeeper]

Stop feeding frozen food until you have the algae under control. The juice from frozen food is loaded with phosphates. When you do feed frozen food, it should be rinsed and not just thawed in tank water and poured in the tank. In such a small tank, I wouldn't be feeding frozen food in the first place.

 

[ksc]

This article pretty much debunks everything you just wrote. Reducing the amount, not type, of food you put in the tank is the best way to reduce po4 entering the tank.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/3/chemistry

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

did you start this tank dry sand dry rock. Can we see a picture please.

 

[sundog101]

Watch this

 

[StrangeDejavu]

did you start this tank dry sand dry rock. Can we see a picture please.

I used Real Reef rock and Fiji Pink live sand. And I would love to set up an algae scrubber but it's just not doable in a BioCube. I have considered adding an InTank refugium basket and filling it with chaeto but I don't know how much that'll help since HA grows faster than chaeto in my experience.

Here's some pics before the HA got bad.

And here's how it looked at its peak.

And this one is about a week or two old, before my last big cleanout.

I was seeing some great results when I was running GFO, doing weekly 25% and dosing Vibrant. I guess I just need to stick with that regimen again and keep at it.