Hair Algae that just won't go away

Blue and red hermits, lawnmower blenny, Mexican Turbo Snails, narsissus (sp?) snails, 2 sea cucumbers.

For some crazy reason though I have the worst luck with snails...If I buy 20, a few months later I'll have about 10. Weirdest thing...unless of course they are food for my Flame Hawkfish...although I've never seen him eat one.

Update: Status quo, algae is still growing but seems to be slower. Changed out the phosban in my reactor. Bumped up Mg, dKH is at 12, and ph is 8.3. I'll keep you posted.

 

Just another update: Algae is still growing...no signs of dieing. I continue to remove it the best I can everyday, but it's impossible to remove it all. I just posted a thread about doing water changes...maybe that's the next thing I'll try. If that doesn't work, I'm going the chemical route...not sure what else to do!

 

The natural process of removing this pest will take a long time, so don't get discouraged if you're not seeing results in the first few weeks. Hang in there! The chemical route can be risky. Some people have had great results with it while others haven't. I've had good results with Marine AlgaeFix.

 

Another update. I did a 10 gallon water change today and changed the Phosban out, so we'll see how it goes.

I also purchased a Salifert Phosphate test kit, as I was a little leery of my other one. Turns out, the Phosphate level in my well water is 0. So looks like I don't have phosphates coming from the tap after all.

With that being said, it must be a Nitrate problem, even though my test shows 0....again Algae is consuming it.

So, I'm going to buffer up the clean up crew today, along with starting some frequent water changes.

 

Keep updating. I am following along.

 

Will do Robman. Maybe I'll take some pics tomorrow and show you all what I'm fighting with!

 

I know it's not good to say "ditto", but this one statement of Steve's is so very important that I want to draw more attention to it.

Having a low phosphate or nitrate reading doesn't mean squat whenever there's algae growing.

Heck, that's the whole principle of a refugium! Algae LOVES phosphates and nitrates. Algae quickly eats phosphates and nitrates all the way down to near zero.

Back in the 1980's I did a slide presentation at our local aquarium club. I actually dragged out my good old chemistry books and did an experiment where I measured and calculated the mass of phosophates and nitrates consumed in a handful of algae. It's been too long ago to remember. But it was surprising. The quick answer is "lots"!

Bottom line is, if you have lots of algae growing in your aquarium, then don't be surprised if your phosphate and nitrate readings are near zero. If you have lots of algae growing in your aquarium, and your phosophate and nitrate readings are much above zero, then there's some fairly serious issues, indeed.

Personally, my three choices would be: i) grow 'good algae' to compete with the bad algae, ii) reduce phosophates and nitrates, or iii) investigate the quality of your live rock.

 

Thanks, but not sure what your last statement means. How do I do that?

 

I'm actually not sure how to tell someone how to judge live rock. I've seen incredible live rock from when I got started in this hobby in the 1980's. So, personally, that's kind of a standard that I judge by. I generally look for the amount of diverse life in the rock.

I guess my sarcastic answer (I like sarcasm) is that live rock should have lots of life. hehehe.

You ask a great question and I'm not sure that my answer does it justice. Although I'm confident that better live rock will give better results, I realize that my method to evaluate it is probably inadequate because it's highly subjective. But that's all I have to offer. I'll post again if I think of something else later.

 

I have been reading about algae turf scrubbers lately.The people using them are saying they do a great job of cleaning up gha.