Hair Algae problem
 

Not sure where to post this so I put it into two forums.



I just put up a 375 6 weeks ago and have a huge hair algae outbreak. My refugium is 150. Both the refugium and display tank are getting over run with the algae. Half the live rock was moved into the new tank from older smaller tanks and the other half is new. Here is what is in the tank now, most is there to help the algae.

30 snails
1 large sea slug
1 urchin
6 sally light foot
5 hermit crabs
1 scribbled rabbit
1 lawnmower blenny
1 naso tang
1 kole tang
1 purple tang
1 convict tang
1 sixline
1 fairy wrasse
1 royal gramma
2 clowns

All water parameters are great and I did a 70 gallon water change this weekend. I am using a kold-sterile system to filter the water. Never had a problem in my smaller tanks before. My halides are only on for 5 hours a day. What kind of clean up crew do I need. Seems like I might need 300-400 hermit crabs (mostly blue legged)? Is this too much? What else can I do? Help.

That's a very young tank for 11 fish. Some of those listed produce lots of waste and although some of those fish eat algae, I doubt any of them will touch hair algae. How much flow, and what type of skimmer are you using?

dont know if you want to add one or not but I have a baby dogface puffer who cleaned my 54 gallon tank clean of hair algae. And it was covered. Of course he will kill snails tho.

I combined a 125 and 55 into the 375...transferred water, rocks, sand, coral, 6 fish, bio everything...just added five fish this weekend at the 6 week mark...fish and coral are doing well. The tangs and rabbit are going to town on the hair algae. I have a G4 Euro Skimmer. Local LFS helped me build the tank, so I am not sure the flow. I would like to stay away from the puffer.

yeah puffers are usually not a good idea but i figured i would mention it anyhow :D

The tank might just need some time to break in. You severely disturbed the ecosystem of the smaller tanks when moving everything over to the large tank.

I would give it some time, try pulling it out by hand where you can. Maybe bolster your clean up crew with a bunch of snails. Keep up the water changes, test your RO/DI water for phosphates. Maybe add a phosphate reactor. Look for dead spots in the tank where waste is collecting and blow it out with a power head every week. etc....etc....etc....

You can always try the elevated Mg levels and the "3 days with no light" tricks.

Rowaphos!

you need a much bigger cleanup crew than what you have, maybe 3 or 4 times more of each.

also, you need a good skimmer to remove organics before they go through the nitrogen cycle and something to remove nitrates and phosphates. the combo of the different things will keep your hair algae in control.

"I am using a kold-sterile system to filter the water."

The LFS i was getting water from switched from a kent 100gpd ro/di unit, to the same type of filter you are talking about, WITHOUT telling me.

At first all was fine, i inspected the ro/di unit myself before i started to buy water there. But then .....every time i used the water my tank would look nasty with all sorts of slime and alge. I went in asking if they had serviced the unit lately because my tank was getting nasty alge and noticed THEIR tanks looked the same way. I was told that they had replaced it with a new system so i asked to see it. First thing i notice is no DI then i noticed there was no waste water comming out of the thing. I was ready to cuss them i was so upset.
From my experience, that style filtering system, was horrible. It caused all sorts of alge in my tank as soon as i used it and i knew something was wrong. When water changes make your alge worse there is a problem. I tested their TDS on the water they were selling me and it was higher than my tap at the time. 145. My tap was in the 120's

I'm surprised your kole tang isn't taking care of it... my kole slaughtered all my algae, including cyano :D

how long do you leave your lights on for? the same thing happened to me and i decreasedmy light cycle, got some crabs(sally light foot emerald, blue leg) and some snails, and BAM, no more hair algae.

its expected in a tank this young...try manually removing as much as u can (scrub and syphon) and u shouldnt have any problems...u probally just got over the diatoms too right??? the hair algae usually comes after that ;)

Wow...you are scaring me with your kold-sterile thoughts. The kold-sterile unit was put inot place by a very reputable LFS here who I have worked with for 5 years. They us it on their tanks and other clients of theirs and have had great success.

I am just assuming it is part of the new tank setup and that I need more of a cleanup crew. My halide lights are only on for 5 hours a day. I will decrease that. The fish, urchin, crabs and snails I got this weekend along with a large water change look to be putting a small dent in it. I know it is a slow process so i am trying to be patient.

As far as a large cleanup crew, I was thinking 300 more snails and 150 red legged hermit crabs. Is this too much or too little? I don't want them to start dying off once the algae is under control. I am also going to get some more calurpa for the refugium.

too much on the cleanup crew.... i would stay away from urchins since the eat coraline that we all love so much... 300 snails is a bit too much id say 50 is a good starting point in a tank that size and take it from there... on the 150 hemits im not a big fan of hermits since they have no respect for corals when its feeding time (to give an idea i have no crabs in my 125g) again your tank is still young i suggest manually removing as much as possible and then see where you stand

i too would go lower on the amount of snails for now. just get some emerald crabs, sally light foots, and afew hermits( i don't care for them too much as they do knock over frags, but i took mine out once the algae was gone)

yeah don't add any more snails. I thought at first that i would need 125 for a 125 gallon since that was in the clean-up crew package for that size, I soon learned that after the cycle, and the algea starts dying off, It looks like it's tough for 8 to find enough to eat in the tank, let alone 125 of them.

Already have an urchin in the tank. I can always try and remove it once the algae dies off. I will just add some hermit crabs then and stay on top of my water changes.

According to dr. google :
[url]http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=11235&highlight=Koldsteril[/url]
&
[url]http://www.premiumaquatics.com/thestore/prods/KOLD-STERILE.html[/url]
Quote:
"Warning: medium cannot be  used directly on aquariums containing live specimens. This  medium is specially prepared for single pass drinking water  filtration as contained in our U.S. Patented Kold Ster-il®  System. This medium is not an ion-exchange resin and does  not remove calcium or magnesium cations. Slight reductions  of alkalinity may be noted as hydroxyl and bicarbonate anions  are sorbed along with the desired phosphates and silicates.  However, this medium cannot produce hardwater without alkalinity,  as do certain types of ion-exchange filtration processes."

Later
Conor

[url]http://thereeftank.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5356[/url]

I'm just a newby here, but the cleanup crew and algae eating fish will only do so much for the algae problem. You need to get rid of the nutrients (i.e phosphates and nitrate) instead of releasing them back into the system. I definitely recommend the use of rowaphos to help you tackle the problem and pull out the extra nutrients. It has worked wonder on my 30 gallon tank. The second I saw hair algae start to appear on one of my rocks I started using phosphate removal media and I haven't seen any algae since!

Regardless of the lighting or flow characteristics of your tank, algae won't grow if there isn't any phosphates or nitrates.

50 bucks spent on a phosphate reactor and some media could be the quick solution!!

Have a good read of the reefcentral thread, later
Conor.

I hate Hair Algae, but my copepods love to hide in it.

I have read the kold-steril thread and here in St.Louis, other reefers have had great success with kold-steril.

Test your RO/DI and get a phosphate reactor. They are like $30-40. Seems to be helping my problem.