How to fix my algae problem?

[Carissa]

Hi,
Haven't been on in a while, life got kind of busy. Anyway I finally have time to try to straighten out my 33g/20g sump tank issues that have been creeping up on me. The major and only serious issue I have is a terrible infestation of green hair algae. It started on the sand which was easy to scoop out, but now my rock is getting infested really bad and it's almost impossible to get off. This all started when my lawnmower blenny died, he was obviously keeping this stuff in check before. So recently I got 5 blue legged hermits and a Rainford's goby (other inhabitants are a true percula clown and some astrea and narcissus snails that won't go on my rock but do fine with the algae on the glass). After running this tank for two years, I am just now finally starting to grow some coralline algae on the live rock. I have heard that this can help protect it from other types of algae. So any ideas on the following:

1. How do I encourage more coralline algae growth? Does lighting matter a lot?
2. Is there any way I can physically get this green hair algae off the rock without damaging the rock?

Also I tested my water params today and got the following results which leads me to believe that I need a bit more KH but I'm sort of waiting a few days since I just added the hermits and goby and don't want to raise the pH when I'm in the danger zone for a small ammonia spike...

pH: 7.8
KH: 100 ppm
Ca: 600 ppm
nitrate: maybe a trace
phosphate: 0
ammonia: maybe a trace (due to new inhabitants added last night, there hasn't been any problems historically)
nitrite: 0

lighting is a dual HO T5 strip (Hagen).

Water changes have been pretty haphazard for the past few months which I know hasn't helped my algae problem..... I use RO and Instant Ocean mix. I have a hard time getting debris off the substrate, all the sand seems to want to siphon off or create a massive white cloud....any great ideas on how to deal with this would be great too.

[leebca]

Hair algae is not difficult to control (without fish, which I don't support). It has to be removed so that none is visible, then introduce a large herd of herbivore snails. They don't eat the long threads, but will eat the short bits before they grow.

1. Maintain a balanced, buffered water system. Not much lighting is needed, but lighting that encourages most algae growth is good for them.

2. Scrubbing the rock. If that damages the rock, then, 'No.'

Balance the Alkalinity, Calcium, and Magnesium so they are matched properly. The balanced numbers are given here: What is Water Quality. Coralline is like coral, they need the right balance of ingredients in the water to encourage their growth.

If your substrate is powdered sugar type of sand, then this is the downside to using it. If it 'normal' beach kind of sand, then it has created its own dust by grinding on itself OR hasn't be properly cleaned to begin with.

Make sure you've got a very good mechanical filter going, or run a diatom filter. Then do your maintenance and let the diatom/mechanical filter pick up the fine bits that go into suspension. Keep this up and either it will lessen (if normal sand) or will never stop (if a fine sized sand).

[Carissa]

Ok awesome. I think what I will have to do then is take a small scissors and actually trim down the hair algae that's on the rock, it's about an inch long which is probably why the snails aren't doing much with it. Scrubbing would be hard since it's Tonga branch rock and tends to be a little bit brittle plus I don't want to destroy what little coralline algae I have going for me.

I think my sand is what's considered "normal" sand. It has bits of shells and things in it but seems to have gotten dustier over time. A lot of the sand is heavy enough, but it's just this small percentage that makes a big mess. I've noticed that new growth of this algae has slowed down a lot on the sand bed since I've done a couple of water changes, it's basically what I haven't been able to remove from the rock that's causing the issue.

So my plan of attack now will be to:
1. Add some good mechanical filtration (right now I just have the skimmer going)
2. Cut down my algae crop as much as I can (literally)
3. Do another good vacuum and water change
4. Remove mechanical filtration after water is clear
5. Adjust KH as needed
6. This is unrelated....but I should probably run some carbon after that, haven't run any at all lately
7. Repeat weekly until things improve

I'll give the tank a couple of days to stabilize after adding these new guys before stressing out the inhabitants again with my maintenance.

[ToddTT]

What are those scissors made of? Not sure you should use them in your tank.

[Carissa]

Um...... stainless steel I think. surgical type scissors.

[ToddTT]

Um...... stainless steel I think. surgical type scissors.

Clean and rinse them well. Your hands and arms too.

Another option is a combo grabber/scissors that Petco sells for under $10. Looks exactly like this, plus an extra scissor attachment:



This would minimize accidental contamination, and these come in handy all the time. It's always best to minimize the amount of time you put your hands in your tank.

[Carissa]

Just an update on my progress, I got delayed with the stomach flu for about a week so I'm just getting at it now. I tried cleaning off the algae from half the rock yesterday and the other half today, and tomorrow after it settles out I will do a water change.

One piece of really prickly live rock was totally covered to the point where I had to take it out and bleach it to try to kill it, it was my only option, there was no way I could get it off. Hopefully my bleach treatment will work, I just sprayed on a bleach solution and let it sit for a few minutes and then rinsed it with fresh water and tons of dechlorinator (plus added some to the tank too just in case there was any residual after the rinse). It's worked well for me in my freshwater tank as far as killing algae with no ill effects but I used a much weaker solution for this than I have in my other tank, and I didn't totally submerge the piece, I just sprayed it, hoping to preserve at least some of the bacteria inside the pores. I guess the snails can't really crawl on it to eat the algae which is why it got so bad. It may turn out that I have to take that piece out entirely, not a huge deal, I just liked it for the look of it, it's a big dead coral that looks kind of neat considering that I don't have any live corals and don't plan on it.

Anyway, I have beat back the algae by about 75% or so with pure brute force, hopefully with my water changes I can turn the tide and get rid of it for good. All inhabitants are doing well.

[ToddTT]

Just an update on my progress, I got delayed with the stomach flu for about a week so I'm just getting at it now. I tried cleaning off the algae from half the rock yesterday and the other half today, and tomorrow after it settles out I will do a water change.

One piece of really prickly live rock was totally covered to the point where I had to take it out and bleach it to try to kill it, it was my only option, there was no way I could get it off. Hopefully my bleach treatment will work, I just sprayed on a bleach solution and let it sit for a few minutes and then rinsed it with fresh water and tons of dechlorinator (plus added some to the tank too just in case there was any residual after the rinse). It's worked well for me in my freshwater tank as far as killing algae with no ill effects but I used a much weaker solution for this than I have in my other tank, and I didn't totally submerge the piece, I just sprayed it, hoping to preserve at least some of the bacteria inside the pores. I guess the snails can't really crawl on it to eat the algae which is why it got so bad. It may turn out that I have to take that piece out entirely, not a huge deal, I just liked it for the look of it, it's a big dead coral that looks kind of neat considering that I don't have any live corals and don't plan on it.

Anyway, I have beat back the algae by about 75% or so with pure brute force, hopefully with my water changes I can turn the tide and get rid of it for good. All inhabitants are doing well.

I wouldn't recommend doing that ever again. If your fish show any signs of stress, like heavy breathing, take it out. And be prepared to do water changes.

If you took the rock out, scrubbing it in a bucket of saltwater would have been a safer choice.

Good luck, I hope your fish are okay.

[Carissa]

The dechlorinator will have deactivated the chlorine... If a tiny bit managed to remain and not get taken care of by the dechlor I put in the tank, it will just evaporate. Certainly there would not be nearly enough to affect the fish. This is not my first time using bleach to disinfect/remove algae from aquarium decorations. The only possible issue with this would be the effects of a fast die off of the algae or bacteria on the rock, I'm keeping an eye on water chemistry and am prepared to remove it if anything goes out of whack.

Scrubbing would not have worked with this at least not without killing the algae first, the algae is totally entangled in the rock and stuck so hard that when I use a tweezers to get it off it takes pieces of rock with it.