Hair Algae BAD!!!

[Herb Fla]

Im having a bad time.
First I have a 125 gal. dual overflows
with a 6 gal sump and a 30 gal. refugium. The tank and system
will be 2 years old this December.
I have a chiller keeping a constant 78 degrees.
3 150 14k mh. 4 96 Antics and 4 1w moon.
I was running the mh 8 hrs. and the antics 12.
Then I cut back to 4 hrs. on the mh and 10 on the antics
after this whole problem came to be.
It all started with some on the over flows I was lazy and did
not worry about it. I was not thinking straight, working over
100 hours a week.. it took over. I could not even look at
my tank I was so disgusted. I finaly just got in there. I took
out hands full of the algae out and took what ever rock I could
and used a tooth brush and scrubed the algae away. I also
took rock that had bad algae on it and left it in a dark garbage
can for a week. Bad idea it killed my live rock. Now what is bothering me is it growing back and fast and I do not know what to do. Nothing will eat it.
I have 30 or so blue leg's, a lawn mower blenny, a yellow
tang, noso tang, several snails, emeral crabs. Nothing I mean Nothing is fixing it. I feed the Tank a little flake each day and that is it trying the keep everyone hungry. I was using some zoo plankton and Cyclopeez. I stoped all of that completly.
I have several soft corals and lps and sps.
I had some staghorns and Acro's snuffed out by the algae growiing over it. I've checked Phos. Nill, Nitrate Nill, I use RO water ALWAYS. I do 35 gal. Water changes most weeks. I keep the filter pads clean freash carbon I have a UV, and a Skimmer. I add Purple up and Araga Milk every day to keep my Cal. and Alk. in check.
It seems that the algae uses up the Iodin in the tank with it growing so rapidly.

I just do not know what the answer is local shops just do not
see that is a big deal to me. And some of the feed back
I do not agree with. Please Please help.. I will do what ever I have to do I love my tank. I just set up an account with RC just now.
So I could get some advice.

Thank you for your time,
Herb Fla

[steelerguy]

I would make sure you keep up your regular water changes. Put a big wad of chaeto in your fuge. Pull the rocks with the algae and give them a good scrubbing. Kill the lights for a few days, then start up with even shorter cycles. Even if your test kit is saying 0 phos there almost has to be some in there to cause a horrible bloom. Get a phosban reactor to make sure there is no phosphate. You may want to get a dozen or so Astaea snails, I have had good luck with them cleaning up algae, but they won't touch it if it gets too long. You have to keep it short for them to eat it, which means lot s of picking and scrubbing for awhile.

I don't have a ton of experience and what I have learned came from my nano, but I have battled some bad algae problems and won. It took time and work, but you can get it back under control.

[Fish'InMN]

All of my experience with hair algae has been come from poor-flow conditions. There simply wasn't enough water movement in some areas and that is where it started to grow the most, though it does eventually spread everywhere.

What sort of turnover rate do you have at the moment? Or what powerheads and pumps are you using?

[Herb Fla]

Thank you for the reply.
What is chaeto im not familure with it...

[Herb Fla]

I actualy had 2 rio 2100 blowing from one end of the tank to the other
for a 1/2 hour each with my own home made timers and I turned them off thinking it was helping it spread.

[Jocephus]

If you do have that much hair algae, your tests can read zero. Your nitrates are in the algae. Same concept as chaeto. I had a hair algae problem, got a sea hare, and he mowed through it. Had to give it away after though, nothing for it to eat. But feed less, check your water, all the standard stuff too.

[Southern Boy]

Lights off for a few days like steeler said.How old are your bulbs?

[Herb Fla]

Bulbs are about 6 months old...
Does Lights out mean 48 hours and will it hurt anything else in the tank. And Does that mean moon light also. And last but no least
Should I block any natrual light also?

[chaznsc]

do you have any photos of the damage?

[aquarius77]

"Does Lights out mean 48 hours and will it hurt anything else in the tank."

All lights off, lamps, moons and the sun. It wont hurt anything, many people do it with good success.

[Southern Boy]

There was a thred of the month a few months ago.It was lights out for 3 days makes a tank healthier.I did it then and I'm doing it again as we speak.Keep your lights off 4 3 days then bring them back up slow.Actinics only for the 1st day,and maybe not even the whole day.Then a little of both the next.If you have a fyge keep your light on as this will help keep your ph up during that time.How close are you to artifitial light?I would let it keep a little.Nature has lights off days when we have storms and what not.You might want to think about new bulbs too.It's hard to say if they are bad but you might have lost enough of wave legnth to grow algea.Just a thought thow.I know they aren't cheap.