Serious Algae Issue

[AnotherLousy1]

Hello all -

I have a new 58 Gallon setup going and over the past week, I have this "algae" growing all over my live rock. I thought at first it was byropis, but in talking with another saltwater enthusiast, he said he'd never seen byropis this large. Anyone help me out with some identification?

Thanks in advance

P.S. The algae is feathery in appearance and the stems it is sitting on look to be more fragile than hardy/sturdy. Of course where it seems the worse is in the higher flow area of the tank. Currently have 10 Scarlet Hermits, 10 Nerite snails, 10 Cerinth snails, 5 Onyx Nassaris, and 5 Chestnut Turban snails as cleanup crew. Borrowed 1 lettuce slug from friend when I thought the issue was byropis.

 

[tippMANn98]

looks like the old fashioned HAIR ALGAE!!! i have a friend that has been trying to battle this for a year now...to no avail

 

[CREEPIN]

sea hare, get some..

 

[lcstorc]

Hair algae it is.
Remove as much as you can by hand.
Do lots of water changes and reduce nutrients in the water.
If you are not already start using RO/DI water for all changes and top-offs.

 

[CREEPIN]

and get some sea hares lol

 

[vdituri]

Or a goat.
Thats a fine crop of hair algae.
I never realized how fortunate I was with my 55 till now.
Best of luck on the battle.

 

[framerguy]

Wow! Someone here has in their signature the line; "You can't grow hair algae like this..don't even try rookie",..well, you are giving them a run for their money. That's the best I've ever seen. Get a seahare, QUICK! And get those nitrates and phosphates under control.

 

[lcstorc]

Even a sea hare isn't going to be able to plow through it that long. Try to get as much out as you can or at least cut it as short as you can so the sea hare can get to work.

Believe it or not, I have a friend who's tank is worse. Basically all you see in the 125 is HA from end to end.

 

[CREEPIN]

If U Get 3 And Cut Some U Should Be Fine...

 

[mosdojaf]

This is how I got the hair algae when i had it a long time ago. First you hae to cut it as low as possible. I used a 5 gallon bucket of tank water after a water change. Then I took a new small scrub brush, or toothbrush, and scrub the area. Have a second container of tank water or ro, to pour over the rock and wash it off then place it back in the tank. You don't have to do every rock at once, pick a few a week or water change and only scrub the spots needed. Eventually it will be gone.

 

[AnotherLousy1]

Thanks all for the responses. I never had this issue in my 29 biocube (not sure why), but with this tank, the "now known" hair algae has just been consuming the tank. Going to do some trimming tonight, a water change, and order a couple sea hairs. Keep your fingers crossed.

Thanks again everyone

 

[AnotherLousy1]

OK, just looked at a few sea hares. EWWWWW! :lol

Is there anything else that will eat green hair algae? I was reading about a lawnmower blenny, but then again, I see the lawnmower blennies can get testy over time, and especially if he was the first in the tank. Holy frijoles, I feel like such a beginner again. :dead:

Thanks again in advance

 

[Varga]

I have found nothing that eats that algae. have not tried hares yet though.
chances are it will eat it, die, and algae comes right back.

are you over feeding at all? I think a small amount of hair algae is normal but something is feeding it in your tank for sure

 

[sasquatch]

Its back to basics, what is your water source, what additives are you using, do you have a skimmer, have you started using rowaphos yet? Remove as much as possible by hand, I wont do water changes as it just fuels it more (up to you) my theory is let it drain the nutrients by it self, when it slows down start the attack, alc up to 12 or 13 dkh, mag at 12 to 1300, rowaphos both tank and topoff water, when it starts to go clear or white I use a 3/8 id tubing with a length of 3/8 od rigid air line tubing a bucket with filterfloss and start to siphon it out, put your finger over the rigid tubing while draining allow the HA to go into the pipe, trap it with your finger and pull, its a WAR! take no prisoners lol

 

[CREEPIN]

I Think They Look Like Shrek!

 

[lcstorc]

I'm with SAS on this one. You need to find out where the fuel is coming from. With that much HA something is seriously feeding it. Find out where the food is coming from and it will die of starvation. You can certainly help it along by removing it with a brush etc, but if you don't find what is feeding it, it will just come back.

 

[AnotherLousy1]

Varga - no overfeeding as there's really nothing in there to feed. The snails and scarlet hermits all eat some form of algae, just not hair LOL so nothing extra going into the tank there.

Its back to basics, what is your water source, what additives are you using, do you have a skimmer, have you started using rowaphos yet? Remove as much as possible by hand, I wont do water changes as it just fuels it more (up to you) my theory is let it drain the nutrients by it self, when it slows down start the attack, alc up to 12 or 13 dkh, mag at 12 to 1300, rowaphos both tank and topoff water, when it starts to go clear or white I use a 3/8 id tubing with a length of 3/8 od rigid air line tubing a bucket with filterfloss and start to siphon it out, put your finger over the rigid tubing while draining allow the HA to go into the pipe, trap it with your finger and pull, its a WAR! take no prisoners lol

Sasquatch - I use RO/DI water from my LFS, same as I have done for over a year for my 29 gallon biocube. I have a skimmer that is pulling some of the nastiest skimmate I have ever had the displeasure of smelling (real dark brown/black).

In the sump, I have seagel, chemipure, and purigen (this was added when I first noticed the algae starting to really take off). Of course, I also have a basket of cheato in the aquarium itself to help with taking up nutrients as well.

The only thing I have dosed with is purple up (which BTW, I have stopped using over the last 3 days or so due to the algae outbreak). There are two things I did a little different in this tank compared to the 29 gallon. 1) Started with half cured live rock and half dry rock from marco rocks and 2) added bio-spira on day 2 of the tank being up with rock in it. I can't help but to think the bio-spira was a HUGE mistake.

FYI as well, speaking of the filterfloss, I have some of that (double layer) under my water flowing into the sump, so anything I removed last night is going thru the overflow into the floss (so that part is a good thing).

Anyway, I guess I'm just going to keep working at it, might try to pull a bit more tonight .... a little frustrating being I didn't have to go thru this with my other tank, but I guess it proves, just when you think you know how something should go, a wrench gets thrown into the mix. All about the learning experience.

Thanks

 

[lcstorc]

Most likely the Purple Up or the water source. Test the new water. Often LFS doesn't change the folters like they should. The uncured rock is also part of the issue. Lots of dieoff there.
Be sure to change that filter floss frequently so it doesn't become another problem.

 

[blue_eyes53813]

Another possible idea is to leave the lights off for 3 days. I would clean as much as you can out 1st and leave the lights off. Sea hares are very good too. Maybe a few more hermit crabs too. Good luck

 

[AnotherLousy1]

Funny you should mention that Blue_Eyes. I got out quite a bit of the "nastiness" the other night, and we are now in day 2 of darkness. The stuff looks like it's yellowing/dying off a bit. This weekend, going to get in there and pluck more off and see what happens, will probably leave the lights out thru the weekend. Keep your fingers crossed I get rid of this crap. LOL

Thanks again to EVERYONE for the input, this is the BEST SW forum around!!!!!