Hair Algae killing all good algae. Hair Algae, Phosphates 9/6/07
Hi WWM,
<Hello>
I have a big hair algae problem, my rocks are completely covered in hair algae and I can't see any good algae for my tangs and my blenny has gotten really skinny. I have tried siphoning it out of the tank, I have tried water changes, but 1 day after I clean the tank it grows all over everything again.
<Water changes and siphoning are not immediate fixes, take time and dedication to work.>
There are also all the bubbles in the algae which cover the rocks.
But its not bubble algae, they are just bubbles stuck to the algae.
<Gases released by the algae mostly, O2 most likely.>
My phosphate is a little bit high and this is probably the cause.<Almost assuredly.>
I used to have a snowflake eel and I never had hair algae with him in there, my nitrates were always >30 and I used to do a 20% water change every week to keep it down. Now I do water changes every three weeks because of less pollution, but I think the weekly water changes kept the hair algae away.
<Agreed>
My Lawnmower Blenny does not eat the hair algae and my yellow tang, convict tang or blue tang don't eat it either.
<Hope this is a big tank to house 3 tangs.>
My water parameters are: <10 Nitrate, 0 Nitrite, 0 Ammonia, .50 Phosphate (a bit high),
<Very high, people often see problems even when test kits read 0, .5 is very very high.>
pH 8.2, Calcium 350-420.
If you could tell me a way to get good algae back in my system, I would really appreciate it, my Blenny really needs it.
Thank you, Maison
<You need to figure out what the source of the phosphates are and eliminate it. The hair algae will out-compete the macroalgae you desire, so until it is under control getting macros to grow will be difficult.>
<Chris>

Water Changes
Hello to the WWM crew, hope you all had a great labor day weekend!
<Not too bad, kind of busy, but nice.>
I have a question about water changes. I know you suggest frequent (even weekly) water changes.
<Correct>
I have always used my tap water, treated of-course; and I believe I have pretty good water, except for the extremely high phosphates in my water.
<Oh...>
Oh my goodness, I have a lot of phosphates, so I feel I am always on the verge of huge algae outbreaks if I do weekly water changes. However, the nitrate level in my water is not detectable, so I like to do frequent water changes to keep nitrates down, as I am really looking into going hardcore reef!
<Not with high phosphates. Phosphates inhibit calcification.>
What is your suggestion as far as what would be better, really high phosphates and low nitrates, or accumulating nitrates but lowering phosphates via a overworked protein skimmer.
<Neither is tolerable or necessary. A good RO unit is all that is needed.>
I do use a protein skimmer now, but by the time the protein skimmer has lowered the phosphates to barely anything, it seems the nitrates are running about 40-50. Is this a case where you would recommend investing in a RO unit?
<Definitely>
Will high phosphates produce huge algae outbreaks as I think they will, and are they bad for invertebrates?
<Both>
Your suggestions are greatly appreciated, as I am really looking forward to going a lot further in keeping a reef tank, and I realize number one is water quality.
Thank you for your help, Jen Marshall
<You are welcome. -Steven Pro>

Phosphates/Algae
Scott
Good day, Frank here again from Malaysia.
<Hello, Frank!>
The fourth days in the process of cycle my tank lots of brown diatom on live rock and glass tank. 3 days later all the brown diatom gone, is that mean that my tank already cycle as I'm using live rock.
<Actually- no- algae can come and go even in cycled tanks. Nitrite and ammonia readings must return to ")" for the tank to be considered "cycled">
This is where many spots of grass like grow on the glass tank and long green alga on the rock, is this call hair alga. My tank is 140gallon. The tank water is yellowish, I think I should use activated carbon, am I right?.
<I am a firm believer in the use of activated carbon to remove organics/color/etc. and PolyFilter pads for further organics removal- they really work!>
I tested my phosphate with sera tester the color is "light deep blue". I use (multipurpose water purified filtration - 3 feet tall ) which consist of the 3 media (activated carbon, fine silica sand, coarse silica sand) before the water enter the tank.
<Always a good move to use filtered water before mixing with salt>
As far as I know (Silicate, phosphate) - two chemicals that cause hair alga / unwanted alga type. In my country two well-known product I can get (Hagen phosphate remover, Hagen activated carbon), (Coralife - phosphate remover and silicate remover), which product is better in removing all these chemicals?
<To be honest, I have no experience with either of these products, but I usually find that water changes with good quality source water, coupled with good protein skimming and the use of a phosphate-free activated carbon product, will really help control these.>
Will hair alga affect my coral (hard coral, soft coral). I have added close brain coral and open brain, elephant ear, mushroom. I have no idea what to feed my brain coral and elephant ear.
<Hair algae can potentially choke off these corals if the buildup is too great. More important is finding and combating the source of these algae-usually nutrients, which you can readily control with the means discussed above!>
Do these coral eat dried Mysis?
<Generally smaller zooplankton. Many "mushroom corals" get their nutrition directly from the water, and don't need supplemental feeding. Do check the wetwebmedia.com resources for info., or get a copy of Anthony Calfo's "Book of Coral Propagation" for much more extensive information on feeding of corals than I can offer here.>
Thank you for your upcoming advice. Frank
<Glad to help! Good luck!>

Saltwater question
Hello, got a question for you: I have high phosphates in my tank. My LFS said that "I have to get them out now, that that is a fish killer"<they said phosphate was a fish killer? Honestly it will mainly just cause algae to reproduce in your aquarium> That they will add to much stress.<may add some stress but I doubt that it would kill your fish> Is that true? Do I need to remove them?<I would unless you want an aquarium full of hair algae, Cyanobacteria, etc> Where do they come from? Foods and what not?<If you are using tap water from you aquarium you need
to start using RO/DI water instead. Good luck, IanB>

High Phosphate
I have a huge excess of phosphate in my tank, will it hurt my corals?
<High levels of phosphate are fuel for nuisance algaes that will harm the corals. Don>

Phosphates 
Hello crew! 
Thanks again for all your help. Got another one for you. I have been deeply entrenched in the war against red algae and Cyano for about 2 months now and I think the tide is turning in my favor!! YAY!!<good to hear> There is MUCH less algae growing and now green algae has started growing on the glass and rocks instead of the red slime. I even have a few spots of coralline algae growing on my Tufa rocks!<nice!> 
What I have done (much learned reading FAQ's) is I switched to RO/DI, cut back on feedings, put in several types of snails and micro-hermits (I know your opinion on those but I like them and have had no problems), cut back on the number of hours the lights are on a bit, change carbon filters weekly, 10% water changes weekly, switched from a SeaClone to Aqua C Remora and have started testing for phosphates and silicates. I have a hang-on refugium that is on it's way as well (backordered).<you are definitely doing things correctly> 
Now, Silicates have been 0 for the last month. Ammonia and nitrites zero since Dec and nitrates creep up to around 15 before I do my weekly changes but usually hover around 5. Other readings are pH 8.3, SG 1.025, dKH 9, Ca 400, Iodine 0.7 and temp 78-79.<sounds good> 
Phosphates on the other hand have been driving me nuts!! My initial readings 6 weeks ago were around 1.0 (when I got the testing kit). I added SeaChem Seagel to my whisper filters and the phosphates have dropped to 0.1 and been there for almost 3 weeks now and don't move. I have no idea how to get them to zero. Any other ideas? 
<It sounds like you are doing everything correctly...I would not worry too much about a reading of 0.1...it is not really going to harm anything, Good luck, IanB> 
Thanks again for all your help.

Corals & Phosphate 5/5/04
To Web Crew, Many thanks in advance for your time and enthusiasm.
<It quite literally is our pleasure!  We are all here because we love the hobby.>
I have another issue that has been puzzling me.  I recently started going to a LFS closer to my home for my RO water and being the lazy fool that I am did not test the water until a full-blown algae bloom hit my tank.  At that point I discovered the new water I had been buying had sky-high phosphate levels.
<Yikes!  Poor maintenance and cheap carbon block filters often lead to this problem.>
After a couple of months I got the tank back under control.  I am back buying water from the original LFS.
<Good choice!  Better yet, invest in your own R/O shop around and you will be surprised that prices can be quite reasonable, and no more hauling water!>
I have kept a wide variety of corals now for close to 10 years.  During the algae bloom I noticed several corals that had always done okay but nothing spectacular grew like wild - most notably a Goniopora that I have had for many years.  I have never seen it so happy.  Now that the algae bloom is under control these corals have gone back to their average ways.
<Quite the opposite of where I thought this was going!  Often algae blooms are associated with poor coral health.  Blooms of algae or other organisms can cause drastic changes in water quality as well as producing some pretty nasty chemicals.>
My question then is - do some corals need phosphate?
<Every living thing needs small amounts of phosphate.  It is probably impossible to reduce phosphate so low in the typical aquarium that it limits the growth of corals.  In fact, at anything above natural sea water concentration, phosphate becomes a poison to the calcification process.>
I am of course reluctant to put phosphate in the aquarium and I despise hair algae but was nonetheless very pleased to see these corals thriving.  Or is there something about heavy hair algae growth (i.e. possibly more amphipods or more plant matter in the water column or better "scrubbed" water or whatever) that would encourage some corals to grow more?  As far as I can tell no other water parameters changed during this period of time.  Any thoughts on the matter?  Thanks! Scott
<I think you hit the nail on the head!  I suspect that the algae bloom also created a lot of habitat and food for all kinds of critters, which will have spawned and created a ton of tiny planktonic food.  You essentially made your display into a giant refugium!  Hope this is helpful!  Adam>