Hi all,
I have been battling a nasty case of hair algae in the 75 for a while, and feeling like I'm fighting an endless battle. I've been changing water, added in a TLF phosban reactor, feeding less, removing as much of the junk manually as I can, added in some turbo grazer snails, but the stuff just kept growing.
But then within the past week, something seems to have taken a drastic change for the worse. First, my firefish goby went MIA. I figured he probably got eaten by hermit crabs and other scavengers. Tested water levels (nitrate and nitrate "zero" on the test strips, pH and salinity normal, temperature around 78, where it usually is) and changed some water.
Then yesterday morning my one-spot foxface rabbitfish, which had previously been healthy, was in camouflage mode and breathing heavily. Was belly-up a few hours later.
The tank has been up and running for about two and a half years. Despite the hair algae, other occupants seem okay (yellowtail damsel, pair of maroon-and-gold clowns, four chromeis; various zoas, mushrooms and a couple LPS).
What should I do? My hunch is that the hair algae is trapping detritus/nitrates/other bad stuff, but wonder whether there's a bigger problem.
-Richard
Milton, MA
I have been battling a nasty case of hair algae in the 75 for a while, and feeling like I'm fighting an endless battle. I've been changing water, added in a TLF phosban reactor, feeding less, removing as much of the junk manually as I can, added in some turbo grazer snails, but the stuff just kept growing.
But then within the past week, something seems to have taken a drastic change for the worse. First, my firefish goby went MIA. I figured he probably got eaten by hermit crabs and other scavengers. Tested water levels (nitrate and nitrate "zero" on the test strips, pH and salinity normal, temperature around 78, where it usually is) and changed some water.
Then yesterday morning my one-spot foxface rabbitfish, which had previously been healthy, was in camouflage mode and breathing heavily. Was belly-up a few hours later.
The tank has been up and running for about two and a half years. Despite the hair algae, other occupants seem okay (yellowtail damsel, pair of maroon-and-gold clowns, four chromeis; various zoas, mushrooms and a couple LPS).
What should I do? My hunch is that the hair algae is trapping detritus/nitrates/other bad stuff, but wonder whether there's a bigger problem.
-Richard
Milton, MA