major problem !!!!!!!!

[nudy6969]

i have been infested with green hair algae, it is absolutely everywhere. i had my tank up for 4 months now. what the hell can i do? my tank s disgusting now and i cant stand looking at it. my lights are 5w per gallon pcs, nitrates and ammonia are at zero, and i feed every other day. i do a 15% water change every week and i currently have no skimmer.

 

[Piggy]

I would up my water changes to at least twice a week. Shorten light time. Are you using frozen food? Any phosphate media. What livestock?

 

[daugherty]

mex turbo snails will eat hair alage

 

[cthegame]

I agree with Piggy. I would do water changes twice per week for a few weeks until algae starts to go away.

 

[Damseluver]

Since this is such a small tank it probably would be best/easiest to take livestock to lfs for credit and start over. Ya I know; not what you wanted to hear.

My best wild guess as to the source of the problem is the PC lighting. They probably gave you cheap bulbs with the fixture and they have gone far off spectrum. Even good PC bulbs will do this around the six month mark and create problems like this IMO.

Here is what I would do.

Break down tank and hold rock in dark tupper ware container scrubbing off every few days and changing some water. Do this until your confident the rock is clean.

When you set back up use a vary shallow sand bed. With a shallow sand be you should be able to clean or even replace portions of it with out causing problems. Half inch or less. Add a skimmer; even a cheap coralife super skimmer should do for this type tank. Increase flow and either use a t5 fixture or replace PC bulbs often. Decrease light period. There are 85 days a year of overcast conditions on the natural reef and full intensity on cloudless days only last 4 hours or so midday.

When you add corals stick with non lagoonal species that will enjoy the increased flow or at least wont mind it. Xenia, zoos, polyps and with five watts a gallon even sps should do fine IMO. Corals that wont like the increase flow; mushrooms and most LPS

 

[ladypheesh]

do you have any snails or other janitors?

 

[ccCapt]

Hair algae and cyanobacteria are the result of high nutrients.....nitrates, phosphates and silicates. Are you using RO/DI water for top offs and water changes? Are you running any phosphate removal media (GFO)? A skimmer would be very helpful too.

 

[nudy6969]

heres my plan,

im doing a 50% water change friday, im going to take my bad lr out and put in in a bucket with a heater and a power head untill the algea dies, then i am going to sift my wand to get rid of the algea. im going to buy a skimmer and a viper hqi light. my live stock will remain in the tank since all i got is a clown fish, 2 crabs. and some snails. i got 4 zoos, 1 kenya, 1 xeinia.

 

[ladypheesh]

sounds like a good plan of attack. I think a skimmer will help you a lot.

 

[yote]

Looks like your pretty well covered.So I'm only going to suggest using some Marine SAT.It will do a number on the hair algae.

 

[sen5241b]

Did I see aiptasia in that 3rd photo?

 

[Bifferwine]

You are going to add halides over a 12 gallon nano? Be very careful with that, your water will boil! A better option would be T5s.

I agree with what others have said, increase your water changes using RODI water. And get some cleaners!

This is a really common problem with small tanks, that's why everyone recommends starting off as large as you can go, tank-wise. It is extremely difficult to keep water parameters (and algae) in check with such a small tank.

What's going on is ugly, but not the end of the world. Remove as much of it by hand as you can daily. Any of it that dies off in your tank will just be re-releasing nutrients back into the water.

 

[fatman]

With such a small tank water changes of at least 50 percent a week is nice. Say 25 percent every three or four days. That is what is recommended for a tank with no biological filtration, such as a coral growing system that uses only skimmers. The earlier suggestion for sand depth of 1/2 inch is a very good suggestion. The standard rule is more than 4 or less than one inch. It is either a functioning sand bed or just a little for appearance. Anything in between is really just a nutrient trap. A 70 watt HQI is not a bad light at all, it is an efficient light with little heat produced in proportion to the light output. Your tank will need good air movement over the water though and a lot of people have to add air slots or holes to their lids to keep heat in check. Evaporation is a great tool for dispersing heat. Hair algae loves low water movement so increasing your circulation will help, the skimmer will add to the circulation and nutrient export both. It is best to not feed dry foods of any type and thaw all frozen foods and feed only the particles not the liquids. Cut back on your feeding and if your feeding your corals at all remember they, at most, typically only need 20 percent of their energy needs to come from water borne foods and most of that comes from nitrogen from fish stools. Harvesting hair by hand is great and remember do not use a scraper to remove agae from glass as you are just leaving all the algae and their nutrients in the water. Instead use a scrub pad, wipe from bottom to the top remove from tank rinse in water and repeat, and repeat etc. etc..