Hair Algae in my 10g

[parker313]

Everything is still going really well in my nano, except an over-abundance of hair algae. I can keep it under control by picking it out, but I really don't like sticking my hand in the tank and disturbing it any more than necessary.

Lights are on 12-8, so 8hrs a day.

RO water top offs, not tap water.

I only feed every other day, so I don't *think* it's too much food. Plus, most times I am spot feeding the corals, with the fish just picking out whatever's free floating from the spot feeding.

Is there anything that will go in my tank that will eat the algae, or should I just keep picking it out?

 

[jflowers]

Bump! as I have the same problem!



Jon

 

[Jedi]

Green hair algea is often a symptom of a couple different things.
1. phosphates are to high.
2. Overfeeding
3. lighting issues.

I see you use RO water for top off, How do you do water changes? Ro or Tap?

yor lighting? what type of lighting are you using? bulbs could be contributing to the problem.

Feeding. Although you may not "think" you are overfeeding, I like almost evryone elsein this hobby does overfeed.

You may want to consider a Skimmer if you dont have one. This will remove the Excess in the tank, left over from feeding. It will ower Nitrates and help out with the Phosphates. I would like to know your water parameters, and tank set up, along with inhabitants in oreder rto give any other input...


Jedi

 

[jflowers]

Don't mean to hijack parker, but your prob sounds very similar to mine.

I see you use RO water for top off, How do you do water changes? Ro or Tap?

RO Always

yor lighting? what type of lighting are you using? bulbs could be contributing to the problem.

150w MH 8 hours a day (was 12 hours, but I cut the time a month ago in a bid to slow the hair algae)

Feeding. Although you may not "think" you are overfeeding, I like almost evryone elsein this hobby does overfeed.

Yep, I probably do overfeed a tad, but I make sure its all gone in a few mins and the hermits usually get what is left.

You may want to consider a Skimmer if you dont have one. This will remove the Excess in the tank, left over from feeding. It will ower Nitrates and help out with the Phosphates. I would like to know your water parameters, and tank set up, along with inhabitants in oreder rto give any other input...

I use a skimmer and run Rowaphos in my filter (external eheim 2234 aprox 600 lph), have an aquamedic internal mechanical filter (1000 lph) and powerhead (2000 lph). Ammonia 0 NitrIte 0 NitrAte 0 PH 8.2 SG 1.024. The inhabitants are 10 Red Leg hermits, 2 LH hermits, 15 or so Turbo snails, 2 percula clowns, 1 six line wrasse and a red headed neon goby. I have countless amounts of amphi and cope pods in the tank.

Thanks

[Edit: Oh and its a 140l/30imp Gallon tank]

Jon

 

[Jedi]

Jflowers,
all your parameters seem good.
I would look into the light. How old is the Bulb. What type, and definatly cut your daylight hours for the time being. I would go down to 6-8 hours.
maybe ad a second PH to move the water around. position it lower in the tank, and aim the "flow" soit is just above the substrate.

Get a good water test and check for phosphates.


Jedi

 

[parker313]

No problem Jon, I don't mind at all

I see you use RO water for top off, How do you do water changes? Ro or Tap?
R/O pre-mixed salt water straight from the lfs. I used to use tap water for top offs, but haven't in quite some time

yor lighting? what type of lighting are you using? bulbs could be contributing to the problem.
110 total watt power compact - 55w daylight/55w actinic on 8hrs a day.

You may want to consider a Skimmer if you dont have one. This will remove the Excess in the tank, left over from feeding. It will ower Nitrates and help out with the Phosphates. I would like to know your water parameters, and tank set up, along with inhabitants in oreder rto give any other input...
I just got a skimmer about 2wks ago - a miniflotor from AquaMedic - and it has been collecting some skimmate.

I will get the tests out and do the tests when I get my 2yr old down for a nap However, I don't have a phosphates test, which I can get this afternoon after Brodie gets up from his nap.

Tank setup:
10g with live rock and soft corals (polyps, zoas, toadstool leather mushroom, mushroom)
Inverts - Astrea snail, margarita snail, 3 Ceriths, 3 Nassarius + 6 red and blue leg hermits
Fish - Juvy true perc clown, purple firefish, green clown goby

Whatever's going on, the mushrooms and zoas like the water parameters and lighting, the mushroom has already split off a new little one and the zoas are growing well as well.

 

[Jedi]

110 watts on a 10 gallon, that is like 11 watts per gallon. Lots of light. Not necessarily a bad thing, but that could definatley be contributing. How old are the bulbs?
I might drop down to 6 hours a day with both and just the blue actinic on 1 hour before and 1 hour after the other set goes off.

The shrooms will pretty much grow with a flashlight..lol no offence intended.

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that your phosphates are gonna be 2.0 or higher.
Let me know when you get the test done so I can either eat my words, or bask in the spotlight...

Jedi

 

[parker313]

No offense taken at all, about the shrooms!!

The lights are pretty new - I got them maybe 2months ago.

Ammonia - <0.25
NitrAte - 0
NitrIte - 0

I'll go ahead and get your spotlight warmed up b/c I'm sure you're right Should I pick up some phosban at the store while I get the test?

Here, I'll go ahead and get your spotlight turned on for when I get to test my phosphates

 

[Ed4567]

If you have only had your lights for a couple of months it is probably just part of the normal algae cycle IMO (as long as it hasn't been getting worse). From your pictures it doesn't look too bad and I would be surprised if you had phosphate levels of 2.0ppm (although I stand to be corrected)- normally we are talking about levels of 0.2 ppm for phosphate being a problem.

Maybe you try growing a bit of macro-algea in a corner of your tank to help export nutrients?

edited for grammer

 

[parker313]

I do have several different kinds of macro algae starting to grow as well - green bubble algae, brownish bubble algae, red string looking things, the brown grapevine looking kind and the brushy green that looks like actual blades of grass (please ignore that I'm algae ignorant and don't know the real names!). Oh, and some that looks like little green fan blades or flower petals. They've also started growing since I got the new lights and are growing on several different rocks. Their growth is all very well under control and nothing's threatening to encroach all over the place like the hair algae is.

The last picture I took was just after I got as much of the hair algae out as I could. I had a little Dixie cup and had nearly a half inch of algae in the bottom

Still waiting for Brodie to wake up. I'm enjoying the days he naps from 1-4!

 

[jflowers]

I pulled out handfuls of the stuff yesterday, I don't know what a dixie cup is, but I had enough to fill a half pint glass. The stuff discovered underneath was interesting, lots of sea squirts and tube worms. I also rescued several shrimp (dunno what sort, about 5mm in size) from the glass before binning the algae.

I also have several 'good' algaes growing that sound the same as yours, my book (The book of the marine aquarium by Nick Dakin) names them as...

Caulerpa prolifera - grass like, but broader leaves.
Caulerpa racemosa - grape
Caulerpa sertularioides - similar to the first, but fern type leaves (have lots of this)
Codiacea spp. can't identify exactly which, greeny/red leaves growing slowly

My bulb is 5 months old, I was told to replace every 12 months, is that correct or should I get a spare and wait for it to go?

Jon

 

[parker313]

A Dixie cup is just a small paper cup (Dixie is the brand).

 

[ostrow]

Phosphates are hard to test for. Water may show 0 but that's because the algae is such an efficient consumer. I tried testing in my sandbed but it took up too much sand to get a reading.

Questions: do you have a sandbed? How deep? How was it seeded, and when was it last seeded?

What are your oxygen levels and CO2 levels. My problem is, I bet, high CO2. Hoping now I can open the windows (Spring!) that will help.

How stable is your pH? What do you dose? Kalk? Calcium? How?

What are your organics? I haven't tested but have been told to. I may run Purigen in a filter bag. I already run Phosban in a Phosban Reactor. Something to consider.

Only reliable known predator is a Sea Hare (the Dolabella species). But they are hard to find. I got one a couple weeks ago from a new lfs, and it died in 48 hours, but after having cleaned one whole rock. Blasted store won't even give me a discount on another attempt.

 

[Jedi]

I would appreciate a light that I can bask in and get a little tan.

No really, once you find out the phos levels, we will go from there, lets rule out one thing at a time...

Phosban in a cannister or in a bag along with filtration is always a good idea.

There are a few fish that will eat it, but with the tank size that is not an option.

If you need to discuss this more, I can be reached at:

[email protected]

 

[parker313]

I do have a sandbed, about an inch deep. It was seeded by my liverock and my tank was set up at the end of September, so 6 months ago.

I have no idea what my oxygen or CO2 levels are I didn't even know you could test for those )

My pH is very stable. I don't dose anything. With such a small tank, I wanted to go more on the conservative side and not dose anything unless a problem cropped up.

I went to the lfs (as opposed to PetSmart) and as always, didn't regret the decision. I got the Phosphate test and they said that if the level is high they have a special product they've kinda developed on their own - non-commercial.

So. I'll go run the test right now and be back in just a minute with the phosphate levels.