Hair algae/ bubbles problem HELP!

[mrpet]

I have a hair algae problem, little tiny bubbles on the algae itself. Checked all water parameters, everythings fine, added two sea hares also have tubros, trochus, and cerith snails, algae blenny, and three tangs. No sucess yet! any suggestions would be very helpful! thanks!

[goldenfamaliy]

how old is the tank, did you check for phosphate and what color is the algae. If it is a new tank, then this normal when the tank is cycling. What is your lighting cycle like. Do you have good flow thru the tank? I am going thru this right now with my tank. I have alot of flow, but I can see where there is not as much flow because there is brown alge growing on the sand now. I just have to adjust some power heads. I just have 4 mexcan turbos in my tank and they are keeping the rocks pretty clean. If I find some alge growing, I grab a snail and put it on it and let him do his job. Oh my tank is a 75 gal with a 20 gal sump and 2X250 MH.

[mrpet]

tons of flow phos is zero its green algae. running about 2 months now 12 80w t5s on it running 8hrs a day. guess i will ride it out plus it was all marco "dead" rock put some live rock in the fuge to seed the tank. what's weird is the tiny little air bubbles on the algae...

[RANGER69]

I'm having the same problem, I get little bubbles every where. I asked around and some stores said pull out the rocks if you can and wash them, and Don't pop the bubble just suck them out if you can with the water change. I just added carbon and posphate recomeded by the petstore. Hope it works. I just set up my (75g) tank as well. I ordered a UV steriliser it should arrive tomm. I'll let you know if that help. Keep me posted if you find out anything that helps please. Thanks

[JamesBryan]

I have had several RC members send me samples of their problem algaes to see what will eat them. So far, atlantic turbos have done the best job at eating the samples I have recieved, with blue leg hermits coming in second. Large turbos are voracious but can knock over frags as they tend to wedge themselves in between rocks during their down time. A large load of blue legs seems to keep just about anything under control on the rocks and sand, you can scrape the sides to get the algae down to them. One piece of bryopsis covered zoanthids a RC member gave me was clean in about two days with a dozen blue legs in a couple gallon tub. It is now in a nano that has 6 blue legs and cerinth and nerites. The blue legs are the only thing that keeps it groomed down and the zoa are taking off. I haven't found anything those big turbos won't eat. They get hungry. They will eat my coraline if I don't supplement them with green frozen cube food (any brand).

[mrpet]

i have all of the above in the tank to eat the algae. im going to add some carbon to my reactor see if that helps...

[RANGER69]

I will try some turbos. How many do you think for a 75g?

[JamesBryan]

Mr. Pet,

I only have small tanks, with high loads of hermits and snails (because I like them).

A 375 gallon! I don't know if you can buy blue legs by the dump truck load. Your sump is bigger than most peoples big tanks.

I feel very envious and innadequate at the moment...;-)

[Flavum]

if your looking for something to eat macro algea I wuold go with any urchin. there insane. my blue tuxedo keeps my 40 breeder in check.

[JPSKI25]

How many blue legs would I need for a 38 gal? I have 4 large margarite tu

[JPSKI25]

Sorry I hate this laptop! 4 large margarite turbos 5 cerinth 8 nerites and 6 narrsis snails what else would I need? My nitrates are 0 and my phosphates I'm not sure (test kit is on the way)

[RANGER69]

I just added a stripped blennyit eats alge non stop this fishis great. I recomend it. I just added a UV light as well will keep you posted on theprogress. i turned off lights for three days a it worked mircales.

[johnmaloney]

Check Dinoflagellates instead of hair algae. Are the bubbles trapped inside it? Probably dinos then. Way hard to get rid of. Read about them here:


http://www.reefs.org/library/article/t_crail.htmlclick here (http://www.reefs.org/library/article/t_crail.html)

[JamesBryan]

Urchins are good too. Good catch on that. Marine Institute of Crete has done alot of research on urchins, I believe they raise them in number for live food. There is one species that loves halimeda, of course I don't remember which it was. There might be a type of urchin that likes your type of algae?

I was wondering about the blennies that are advertised as algae eaters such as lawnmower blenny. Thanks for the confirm. I thought it might be sales gimmick.

[mrpet]

my algae blenny does a good job i have used urchins in the past will get a couple and see how that does. going to do an h20 change today will suck out what i can...

[johnmaloney]

Is anything eating the stuff you got that has the bubbles in it? Urchins are cool, but they will start wearing things in your tank as camouflage if they can. Pincushions are notorious for this. Longspines get way to big for a reef tank, try to score some rock boring urchins if you can. Additionally, just because you have 0 nitrates, (if you do, post didn't say), that doesn't mean you don't have zero nitrates after the algae soaks it up. It just may be that it soaks it up at the same rate it is introduced. Good luck to you and keep us posted!

[RANGER69]

I installed a uv lamp and got my clean up crew ( 15 turbo snails, stripped blennie, sand sifter blennie, 10 or so hermits and crabs) my alge problem has stopped for now. Like I said I also added active carbon and phossgard. The bubbles have stopped for now and the tank looks cleaner. I have also added some ozone thru my skimmer. I had an old air ozoniser around I was not useing so I put it on the end of the air intake of the skimmer. I don't know if it's working but my skimmer is working great and it keep the reef smell out of my livingroom.

[luke33]

Mrpet, i'm betting your marco rock is leaching po4. Thats pry what is causing the HA. I'm going through the same thing, just got 30 turbo's and i'm running phosgaurd and have chaeto working on it. It seems like its starting to slowly clearing up, but will take a good month.