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Cultivated Reef

Nitrates and Phosphates zero, but hair algae


wobar

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I had a bad outbreak of hair algae in my 45 gallon mixed reef tank. NO3 and PO4 both came up as zero on the tests. I tried 1/8 of the recommended amount of Phosguard my SPS weren't happy and the HA continued to grow. I tried 1/5 the amount of high end GFO and again my SPS weren't happy. So here is what I tried. I started dosing potassium nitrate KNO3 to raise my NO3 levels to only 2ppm. I started carbon dosing (vinegar) very low levels around 11mls/day. My thought was I wanted the bacteria to grow and bacteria needs carbon (vinegar), NO3 and PO4. I have BRS reef saver rock and I didn't cure it, and I've read that it tends to leach PO4. It didn't go away overnight it took around 2 months, but the algae is now completely gone. I also added a nylon sock in my sump and I would use a turkey baster to blast the algae and rocks. I would clean the sock every 2 days.

 

I continue to dose carbon 5 ml's daily and I have been keeping my NO3 around 2-5ppm. I noticed my corals started looking better after I started KNO3 daily.

 

I tried adding the clean up crew, the lawnmower blenny and nothing would touch the hair algae. I changed my light levels and duration and fed less nothing. Now I have my light levels and duration back up and I feed my fish 2-3x daily.

 

It was a slow process, but I found products like Phosgaurd and GFO didn't work for me.

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  • 10 months later...

Following this topic- I am having the exact same problem and it is driving me nuts.

 

Major hair algae outbreak even though I am reading 0 phosphates with Salifert test kit. Just set up a GFO media reactor this week, cut back feeding, light intensity/duration and trying to keep up with manually pulling out the algae. All of my water parameters are really good and I've attempted to get large CUC additions to the tank twice- and every fricking snail (turbos, ceriths, and astrea) has died within 24hrs and a hairy pincusion urchin as well, even though my peppermint shrimp and hermit crabs are doing great! So it cant be a copper issue right? FYI, I had my water tested a few months back and no copper.

 

Im running out of guesses as the issue- only thing I can think of is slightly higher Magnesium? The tank is reading 1500ppm currently.

 

It is a real challenge getting the hair algae under control without the help of any snails!

I'm having the same problems with GHA and snail deaths. My nassarius snails are still living throughout but all my algae eating snails were dying. I did have a small wrasse that was plucking at them and I wonder if he was enough to kill them since the nassarius snails still survived. But they were also dying in my sump where the wrasse could not get to them.

 

Also during the time i was losing all those snails I was trying to keep my alk, and cal at high levels. this caused many problems because the Magnesium went way up to 1600, and I found out just recently that ultra low nutrient tanks should not run super high alk and cal levels. I think I lost a bunch of hard corals because I kept trying to keep my parameters way too high. Maybe this also had something to do with snail loss. But I still have those nassarius snails. They have been healthy for 2 years now.

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I bought a Hanna low range phosphate checker because I have been having a bad hair algae problem in my tank. The Hanna checker has never shown anything other than 0.00.

 

I just have an API nitrate test, and it always reads at 0 for nitrates as well.

 

I have resorted to doing a water change every 3 days followed by a dose of AlgaeFix, but that doesn't seem to be helping either.

 

I have a 40 breeder with 4 fish

  • clown
  • pajama cardinal
  • 2 chromis

I feed about half a cube of mysis when I feed or a pinch of Hakari pellets. I feed every other day.

 

I also run carbon, GFO, and skim

 

Please help me get rid of this hair algae. It's driving me insane.

 

We at least I'm not the only one. The only thing that makes sense to me right now is that: A) Lighting has gotten so powerful recently that we can't rely on old rules of thumb.

 

B ) Even natural reefs have algae and there are many animals that eat it. In the wild everything is in balance unless there are drastic changes in nutrient levels. But in our small tanks we lack the diversity of algae eaters. We can't have Tangs and such. Therefore algae can seem out of control even with zero nutrients.

 

C) Even in drinking water dispensers sitting out in the sun algae will eventually start to grow. If it gets light there will be algae.

 

In my 50 gallon system I starved my tank so much that I lost many fish I was down to 2 clowns, 1 randel goby, and 1 blue green chromis. I fed 1/16 cube misis a day, ran a skimmer and biopellets. Had Zero Phos and N. Still the hair algae grew. Not terrible but it didn't let up. I didn't have any cleanup crew to keep the algae under control. Maybe that is my problem along with too much light.

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Sea_Of_Treachery

Considering what information has been provided, get up and start pulling it out. Do not rely on critters to do the work for you. Manual removal is the best method along with water changes. Cut down feeding a bit and check your bulb age as well depending on what lighting your running. Also dry rock should not be cured with lights on if in the tank. The algae can get a better grip within the dry rock and may become harder to remove down the road depending on how long you've let it go out of control.

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