Hair algae gone wild

Discussion in 'Algae' started by chum, Apr 6, 2013.

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  1. chum

    chum Coral Banded Shrimp

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    i know, this sucks. tank is one year old. nitrates were at 40ppm and phosphates were at .25 than the the hair algae attacked ! added a aquaripure nitrate filter and nitrates have been at zero for 2 months. added a phosphate reactor and they have been at zero also for two months. turbo snails do not seem to survive. not sure why. added 6 scarlet crabs last weekend. used ro water until 1 month ago. switched to ro/di unit. yet the algae seems to thrive. the live rock is from that fish place and was their premium rock. i do not believe a had it fully cycled before it went in. it has been in for 3-4 months. any help ? i am tired of looking at it !
     

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  3. Nuebie

    Nuebie Peppermint Shrimp

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    IMO even if your water was perfect, at this point grab a bucket of fresh rodi and start pulling what you can out piece by piece. Rinse your hand and discard the clumps in the fresh water. Once you clean as much as possible snails/hermits may have a chance but thats too much for anything to handle. Im interested what others will say and good luck
     
  4. DevinH

    DevinH Montipora Capricornis

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    I'm wondering why your snails are not surviving with that much food..best thing to do is manual removal. Reduce light cycle.
     
  5. chum

    chum Coral Banded Shrimp

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    the blue leds on my lamp have also stopped working on the right side. i ordered a fixture from reefbreeders. i run my lamp for 8 hours a day. i am going to rip some out today and buy some more clean up crew.
     
  6. Mr. Bill

    Mr. Bill Native Floridian

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    Once you have that much that thickly matted, several factors can come into play to maintain it's growth. Die-off will fuel new growth, plus it can harbor detritus which provides nutrients regardless how clean your water may be. As mentioned, it may need to be removed manually; my suggestion though is to vacuum it to remove dead algae as well as detritus build-up while removing water for a water change. Reducing your photo-period or a complete black-out will also help. It may still be a slow process, but you will start to see progress. Hopefully you've already addressed the original nitrate/phosphate issue when you switched to ro/di water.
     
  7. chum

    chum Coral Banded Shrimp

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    every two weeks i do a 4 gallon water change and vacuum out as much as i can. i am going to when this war. thanks for everyone being part of my army ! i will follow up with photos.
     
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  9. diverdan

    diverdan Bangghai Cardinal

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    +1 to manual removal and you might need to more frequent water changes. Maybe once a week with manual removal and wc.
     
  10. DevinH

    DevinH Montipora Capricornis

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    You can also dose hydrogen peroxide, however your best bet if you can is to remove the rock and do a hydrogen peroxide dip. Do not do it with the rocks your corals are on as the concentrated dip would kill them.
     
  11. skyvern2130

    skyvern2130 Stylophora

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    You may want to go to a weekly water change. Don't forget water changed are part of your filtration process
     
  12. chumslickjon

    chumslickjon Purple Spiny Lobster

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    I was going to say the same thing. Do a new rock every other day so you don't shock the system.
    Scrub off as much crap as you can while you dip it.
    for the rocks with corals, apply the peroxide with a baster or eye dropper and apply around the corals. Let them sit for a few minutes and then dip in saltwater and scrub off as much as you can.

    You'll need to repeat a few times and your coralline will die (if you have any), but it will be worth it.
     
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