Algae Bloom!

[jeasko]

have a fairly new setup about 11 weeks old now have a few bits of coral 3 fish 2 shrimps hermits snails and a crab, no matter what i do this stuff seems to love it! has anyone got info on how to get rid of a hair type algae?

 

[SkiFletch]

A wing and a prayer? j/k

Ok, some info on your tank will be required. And by some I mean a lot

How big is it?
How much LR?
What filtration method used?
Any maintenance for filtration performed?
Skimmer? If so, how often do you have to clean your cup?
Any phosphate removers? If so which ones?
Lighting?
Flowrate?
Feeding regimen? What/how much/how often?
Species of fish?
Input water source?
Water change regimen?
Chemistry, as many as you know... sg, temp, pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, calcium, alkalinity, magnesium

Lets get that info and then go from there

 

[jeasko]

A wing and a prayer? j/k

Ok, some info on your tank will be required. And by some I mean a lot

How big is it?
How much LR?
What filtration method used?
Any maintenance for filtration performed?
Skimmer? If so, how often do you have to clean your cup?
Any phosphate removers? If so which ones?
Lighting?
Flowrate?
Feeding regimen? What/how much/how often?
Species of fish?
Input water source?
Water change regimen?
Chemistry, as many as you know... sg, temp, pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, calcium, alkalinity, magnesium

Lets get that info and then go from there

ok here goes
approx 10kg of LR and awaiting to get some more but LFS's only have uncured so having to wait

125ltr tank
external cannister filter outlet into tank assisting water flow in tank
v2400 skimmer emptying max 1 x per week
lighting 2 x arcadia t5 36 in tubes on for 8 hours per day and 2 x t8 arcadia marine blue tubes on for 10hours per dY
flowrate 4300ltr p/h
fed once per day
using r/o water
water change 10percent once per week

chemistry
water temp starting to come down now but 27c
sg 1.023
ph slightly hi 8.4-8.6 (not checked since water change 2 days ago)
alk normal
nitrate slight trace but under 10
nitrite none
phosphate calcium & magnesium unknown

Now for live stock
2 clown fish
1 royal gramma
2 blood shrimps
2 sand sifting star fish
5 snails
4 hermit crabs
1 light foot crab (not sure what real name is)

looking at that list I think I probably could do with soime more clean up crew any suggestions?

 

[AK77]

You could try cutting back on the lighting a little but, personally I think 5 snails for 125 litre tank is a bit on the low side. Get a mix of different marine species like astrea, trochus, turbo, cerith, etc, etc. They'll knock their way through the algae in no time then.

 

[SkiFletch]

Humm, most of that sounds good. Lets see if we can't narrow things down a bit. Hair algae is usually the result of having excess phosphates in the tank. Of course once the bloom has begun, the HA eats the phosphate as soon as its entered into the water column, thus usually a test kit will read 0 or trace phosphate at best. Your low level of nitrates seems to indicate that your bio filtration is pretty effective and doesn't point to a canister in need of cleaning. Pretty good flowrate, no troubles there.

You didn't mention if you run any phosphate media, so I'll assume you dont. It might be a good idea to introduce some Rowaphos, Phosban, or other Granular Ferric Oxide (GFO) phosphate remover. In your case I'd just put it in my canister filter, if necessary, inside a women's nylon to keep it in place.

Then, I'd change the type of foods I'm feeding... It could be that your food is high in phosphates and fueling the algae.

And lastly, some questions about the RO unit. Do you know what the TDS of your RO discharge is? Also, how often is it flushed?

There's pretty much only two inverts suitable for introduction into your tank to remove hair algae. Any fish (tangs) are too big for a small tank like yours. You could try a Sea Urchin. These are voracious algae eaters and WILL eat all the hair algae in the tank. They will also eat any and all coraline algae, and may "bulldoze" corals and rocks not secured properly. Your other option would be a Sea Hare. These will eradicate the hair algae (often in a couple days) but leave coraline alone. Their negatives, they too can bulldoze coral frags/rocks and have a nasty problem of needing all powerhead inlets covered in foam. Their soft bodies WILL get sucked into the inlet and die if a plastic strainer is used.