Hair Algae, a second case study

[Timfish]

Nuisance algae in reef systems is pretty much a ubiquitous problem, and one that is a common source of frustration for reef aquarists.    It is also one I've learned to view the problem very differently than what is generally portrayed and it just takes a few rather basic steps, and patience. (This is longer than I planned so feel free to jump past the backgound info.)

 

Back in the late 90's I realized the general notion of nuisance algae being just a nutrient issue didn't fit what I was seeing in my maintenance business. In my systems there was not a correlation between PO4, Nitrate, and nuisance algae problems. A nice looking tank that did not have a problem would test "bad", have "unacceptable" levels of PO4 and/or Nitrate, while a tank with "good" numbers would have a serious nuisance algae issue. If there was a correlation between equipment and nuisance algae it was a positive one, more and fancier equipment didn't get rid of nuisance algae.  There was clearly something else going on and I'll get back to this in just a sec.

 

While I have tried various chemical fixes, the first, and very simple, technique I realized worked well and produced the most consistent results was just small weekly water changes, 5% - 10%. One aspect of these early fixes with water changes that I didn't really appreciate until years later (reading reef research was at the time for purely aesthetic reasons), I would siphon out nuisance algae when doing a water change. The top layer of sand would also be siphoned off if there was any "color",any single cell algae, rinsed quickly in tap water, then put back in the tank. This constant removal of algae, not aggressive but persistent, turns out to be very beneficial and very similar to the way the primary herbivores (Parrotfish in the Pacific and Urchins in the Caribean) on reefs control the algae. 

 

Fast forward a few years, a little bit more than a decade, and I started getting on the internet and checking out the forums. I didn’t look up every forum, but the ones I did pursue suggested nuisance algae was still treated as a nutrient issue. So maybe I was missing something? I started wondering what the scientists and the research being done say about reefs? This was a real eye opener. Here are just two of the observations I stumbled across:

 

"When I see the colors of some of these low nutrient tanks, I can't help but be reminded of bleached coral reefs. It should therefore not come as a surprise that feeding corals in such systems becomes a very important component in these systems. Though reefs are often categorized as nutrient "deserts", the influx of nutrients in the form of particulates and plankton is quite high when the total volume of water passing over a reef is taken into consideration.

 

Our crystal-clear aquaria do not come close to the nutrient loads that swirl around natural reefs. And so when we create low-nutrient water conditions, we still have to deal with the rest of a much more complex puzzle. Much like those who run their aquarium water temperature close to the thermal maximums of corals walk a narrow tight rope, I can't help but think that low-nutrient aquariums may be headed down a similar path." Charles Delbeck, Coral Nov/Dec 2010, pg 127.

 

"Imported nutrients are usually transported to reefs from rivers; but if there are no rivers, as with reefs remote from land masses, nutrients can only come from surface ocean circulation. Often this supply is poor, and thus the vast ocean expanses have been referred to as "nutrient deserts". The Indo-Pacific has many huge atolls in these supposed deserts which testify to the resilience of reefs, but the corals themselves may lack the lush appearance of those of more fertile waters. Many reefs have another major supply of inorganic nutrients as, under certain conditions, surface currents moving against a reef face may cause deep ocean water to be drawn to the surface. This "upwelled" water is often rich in phosphorus [2.0 mg/l] and other essential chemicals." J. E. N. Veron "Corals of Australia and the Indo-Pacific" pg 30 "

 

What was real gratifying was reading Forest Rohwer in ch 5 of his book "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" discussed how it wasn't nutrients per se that causes algae problems on reefs but a shift in the equilibrium of a reef ecosystem that allows algae to take over.    This really resonated as I would see nutrients stay the same or increase as algae abated.   Chasing some of the references Forest Rohwer mentioned, there is a far more complicated picture involving microbes, herbivores, corals, algae and the various roles of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC). I'm going a bit off topic, but there's a lot of stuff aquarists are doing that's either not relevant or is detrimental to the long term sustainability of reef systems.  I encourage every reef aquarist to read his book.

 

So, back to the problem at hand.

 

Patience. You're not getting rid of algae. You are changing the equilibrium of your reef ecosystem. It ain't going to happen overnight. Expect to see it get worse at times; two steps forward, one back. Changes in the types of algae is a good thing.

 

As far as using any of the various products out there touted for dealing with nuisance algae, I strongly, strongly discourage their use. First of all, they definitely are not at all needed to fix a problem. These products do not actually fix the underlying problem; there's still the issue of why the ecosystem's equilibrium is favoring nuisance algae.   Some of the products if overused have the potential to create superbugs which none of us want. Most importantly, corals have a holobiont, an assemblage of various microbes, viruses, cyanobacteria, fungi and archaia which is species specific and essential components of a coral's immune system and nutrient cycling.  Much of the holobiont is in the mucus coating of the coral (a portion is internal and a portion is also endolithic, in its skeleton). Anything dumped into a reef system that kills nuisance algae will be killing beneficial, and I'll argue essential, portions of a coral's holobiont.  And pointedly, one (if not more) of these products were used in this thread by a previous maintenance company with no effect.

 

Small water changes. These don't have to be weekly. I'm posting links to two threads I've done dealing with nuisance algae below and one had water changes every 3 or 4 weeks. 20% monthly would be a good target number but I've never seen any benefit to going more than 30%. When siphoning, remember, suction strength is determined by the weight of the water in the hose and the height of the surface of the aquarium water above the surface of the water in a bucket you're siphoning into. Use a 1/2" or 9/16" diameter hose; smaller diameter is way too slow and the amount of suction gives poor performance. Larger is hard to control, has a higher suction over a larger area making it harder not to hurt animals, and siphons off water way too fast requiring larger water changes to accomplish the same amount of work. Stainless steel straws can be helpful and they have the advantage of actually increasing the suction strength at the nozzle end of the straw but decreasing the area that's seeing the suction. Below is a video using stainless steel straws to remove palies safely and works well with some aspects of algae removal. At some point straws do slow things down and I rarely do more than a third of my target volume using them.

 

Usually, like I did in this thread and the 1st thread I've linked too below, I will pull out rock and scrub off algae in aquarium water with a toothbrush or small scrub brush. But I have also dealt with nuisance algae leaving the aquascaping in place (see below). If there's anything valuable like cryptic sponges, corals or coraline algae, I'll put a rock back in the tank. Some stuff may not be worth the effort and I'll use dry rock or a quality, quarantine wild or maricultured live rock to replace it in the aquascaping. I have yet, in all the tanks I've fixed over the years, seen one where I need to pull everything out to fix a problem. There are also occasions where I might do select rocks a second or third time, but never to the extent of the initial scrubbing. Remember though we're trying to get the corals growing again so minimize the disruption as much as possible.

 

Here's my second example shifting the equilibrium of a system to favor corals:

This is a 4  year old ~200 gallon 4' tall half cylinder on a 42" tall stand.  Previous maintenance companies had tried to deal with it with gfo, algae reducing products and reduced feeding (once per week). The first thing we did was remove about half the rock and scrub it off.  The first water change was ~25 gallons.  We also  removed gfo, turned off the skimmer.  With the 2nd week we dropped to just 5%-7% weekly water changes with tap water.  We also added an auto-feeder set to 8 small daily feedings, ~1-2 grams Spectrum pellets daily total (X6 or X7 for approximate frozen weight).   Several urchins were added, a long spine, short spine pink and royal urchins and a couple Mexican Turbos (DO NOT ADD TO MANY SNAILS!  short spine urchins like Tuxedo or Royal are the best options since they chew the algae "holdfasts" off rocks ).  I removed the squirrel fish partly because it was seriously under weight 😕  The sump was setup to use a filter sock which I used a few times to help remove stuff but was permanently removed in August.  The finger corals are gradually being removed, my client doesn't like them but I needed them to compete with the algae until other corals get going.

March 3rd

April 27.  Here's what it looks like during a scrubbing.  The height makes it impossible to get to spots even with a scrub brush with an extended handle (I stuck it in a section of PVC).  Some of the sand was siphoned off with water changes, rinsed and dumped back in.

June 15.  A little nit of cyano started to show up.  (This didn't happen in Mike's tank.)  It was just siphoned off with water changes.

July 6.  Here's a weeks worth of cyano growth.

 

 

July 20.  And the cyano has stopped.  (This step has taken longer in other systems.)

August 8.  Still got some hair algae showing up but this is 3 weeks worth.

Last week.

 

 

Here's links to my first thread and to my video on using stainless steel straws:

http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/34556-hair-algae-a-case-study/?tab=comments#comment-275433

http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/40619-stainless-steel-straws-beta/?tab=comments#comment-340809

 

I also wanted to share this following experience I had with one of the systems I've maintained over the decades which I think demonstrates a reef system's ability to change it's equilibrium with just water changes. Last decade one of the house systems I had maintained for over a decade was left empty for over three years. During this period I still maintained the system on a weekly basis. On three separate occasions the system was crashed from either AC failures or circuit breakers being turned off. Because the house was empty the home owner chose not to put any effort into any remidiation, just keep doing the basic maintenance. While a few fish and robust mushrooms survived each crash the only animals added were overflow from other systems. As expected because of the dieoff there was a bad nuisance algae outbreak each time. But in each of the three events, in a process that took roughly 6-8 months, the nuisance algae abated. And the only action taken was siphoning out the algae small weekly water changes. No scrubbing, no removing rocks, and each water change left algae in the system. For those wondering the filtration was a wet/dry and no skimmer.

 

[+brian.srock]

Great job saving the tank Tim.

[Timfish]

Thank You!

[JasReef]

Very nice. Nothing seems to beat algea better than good old manual removal. Also, urchins rock!


I know Tim you are big on no skimmer, did you permanently turn it off? Do you see a correlation to algea and skimmer use or was it just incidental that you turned it off? Regardless the tank looks great. I know your clients are happy!

[Timfish]

Thank you!   That the majority of my clients I've had for over a decade is a good indicator too. 

 

I definitely turned it off on purpose.   Look at Feldman's research I listed in my third post here.   Skimmers are doing two things detrimental to the long term health of reef systems.  First they are really screwing with the balance of microbial species in a reef system removing species that have hyrophobic qualities.  They are removing the labile forms of DOC sponges use to recycle carbon and nutrients in a reef system.

 

It is true all I'm doing is manual removal and using urchins to recycle nutrients for corals to use.   Since algae is disappearing from where neither I or urchins or snails or hermit crabs can get to the "holdfast" to stop algae from growing back quickly argues what is happening is a fundamental shift in the equilibrium of the system that favors corals over algae.   Dr. Forest Rohwer's "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" is an excellent starting place to learn more about this.

 

[Timfish]

Here's a current video.  The the rest of the finger corals have been removed and a couple different Sarcophyton Toadstools added along with more mushrooms and purple Stylophora pistellata and candy canes.  And more fish.  I also took the video before wiping the algae off that had accumulated over the last week.

 

 

[stoneroller]

Much better now!

 

[Timfish]

Here's another update.   The long spine black urchin doesn't object to chomping on xenia and soft corals.  I would get rid of it, mostly because it really stings when I bump it, but the clients like it better than the xenia  and toadstools.  

 

https://youtu.be/s4SNhmG5RZQ

[Bpb]

I feel like the urchins have done 99.9% of the work here and the rest was just simplifying the workflow for the customer/maintenance person


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Timfish]

Urchins can be critical for a successful reef as demonstrated by the problems the Caribbean reefs are having because of the dieoff of urchins in 1983 (search "Moe" and "Diadema" for more info).  (In the Pacific it's the large parrot fish that are primarily responsible for controlling nuisance alga and creating places for coral larva to land and start growing.)  What's overlooked is urchins are not removing the nutrients but simply putting the nutrients bound up in the nuisance algae back into the system to be used by the sponges, remaining algae and corals.  Depending on the amount of Dissolved Combined Neutral Sugars (DCNS) being released by the alga dictates how well the corals are going to be able to compete with the alga.  There's a well documented feedback loop (See Rohwer's "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" for an introduction to this process) that negatively affects corals.  Urchins also can't get everywhere, as I pointed out in my first thread, there's nooks and crannies the urchins can't get into where the algae was growing then stops as the equilibrium of the ecosystem shifts.   In this system I did add urchins so it's to extrapolate they fisxed the problem and there wasn't any fundamental shift in the system equilibrium.  But you also need to consider what happened in my first "Hair Algae" thread, urchins had already been added but were not able to deal with the hair algae hence a more aggressive approach was used to eradicate the alga.   In both systems there were places where a toothbrush or small tube brush was the only way to get to the alga and remove it.   Saying there's shifts in the equilibrium of an ecosystem may seem nebulous but it was very gratifying to see Rohwer explain this in his book "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas".  I stopped worrying about nitrate and PO4 15-20 years ago that when I realized they were only small parts of a very complex puzzle.  There is much, much more going on in our reef systems than just simple nutrient export.  The various roles the different types of DOC in altering the microbial processes and their influences, negative or positive, on a coral and it's holobiont which directly affects it's resiliance and immunity is just now beginning to be understood. 

[Timfish]

On 3/19/2019 at 8:15 PM, Bpb said:

I feel like the urchins have done 99.9% of the work here and the rest was just simplifying the workflow for the customer/maintenance person

Here's a time lapse of a spot showing the changes in algae as the herbivores graze.  It can be clearly seen there are spots in the nooks and crevices that have algae the herbivores can't get too but there is no hair algae growing.  

https://youtu.be/vxMn6YBwIDM

[Timfish]

Here's an update, January 2020 a power failure killed most of the fish.  Nuisance algae made a brief comeback for a month or so.  Everything has been pretty stable since then.  Still no regular dosing and water changes are with tapwater.

 

 

[Timfish]

Prettiest looking overflow in the country! 😃