Massive green hair and bubble algae takeover

[dannycrocker]

I am currently experiencing a huge problem with a long, green, hair like algae that is taking over the tank. with it, 100's of bubble algae are spreading everywhere as well. it started shortly after upgrading to VHO lighting and has grown to be a problem i cant get control over. I'll take any and all suggestions at this point. my once beautiful reef tank is losing a battle with this algae.

[Bobby2]

do you know what your nitrate phosphate levels were before you upgraded your lights? you could test them now but I would bet they would be low.

Algae grows by using No3/Po4 ( nitrate/phosphate) in a direct correlation with light. This algae was more than likely all ready present on your live rock but now it can use the all ready present No3/Po4 and your new light to grow faster.

What do you have for live stock. This is an important factor in providing a solution to your problem.

[dkone]

How long has this tank been up and running? what size tank do you have and what filtration do you use, liverock, DSB, fuge, sump, skimmer etc? did you make any other changes except adding the new lights? what stocking levels do you have in your tank? what methods to control the algae have you tried so far? sorry for the list of questions ...

If No3/Po4 are the problem you could try performing some water changes - ensure any make up water is using ro/di/distilled and not tap-water. You may not notice an immediate decrease in their levels, depending upon what levels exist in your tank, substrate etc - however, over time, the levels should come down unless you are over feeding and overloading your filtration. You may also want to reduce your photoperiod, reducing the amount of light available for the troublesome algae. If you are manually removing the bubble algae try not to burst them as you remove them. If you are manually pulling up some of the hair algae but be careful not to let small pieces drift around inside your tank as they will tend to settle and take hold elsewhere.

Battling hair algae is a common problem, there is a good recent thread here "need hair algae ideas" were Astrivian has been battling a recent outbreak of hair algae!

Warm Regards,
John
Member of the The Southern Colorado Marine Aquarist Society

[graphixx]

I would test like stated above and if this outbreak is that bad I would suggest manual removal if its possible. take the LR out and get a tooth brush and brush off as much as you can this will speed the eradication process. when dealing wwith the bubble algae make sure not to "pop" the bubble or that will spread it even further. but sounds like your phos and nit are out of whack.

[stevek]

I have been using a phospate remover in a bag placed in my sump. This worked wonders on the hair and bubble algae in my tank. I had been removing them by hand but could never seem to get rid of it. I would remove the hair via hand (dip your finger with algae in a bowl of fresh water to remove the algae from your fingers). The bubble I would scrape off or scrape and siphon off.
Do you have a refugium with macro as well? That also helps keep the hair and bubble down.
Steve

[CarmieJo]

If you scrub the rock be sure to rinse it in water change water before returning it to your tank. I have found that turning the lights out for a couple of days makes removal easier.

[dannycrocker]

Originally Posted by dkone

How long has this tank been up and running? what size tank do you have and what filtration do you use, liverock, DSB, fuge, sump, skimmer etc? did you make any other changes except adding the new lights? what stocking levels do you have in your tank? what methods to control the algae have you tried so far? sorry for the list of questions ...

If No3/Po4 are the problem you could try performing some water changes - ensure any make up water is using ro/di/distilled and not tap-water. You may not notice an immediate decrease in their levels, depending upon what levels exist in your tank, substrate etc - however, over time, the levels should come down unless you are over feeding and overloading your filtration. You may also want to reduce your photoperiod, reducing the amount of light available for the troublesome algae. If you are manually removing the bubble algae try not to burst them as you remove them. If you are manually pulling up some of the hair algae but be careful not to let small pieces drift around inside your tank as they will tend to settle and take hold elsewhere.

Battling hair algae is a common problem, there is a good recent thread here "need hair algae ideas" were Astrivian has been battling a recent outbreak of hair algae!

Warm Regards,
John
Member of the The Southern Colorado Marine Aquarist Society

[dannycrocker]

Tank has been running for nearly 4 years and is 120 gallon. tons of live rock (nearly 90lbs. of live alone) i run a wet/dry sump, protein skimmer and a uv. all water changes are done every 3 weeks and i usually do a 20% change. all water used is Ro. lately ive been doing them more often and in bigger quantities while removing as much of the problem manually as possible. other ideas ive been given were to get mangrove plants and raise my magnesium levels. neither have helped yet. ill definitely change the timer on the lights to run less often, and ill check my chem levels again tonight. dont have a phos tester, but ill scoop one up. thanks for the ideas, im getting sick of seeing algae and not my beautiful rock. ; -)

[CarmieJo]

Presuming you have the bio-balls in your wet/dry I that that you have a source of nitrates and fertilizer for the algae right there. I would remove a quarter of them each week and let your rock take over the filtration.

[THEJRC]

with a 4 year old tank, I would look at possibly stirring up the sand bed a touch to release any nitrate traps you may have in there. I'll spare you the check phos / trate speil but I will ask when the last time you changed your RO filter was, or if your getting your water at LFS, when was the last time they serviced the filter there? Maybe test some change / top off before adding to get an idea there.

As far as removal get some plastic tweezers from a cheap johnson and johnson med kit, trust me on this... the black plastic tweezers are a godsend. If you have to go with metal get the type with flat ends (not the tapered sharp ends as they slip off the alga). Use a syringe with the hard to reach bubbles to suck out the guts and then pick off the skins, sometimes it's best to wait on those till they get a large enough size that you can rock them back and forth to loosen them and pick them off, whatever you do try not to pop them. If your not opposed look for some emerald (mythrax) crabs as they will help... but some dont want the species in their tanks. with the hair algae it's a toss up, if its angel hair (fine) you can hit it with a lawnmower blenny with some luck... if it's briopsis (feathery) your pretty much manually removing it.

I have a method I'd recommend but I'm still testing it and I'm certain it's probably not the best way so I'll refrain here, it utilizes a toothbrush and a peice of airline tubing.... (insert imagination here).

Good luck!

[dkone]

If it's a DSB, you may not want to stir it, as you would disrupt whatever biological filtration it is providing for you, DSB's don't like being stirred! I would agree, if bio balls in there, slowly remove them. Once I removed mine my No3 dropped from 40+ to 0 over a few weeks - a startling difference!

[CarmieJo]

However, I purposely disturb a different small portion of my sandbed every time I do a water change. Borneman calls this intermediate disturbances and says it keeps DSB healthy.