Star Polyp being taken over by hair algae

[gomrjoe]

Hey everyone,

Little by little my Star Polyp is being taken over by hair algae... from within! Months ago I battled a severe case of hair algae in my tank. I literally scrubbed every piece of live rock I owned with a toothbrush, under hot water. There was only 2 pieces of rock that I could not clean in this manner, one was a rock that hosted my yellow colony polyps, the other, my Star Polyps.

It has been nearly 7 months now, and little by little the hair algae between the little purple stems of my Star Polyp is starting to spread. I pick at it as best I can with my fingers when the light is off so that I do not damage the corals inside, I am very careful. But I can only pick off so much, I cannot get my fingers between the stems, so I can never get all of it.

The hair algae is now starting to take over some of the smaller stems, and my Star Polyp is not opening up as much as it used to.

What can I do to help it?
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to remove the hair algae from within the stems?

I thought about using a pair of tweezers, but I am not sure how long I can keep it out of water while I clean it up... does anyone know how long I can keep the Star Polyp out of water?

Water params:
Amonia, Nitrite - 0
Nitrate < 10
calcium 400
Phosphate undetectable
Ph. 8.2
Salinity 1.024

[Germanman]

u have a clean up crew? also what kind of phosphate test are u using? hair algae is usually form high phosphates so im stumped here.

[gomrjoe]

I have a cleanup crew, mostly turbo snails... I have a dwindling population of blue-leg hermits, I am probably down to about 20 or so, which I know is no where near enough for a 100 gallon tank. I need to replenish.

I probably have about 50 or so snails... so I know my cleanup crew is not big enough for a tank of this size... could this be part of the problem? Should I call in reinforcements??
I have a lawnmower blenny, he keeps the algae pretty well under control, but he cannot get in between the stems obviously.

I use the Kent Marine phosphate test kit, it is a blue box. I clean it with hot water and soap regularly, so I don't think it is mis-guiding me, unless the test kit itself is unreliable as a whole.

Compared to the outbreak that I had 7 months ago, I by no means have a hair algae outbreak here, I have algae on two rocks, plus my Star Polyp in my entire tank, and it really has not spread beyond those places. I have tried turning my powerhead directly at my polyps, but then they don't open.

Any advice would be very very welcome!! This is my original colony of Star Polyps for my tank, I have successfully fragged it 4 times, and I don't want to lose this colony! Thanks in advance...

[m007]

If you are in the market for a new fish I would suggest a yellow or purple tang. Your 100 gallon tank will make a great home for one and they are great hair alge eaters as most tangs are herbivores. One of them will pick your tank clean in no time including those hard to reach places without damaging your coral. I recently bought a leather coral that came with some hair algae on its base. It took about 1 hour and the tang had it picked clean. Tangs will also eat brine, dried LFS sea weed, romaine, and brocolli.

[gomrjoe]

Thanks,

I already have a Yellow and a Blue Tang, they do a nice job indeed. Unfortunately, my Yellow does not seem to care for getting between the stems of my polyp.

I am thinking that I may have to reload on my hermit crab population. As I have thought about it, the hair algae build up in my Star Polyp stems started within the last two months I would say, and that is when I noticed that I needed to call in reinforcements.

Here are my complete tank specs, I realized I did not put in my initial post, this may help people help me, thanks again!

Tank description:
100 gallon tank
2.6 wpg pc lighting
35 gal wet/dry/sump
Protein Skimmer
UV Sterilizer
1 yellow tang
1 pac blue tang
1 reef chromis
3 lyretail chromis
2 spotted cardinal fish
1 lawnmower blenny
1 snowflake eel
current cleanup crew: 50 turbos, 25 blue leg hermits
Inverts: star polyp, yellow colony polyp, encrusting
coral, Pulsing Xenia, 1 sand star

[m007]

Wow, that is a surprize. How is your flow across those polyps. How long is the photo period? (Lights on time) How old are the bulbs in your PC lighting?

[gomrjoe]

Lights are on for about 8.5 hours, and on weekends for 9 hours.

Pretty good flow, not sure of the exact turnover, I have not re-calculated it since I added a power head a couple of months ago.

Actually I am replacing my PC bulbs this weekend, it is time, they have been in for 9 months now.

I am puzzled to, believe me. Thanks!

[Germanman]

im puzzled as well keep us up to date and run through all possablities again.

[gomrjoe]

The algae is definitely not getting any better by itself, that is for sure. My bulbs (PC) are now 9 months old, so I plan on replacing them this weekend.

The only thing I can think of is to rapidly increase my hermit crab population, so that they can start the leg work, no pun intended!

Other than that I am out of ideas.

The only thing else that I can think of that may be keeping my hair algae population around is the fact that I use tap water, with Reef Crystals to mix. I then use Prime and Stress Coat to treat the tap water. I have tested my tap water 3 different times with a phosphate and a nitrate test kit... phosphate always registers undetectable, and nitrate is barely detectable.

I am wondering if anyone can recommend a good phosphate test kit, because I find it rather odd that tap water has no phosphates at all, but since I have no proof against it, I continue to use it, mostly because I am lazy, and doing a 15-20% water change for my 100 gal. means of course 15-20 gallons of water, carting that home twice a week from the local grocery store is a pain in the but, and back!

Maybe if I am a good boy this year Santa will install and RO for my house!

[Germanman]

Maybe if I am a good boy this year Santa will install and RO for my house!

lol

[gomrjoe]

I did a 20% water change yesterday with RO/DI water that I bought from the local grocery store, yes I read the label carefully.

I also replaced my bulbs and added reinforcements to the cleanup crew, 100 blue-legs to be exact! I guess I just sit and wait now.

I fragged a small piece of the polyp colony that was relatively algae free and gave it to my brother-in-law, his tank is completely algae free and has a ton of water flow. I am hoping that this frag will serve as a "backup" in case the worst happens.

I am debating fragging one or two more pieces that are also relatively free of algae and moving one to another section of my tank, and one to my LFS that I get all my stuff from. He is pretty dependable and says that he will hold it for me in his frag tank.

What does everyone think about that strategy?

[Germanman]

sounds great nice idea with the back up i always do that. hope it all works out for u man!

[gomrjoe]

Update for everyone... my frag that I sent off to my brother-in-laws tank is doing well, it opened up already and his cleanup crew has wiped it clean of any hair algae it had, which was very little.

This has left me optomistic about my new recruits that I just put in my tank last night actually. I recruited 100 blue-leg hermits, hopefully they can cleaup my Star Polyp colony within a week.

Quick question I had was how much of a cleanup crew should I throw at my tank in general, there are so many different recommendations out there. I have heard some say that 1 hermit per gallon, 1 snail per two gallons, what are some of your suggestions... here are my updated perams and inhabitants:
Params:
Nitrate 5
Nitrite, Ammonia 0
PH 8.2
Calcium 400
PO4 undetectable
SG 1.24

Tank description:
100 gallon tank
2.6 wpg pc lighting
35 gal wet/dry/sump
Protein Skimmer
UV Sterilizer
1 yellow tang
1 pac blue tang
1 reef chromis
2 TR perc clowns
3 lyretail chromis
2 spotted cardinal fish
1 lawnmower blenny
current cleanup crew: 25 turbos, 100 blue leg hermits
Inverts: star polyp, yellow colony polyp, encrusting
coral, pulsing Xenia, 1 sand star

[Reefscape]

your best bet is too look at liveaquaria.com or marinedepot.com as they provide packages, just as an idea, not saying to purchase them from there as they include conches etc etc which i would not put in a tank your size...

Niko

[Germanman]

your best bet is too look at liveaquaria.com or marinedepot.com as they provide packages, just as an idea, not saying to purchase them from there as they include conches etc etc which i would not put in a tank your size...

Niko


yea i agree u can get a good idea form them.

[gomrjoe]

Yes I have seen that site before, but they usually sell those cleanup crew details as packages with other species like you said, so it makes it a little tricky on figuring out the right distribution.

For instance: LiveAquaria.com's standard algae pack has a total of 125 critters, comprised of turbos, dwarf red tip hermits, and scarlet hermits.

I don't have scarlet hermits, but I do have more than 125 critters between my turbos and my new reinforcements in blue-leg hermits. I know that scarlet hermits tend be larger than blue-legs and they grow larger as well... one can only assume that they will consume more then.

For me I don't see the point in buying scarletts because they wind up dieing in less than a year usually anyways, at least blue-legs are cheap and they live the same amount of time.

What are your preferences for algae consumption?

Thanks, Joe

[Germanman]

i have a natural community of stomatelle snails and my tangs do the rest.