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Cultivated Reef

Diatom or Hair?


jgaepi

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I started what I thought was a diatom bloom last week. I bought the reefcleaners package and wasn't sweating it. But it is growing to over an inch on my glass within 48 hours and thick and wavy on the rock. Growing on frogspawn and Zoas. But I am thinking cause of the length it is actually hair algae? It is light brownish. I was at week 4 with nada and week 5 now.

 

The pictures on the internet are not that revealing. Most brown algae looks alike.

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No. It looks like hair. In some corners that I cannot reach it is maybe 2-3 in long. It is everywhere. It is also my first algae so I am thinking diatom but maybe not. No bubbles. Orangish brown.

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Ok, so here are two pictures. I turned the blues off.

 

I read the definition of Dino and my algae really does not look like "snot." There are no bubbles forming. It looks very much like smooth, thin, flowing, "suave" looking hair. But it is brown. Not a drip of green. So maybe just longer Diatom algae? My tank is only at about 6 weeks. Algae started maybe 2 weeks ago. It comes off the glass like butter. Zoas and frogspawn and trumpet and bubble mushroom don't seem to mind. Ammonia and Nitrates are at 0. I don't have a PO4 kit yet.

 

Advice appreciated.

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John from ReefCleaners who sold me my cleaner package is thinking maybe some bizarro form of hair algae. My dumb luck always gives me the rare, bizarro problems. I can't just have basic Diatom. When I googled this Lyngbya, I found a post on it that mentioned John from ReefCleaners and it also mentioned a "smell," I don't think I have a smell.

 

Dumb Question A) why does my tank skip the normal algaes to bizarro algae immediately? Dumb Question B) What should I do to treat it? Reef Cleaner package isn't doing anything for it after 6 days.

 

Thanks.

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Try to remove the rocks and give them a good scrub.

Test for No3 and Po4.

Do a water change (double the amount you usually do).

 

Repeat weekly.

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Manual removal is probably going to help a lot. I would also keep up with weekly water changes. Do you know your phosphate and nitrate levels? If not, get a reliable kit together. If you cannot keep them down with water changes, a phosphate media (GFO, phosban, etc.) might be necessary to help you with this algae.

 

How old is your tank? Young systems go through "growing pains" as I call it. Basically, you will get some algae that shows up and often it will disappear as another establishes itself. You may just need to keep up with regular maintenance and go through an ugly period for awhile.

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My tank is 6 weeks at this point. I have a media rack with floss, purigen and matrix carbon. I have done a water change every week. I have no detectable nitrate. I do not have a PO4 kit yet.

 

John from ReefCleaners just responded suggesting a "Ragged Sea Hair." Any thoughts on this. My tank is only a BC14.



I also had had my lights on for 14 hours per day and cut it back to 9 hours. Good? Bad?

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If the algae is using it, you won't get results for nitrate or phosphate. You have Purigen, which should be bringing nitrate levels down (though maybe not as fast as the algae can consume it), but not a phosphate remover. Try phosguard in the media rack? I'm assuming since you didn't mention it that there's no reactor to put GFO into, and GFO is pretty fine so it can be a pain to rinse in a bag.

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Looks like hair algae to me. Do you have a turbo snail?

 

Did you just change your lights? Any critters in your tank that might be missing and dead?

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I don't have any turbo snails. I have the basic cleaner package of snails. I also have 2 mini hermit crabs and I have 2 black/white nemos.

 

I retrofitted my hood to LED before setting up the BC14. There are a lot of non-moving tiny snails from the reef cleaner package but I didn't put them in there until my algae problem had already started.

 

I am on the fence about an emerald crab. I can run to the fish store tomorrow morning to pick it up.

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Adding more livestock only controls it tenporary. And in your case it has already taken over.

Ehat you need to do is what Arkayology, Mariaface, and I mentioned above.

Manual removal and water changes weekly, plus the correct media.

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Ehat you need to do is what Arkayology, Mariaface, and I mentioned above.

Manual removal and water changes weekly, plus the correct media.

 

I just cannot bring myself to pull my rock out yet to scrub it. And my wife wouldn't allow the mess when she is already irritated with the tank and the trouble thus far.

 

I will go from 10% water changes to 20% (or more???) per week. I will take out the matrix carbon and pop in a Blue Life Fx Pro mixed media bag? and I will start siphoning. I will also prob get the little emerald crab. I need to get more saltwater anyway from the store.

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You don't need to take out the rock. Turn off your pumps and scrub the algae off the rocks while siphoning it out.<br />Manual removal is very effective when battling hair algae.<br /><br />Blue life px pro works good. I use it.<br /><br />I would do a 30% WC weekly with the scrubbings.

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PS, totally off subject question but how long can mixed saltwater using RO water be stored in a jug? Either buying LFS saltwater it or pre-mixing it at home, I can store it in a jug for weeks on end?

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Just a heads up I had a crazy hair algae outbreak recently and I couldn't figure out why. Well I tested the ro water I have been buying since I moved recently so it's a new lfs. Long story short it was reading 10 tds but over 3.0ppm po4. Get a test kit and test the ro water.

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I bought the smallest emerald crab the LFS had and I swear he is already chowing down. Within a min, he was on the rock doing a two fisted grab and then a motion to his mouth. Hopefully this works.

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Hey everyone, beside my emerald crab going into hiding last night, I did a water change this am of 25%. I really couldn't get good suction on the algae, really nothing came off. But I did rip some off, pulled my hand out and rubbed it between my fingers. It essentially disintegrated. I can't honestly say if it turned into "powder" but it fell apart into nearly nothingness. Does that mean it is just Diatom?

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