Hair Algae

[DougBushBC]

So everyone asks these same questions, and I follow all their threads, but almost always, the cause of HA is either high nitrates/nitrites or high phosphates. None of this is my problem, and I still am getting a hair problem.

Here are my params:

Calc: 440
Alk 11.9
pH: 8.2
Temp: 80.5
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
Amonium: 0
Phos: 0
MG: Unknown

I have put a lot of CuC in to clean the hair: Lawnmower Blenny, Tux Urchin, 2x Sea Hares, a dozen or so each of Emerald Crabs, Red Hermits, Blue Hermits. Still getting it on two of my rocks, and one Sea Hare turned up dead.

I feed daily, but I cut my photo period back to 5 hours daily of the PC Daylights, and 10 hours daily of the Actinic.

Anyone have any pointers or ideas?

[DougBushBC]

Oh and BTW, i have Chaeto in my sump/fuge.

[Organics]

I have the same problem with HR none of my CUC touches it, only thing that does touch it is my yellow tang and hes just nibbling

[DougBushBC]

Also, i am now getting cyano mixed with the hair.

[DougBushBC]

bump, sure would love some help.

[frank2926]

how old is your tank? 4 months? do you still have the mandarin? do you have a protein skimmer? if so which one? Do you have a sump? bio balls or bio media? need this info to help. cut back feedings for now. what is your water source? RODI ?

[cdbias2]

Manually remove it. Use what ever means you can. It happens so much on new tanks it should almost be considered normal.

[clevengergl]

I agree with frank2926, cut back the feedings a bit and look at shortening your photoperiod for your lighting. I have similar problems right now that I'm trying to combat and my readings are very similar to yours. The only things is your Phosphates reading is probably misleading due to the fact that the overabundance of hair algae is consuming it. Remove what you can manually, scale back feeding and adjust photoperiod. Once the hair algae starts to diminish, you'll know your phosphates are TRULY dropping.

[DougBushBC]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12324355#post12324355 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by frank2926
how old is your tank? 4 months? do you still have the mandarin? do you have a protein skimmer? if so which one? Do you have a sump? bio balls or bio media? need this info to help. cut back feedings for now. what is your water source? RODI ?

Yes, tank is 4 months old, yes I have the mandarin, and he is fattening, it was a mistake to buy him, but I'm committed to keeping him alive. I have a skimmer, its a basic venturi skimmer, bought it from the LFS and forget the brand name, might want to replace this unit. I have a 25g Sump with Wet Dry filters with activated carbon in bags, 20# live rock in the sump, chaeto in the sump, uv sterilizer in the sump. I use RODI water. I am also dosing with a phosphate remover, but will increase dosages and cut back on feedings.

[BeesGoneWild]

You may not have detectible phosphates becouse the algae is taking them in faster than you can introduce them. YOu say you dose phosphate remover which im not sure what that means if you are using an actual liquid phosphate remover or not. The best bet is to run a phosphate reactor, or add a fuge with cheato. THeres a bunch of other things you can do, i have alist on my webpage you can see it if you click my red house.

[DougBushBC]

yes I am using Kent's Liquid Phosphate Remover, I don't have a ton of room for a Phosphate reactor, but would be interested in it if I could find room for it.

[Keith A]

DougBushBC,
How well does the liquid phosphate remover work? I too have limited space for a phos reactor.

[dead beat reef]

Hey Doug I started using a product called
algaefix by aquarium pharmaceuticals inc (api)
It has only been about 10 days but I already
see improvement with the HA. Very easy to use.
I also test water. Have a rodi filter that runs.002
or less tds. I am going back to running polyfliter
in my sump. When I quit using it thats when the
HA started. Dont ask why it works. dbr

[DougBushBC]

hrmmm. ok maybe a filter is another posibiltiy. Today I put some phosban in my wet/dry in a filter bag. we will see how that goes