10 Year Reef Tank - About To Give Up

[4Fish]

I have a 125 reef tank that has been up and running for 10 years. I had very good success, never lost anything, and most of my fish are 10 years or older, including corals. My past success I think was directly related to doing things slow and a simple approach; 40 gallon sump and protein skimmer. I have T5 lights (12 bulbs). I do not have any hard corals or anything that would requiring any dousing.

Out of nowhere, hair algae is taking over my tank. I have been battling this for months. My corals look great, but hair algae all over. I have not added anything new to my tank for over 6 months.

I do not use RO water, and suspect perhaps my rocks and sand bed have been absorbing nitrates and phosphates over years, and finally leached out. I have been doing weekly 30 gallon water changes, and removing the hair algae manually. I am using Phosphate pads, chemi-pure, phosphate removing substrate??.I must have ingested two pounds of hair algae by accident at this point.

The sad thing is that my fish and corals look great......I extremely sadden by this. Especially after all my tank inhabitants survived 3 days without power after Hurricane Irene.

I will keep up the battle, but suspect I will have a great sale soon......

 

[thirty6]

10 years! Can't give up, Im battling same after few short months. I bought an ro unit and have been doing 20 30 g changes weekly....hoping for best. Good luck!

Refuse to quit, come up with a new or different challenge in the hobby

 

[LatinP]

Old tank syndrome maybe?

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/5/aafeature2

 

[Imbarrie]

I think it was the phosphates in the tap water that built up after years.

We should be able to figure this out through the water chemistry and water changes. Let me know and I will come over and help you out with this.
Ill bring my RODI.

You would be missing that tank in a very short amount of time.

 

[thirty5]

Are you running any reactor? Maybe get some bio-pellets running...

Don't give up on it!

 

[Mattl22]

I have to agree with imbarrie might consider removing sand bed and either adding new live sand or going bare bottom also defintly get rodi start water changes with it!

 

[4Fish]

Thanks ImBarrie, yes, I would miss my tank, but my loss would be your gain.

 

[Kaz289]

everytime I have an algae problem I cut my light usage to a quater of what the norm is. and do water changes. I run a bare bottom, lot less problems then my old sand bottom tanks.

 

[Imbarrie]

Im free on saturday if you want to work on a strategy for dealing with this.
I can start making some RODI and we can mix up a 40 gallon water change ahead of time.

Some of what I think will help;

Replace some of the CC with some finer sand.
Remove some of the trees on the substrate and the rocks.
Vacuum the substrate along with a large water change.
Scrape as much of the HA from the glass.
Get the other Koralia going and aim it down to move any sediment of the Substrate into the water column before the water change.
Get some beneficial macros from me and LFS to compete with the HA.

I have a spare Koralia and a bucket of Reef Crystals. Lets do this.

 

[basiab]

I would suspect the sandbed as the major issue and would replace it slowly. I am not sure about the rock but I think I once read where it is also good to replace rock over time.
In any case 10 years is a really nice accomplishment.

 

[yogi]

Old tank syndrome maybe?

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/5/aafeature2

Great read. Even though I'm new to the hobby.
Thanks P.

 

[masterswimmer]

Agree with all the above, and I have one more suggestion. Get a Sea Hare. They are snot ugly creatures that eat hair algae. It's amazing to see them mow down a stretch of HA. Looks like a lawn mower plowed through it.

Good luck and hope you don't throw in the towel.

Russ

 

[Paolissimo]

GFO will help with the phosphate (if you have any), bkreef (a member here)has a BRS reactor for sale with the pump for $34. GFO is easy to use and not risky, so if PO4 is your issue, I would start with that. The sea hare is gonna take care of the hair algae. You can't give up after 10 year!!!

 

[aznt1217]

I'd just get an RO unit, Sea Hare, and some Large Nassarius Snails. Less work, less complicated equipment. You can also pick up like 2 poly filter pads.

Changing your sandbed may do more harm than good. It's better to just have it turned over constantly.

 

[4Fish]

Thanks everyone. The situation has improved, a follow reefer IMBARRIER could attest to that. I have been doing weekly 20 gallon water changes and siphoning the hair algae as I move along. I must have eaten a pound of sea weed. I am not giving up yet, actually, if I win the battle, I am going to reward my tank with a 220 upgrade.

This is pretty wild, I left a clump of hair algae in my slop sink, it is still green and alive a week later. No wonder why this stuff is hard to kill. I have also been noticing that a lot of beneficial worms and pods live in the hair algae, since I have been siphoning them along with the algae. Also, I placed three Phosphate pads in my tank on Sunday, and they are already turning brown??

I do love this hobby, and have been keeping tanks for 40 years. Between this tank, and all my fresh water tanks, I cannot even imagine all the bad things I ingested over the years.

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

A rodi unit is a must , but giving up is not the solution, i am sure we have all at some point given up but currently find ourselves in front of our tanks saying.......man im glad i hung in there!!! Dont give up on ten years of tank brilliance .... We can all help you out im sure ! Right guys!?

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

You know there is an easier way to siphon right? lol I can come over and show you..never have to put your mouth on that nasty thing again my friend.

 

[sponge127]

When I had my long lasting bloom I tried most of what most have said here. Changing water ,scrubbing rocks.putting rocks into dark bins for months at a time ;and also a sea hare. The best I have found is a pencil Urchin.The algae has gone not just off my rocks but also off the Urchin. It loosened the algae off the rocks real well.

 

[4Fish]

I wanted to provide an update. The hair algae is almost gone, and my tank looks great. It took about 4 months, but after many water changes, I think I won the battle, and perhaps this is just part of the natural cycle. I recall about 5 years ago I had a bad case of bubble algae, now there is not one bubble in my tank. Then I had brown/black tree sponge all over the place, now there is none. I noticed that some new type of beautiful macro algae is popping up, looks like clusters of sprouts that you put in your salad. So this was accomplished with no chemicals. I happy that I stuck it out. So now, I am ready to upgrade to a 220, in the next few weeks. I think my tank deserves it!!!

 

[KathyC]

That is great news! Happy to hear you stuck with it