Hair algae, bryposis, what is this?

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dr_ fish

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This stuff has recently taken off in growth, probably started seeing it about a month ago. I'm not sure what it is, but looking at other pics I say hair algae or bryposis. All my corals and fish look great with good growth, but its obviously unpleasant to look at.

What is it and how do I get rid of it? I have done water changes, scraped it off as best as I could, went lights out for 3 days, added more GFO and carbon, nothing really helps.

34g with 5g sump
Ca 440 salifert
Alk 9.0 salifert
pH 8.2 RKL
NO3 2.5 Salifert
PO4 0 Hannah

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Yup, that's hair algae...looks like it's starting to starve out...though don't count on it dying. I've noticed with proper nutrient export HA will turn that brownish color (essentially starving). Suck it out, pull it out, filter sock, replace gfo every 2 weeks. Stay on husbandry and that will help reduce and hopefully eliminate HA.
 
kirkplunkett;812298 wrote: I've got it too, and tried everything you listed. Tagging along on this one.
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It's not an overnight fix by any means. There are lots of other factors too, how much you feed, what you feed, skimming, light duration, making sure your levels are proper. It's not fun to deal with and causes a lot of reefers to break down and restart....I know first hand.
 
kirkplunkett;812298 wrote: I've got it too, and tried everything you listed. Tagging along on this one.
Click to expand...


get a low range Nitrate Kit such as Tropic Marin among others & a low range phosphate kit like DD Merch, HACH, The Elos Pro (the low range one) or low range hanna....

For trates:
large water changes & some way to reduce nitrates, i.e., reduce food, denitrifer, carbon dosing (vinegar/vodka), Seachem Matrix in media reactor, wet-skimming, &/or change out Rox Carbon (or the like) twice a week....

For phates:
change GFO more often if it's not working! twice a week if you have to! use less and change more often!

change out some sand and rock monthly!
 
Battled this stuff for the first 6 months, basically your best option is about 2 times a month go through and pull/siphon out at same time as much as possible. Run GFO and do your water changes (or increase frequency) and you should be fine. Also make sure you have fresh bulbs; old ones seemed to fuel mine worse than water quality.

Edit: Make sure you have decent flow as well; if your feeding fish it either needs to get eaten before it gets blown around the tank, or it needs to be able to stay suspended so it doesn't get stuck in crevices in sand/rock prior to being eatten. Phosphates reading 0 is simply because your phosphates are locked up in that nasty algae. Maybe even reduce your feeding some? how much? how offen?
 
I have a 30 Gallon tank. The only filtration is a skimmer rated for 100 Gallons. I have no reactors because there's no space in the setup for them. I've got great flow using two powerheads rated for 750 GPH. My lights (4 T5s - 2 Antinic and 2 12000k) run a total of 8 hours each day. (Antinic = 8 / 12000k = 6) Bulbs are 1 month old.

NO3 is constantly at 3 ppm and PO4 at 2 ppm since the tank finished it's cycle about 8 months ago. Carbon, water changes, vodka, etc... Nothing seems to change it... I use Redsea test kits.

I do a 20% water change every two weeks... I went to two weeks because every week was a pain and it wasn't making a difference.

I only feed once a day and everything I put in is gone in less than 3 minutes every time.

It's not going crazy, so I've just been researching rather than reacting. It just kind of lingers... Never a algae-boom, but never all gone either.

I have considered using an internal overflow box for GFO and Carbon, but I'm not sure that would work. I don't really know much a bout GFO.
 
The GFO act as sort of a buffer in helping us reduce phosphates. If your husbandry is spot on and you pulled all of the remaining HA out with a water change and added GFO, the small amount of residual phosphates locked up in the remaining algae will be stripped away and help you to kill off smaller stuff that we cant get our hands on. There are cheap 50$ reactor setups you could hang on the side of your sump if you wanted to add GFO. The GFO will outcompete smaller amounts of algae and algae blooms.
 
Logic says I should have phosphates because of the algae growth, but I have never read anything other than a 0 from my Hannah. That is with starting with fresh dry rock, sand, and nothing in the tank. Thats weird I never saw a upwards spike at all.

I feed every other day, mysis or Rod's food, skimmer pulls gunk well, using ROX carbon, and GFO in filter bags (not the bet but I have no more room), bulbs are about 6-8 months old and run 7hrs/day (ATI bulbs in ATI fixture), coral growth is doing really well, and NO3 are decently low (2.5), MP10 set on RC mode at 75% for flow.

I think ill go lights out for 3 days again, change carbon and GFO biweekly with biweekly water changes. Might buy some Tech-M and see if that will help also.
 
I bought a giant Mexican turbo snail and 2 emerald crabs because I heard they might munch on it. So far the crabs do seem to be pulling off a tiny amount, they are small themselves though. The turbo snail doesn't seem to have very good directional skills and freaking circles around the top of the rocks where most inst at. It does however seem to clear off any algae it comes in contact with.
 
In my exp...turbos will not eat it if it's long. Try to pull as much off as possible they will sometimes eat it.
 
I have 2 turbos and at least one , one I haven't seen in a month, emerald crabs, thinking of getting more maybe.... =/
 
glxtrix;812351 wrote: In my exp...turbos will not eat it if it's long. Try to pull as much off as possible they will sometimes eat it.
Click to expand...

I've only had it for about 2 days so I don't have much to go off of. I did watch it clear a good patch off a frag plug though, so I'm crossing my fingers.
 
Logic says I should have phosphates because of the algae growth, but I have never read anything other than a 0 from my Hannah.
Click to expand...

Could be that the algae consumes the phosphates as they are freed up. from waste and food.
 
Sewer Urchin;812366 wrote: Could be that the algae consumes the phosphates as they are freed up. from waste and food.
Click to expand...

True, but what I was meaning is that I never from the beginning ever saw any phosphates. Even when I had no algae at all and directly up to me first seeing it appear. I would assume there would be a bump up somewhere, I could have missed it though.

Amici;812367 wrote: Check the TDS of your RODI. If you are getting your RO from a fish store in Savannah....don't. Invest in a good RO unit.
Click to expand...

I use a BRS 5 stage RODI unit, bought new, 0TDS
 
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