Green Hair Algae and other Algae

[Str8linespeed]

My tank is just over 4 months old. I've been working on keeping the water as close to ideal for my corals and fish. All of a sudden I've had a small outbreak of green hair algae on random spots of different rocks as well as my live sand turning slightly green and brown (Diatoms???) on the top layer. Im wondering is my water to "clean".

My water parameters are as follows?

Salinity 1.026
PH 7.99
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 2.5
Phosphates 0
Calcium 420
Magnesium 1245
Alkalinity 9.2

What can I do to get rid of it other than manual removal and stirring the sand??

 

[mcgyvr]

Welcome to a new tank...

Some growth of algae is expected/normal as the tank is maturing..
Give it some time.. It should go away on its own..

 

[davehead86]

Green Hair Algae forms when there is excess nutrients in the water column.
You may want to evaluate your feeding amounts and frequencies.
Are you doing enough water changes?


When I overfed is when I had algae problems.

 

[RobZilla04]

I've been going through the same thing. From all of my research I gather this a phase (an annoying and lengthy stage).

I added GFO in a reactor and a phosphate pad. Still had to manually pull and brush it off the rocks weekly before water changes. I'm finally getting the upper hand but I must remain diligent when I see it popping up in the display tank.

I just upgraded to a SCA-301 protein skimmer. I'm hoping that once it breaks in (been four days) the excess nutrients will start to completely disappear.

Keep in mind that when you brush and remove manually the nutrients which were in the algae get released back into the water. Also figure out if you are somehow adding those nutrients into the water somehow. I tested half a cube of my frozen mysis and found it was loaded with phosphates. Now I dissolve in a small cup of tank water and strain with a net. Then I feed it.

Hope this helps.

 

[chammergren]

I am fairly new to the hobby as well and as far as I have been advised, a tank can take up to a year to get past the ugly phases of diatoms, cyano and different algae before settling in. Now that is not to say that after a year you will never run across those things but that it is bound to happen early on.

Your phosphates are testing 0 but that could simply be because the algae that is growing is taking it up efficiently enough to where you don't see it in your water.

Continue to do regular water changes and keep up with general maintenance. Look into livestock that is known to eat hair algae to help keep it at bay in the mean time (emerald crab, turbo snail, lawnmower blenny, etc.).

The others who have already posted about nutrient control are correct in that you want to make sure to keep your nutrient inputs at a minimum when possible. Don't feed more than your fish can eat in about 2-3 minutes.

The diatoms will likely go away on their own but it is possible that you run into something like dinoflagellates and will need to go lights out for a couple of days to inhibit their growth.

If things get worse post again and someone will be glad to lend a helpful tip.

 

[Str8linespeed]

Thanks everyone for the input. I went through the very ugly stage of the tank at about 1 month old. I had GHA all over the tank. I have a very healthy CUC and it was gone by the time month #2 came around. The tank was beautiful! Around 3.5 months I started noticing a small spot of the GHA. I now have random dime size spots on various rocks as well as the sand as mentioned and kind of stumped.

Perhaps some of things I have been doing and not doing are the issues.

I strain and dont strain the Mysis I feed. It depends on the days I spot feed a few of my corals. Which is every 3 days. On those days I will just melt the cube in water and suck up that water and do the feeding. The rest of the water goes into the tank. The days I dont spot feed I strain the Mysis.

I use reef roids twice a week for some of the other corals, but I put it directly into the water column and dont spot feed.

I went about 1 month not doing a water change, because my water parameters were not much different from what I posted above. I did do a water change last weekend. Its not a problem going back to once a week.

My CUC is still healthy, but I've tried to get my Turbo to eat the GHA and it just ignores it. Even after placing it on top of it numerous times. None of the other snails or crabs seem to want to touch it either.

I have a Diamond Goby, that cleans the sand, but seems to focus only on certain areas of the tank for extended periods of time, then moves onto the next spot forgetting the previous, as that area now gets dirty.

I was using GFO in my reactor, but I ran out. I really wasnt sure if it was doing anything so I didnt buy any more. Guess I could pick some more up and give it a shot.

Guess that is about all I can think Im doing/no doing now but I'll start up with the weekly water changes to see if that helps, since that is something I can do now.

 

[Kremis]

My tank used to have a lot of bad algae, diatoms and cyano in the sand, some on the rocks, hair algae here and there. After months of syphoning sand and scrubbing rocks, I picked up first 2 black longspine urchins, then a month later a pair of diamondback gobies. The urchins worked great for the algae, and the gobies keep the sand clean. (they sand sift) I would 100% reccomend getting some urchins. They are way more efficient than snails. The sand gobies are good for me, but they do sometimes make the water a bit cloudy when both of them go around and feed for a few hours, so if that would bother you, then avoid them. The urchins are good, black long spine are best but if you dont like having something that scary looking then tuxedo urchins are also good. Are you sure it is hair algae and not bryopsis? bryopsis is nasty stuff and not a lot of animals eat it.
Bryopsis: http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n417/sallies89/IMG_3176.jpg
green hair algae: http://i764.photobucket.com/albums/xx283/helpinsmepls/002-1.jpg
bryopsis branches out kind of, while hair algae doent
good luck

 

[RobZilla04]

Thanks everyone for the input. I went through the very ugly stage of the tank at about 1 month old. I had GHA all over the tank. I have a very healthy CUC and it was gone by the time month #2 came around. The tank was beautiful! Around 3.5 months I started noticing a small spot of the GHA. I now have random dime size spots on various rocks as well as the sand as mentioned and kind of stumped.

Perhaps some of things I have been doing and not doing are the issues.

I strain and dont strain the Mysis I feed. It depends on the days I spot feed a few of my corals. Which is every 3 days. On those days I will just melt the cube in water and suck up that water and do the feeding. The rest of the water goes into the tank. The days I dont spot feed I strain the Mysis.

I use reef roids twice a week for some of the other corals, but I put it directly into the water column and dont spot feed.

I went about 1 month not doing a water change, because my water parameters were not much different from what I posted above. I did do a water change last weekend. Its not a problem going back to once a week.

My CUC is still healthy, but I've tried to get my Turbo to eat the GHA and it just ignores it. Even after placing it on top of it numerous times. None of the other snails or crabs seem to want to touch it either.

I have a Diamond Goby, that cleans the sand, but seems to focus only on certain areas of the tank for extended periods of time, then moves onto the next spot forgetting the previous, as that area now gets dirty.

I was using GFO in my reactor, but I ran out. I really wasnt sure if it was doing anything so I didnt buy any more. Guess I could pick some more up and give it a shot.

Guess that is about all I can think Im doing/no doing now but I'll start up with the weekly water changes to see if that helps, since that is something I can do now.

Absolutely do not do this! Get a phosphate test kit and test this water the next time, you'll see how much (10+ ppm) phosphate you are adding to the water column.

Snails and crabs wont eat the long strands either.

I do water changes every 10 days at this point whether I need to or not. Ill re-evaluate once everything settles and the excess nutrients are fully controlled.

 

[homer1475]

I'm right there with you on the GHA issue.

My course of action is aggressive GFO use(1/2C changed weekly), weekly 15% WC religiously, wet skimming, several weeks of 3 day blackouts to starve it of light, and some good old yanking and pulling.

I've been at it about 3 weeks now and I'm fonally getting the upper hand.

FWIW, unless you have NPS corals, I would totally stop feeding the corals until you get the nutrient export methods in check. Corals get 99.9% of their food from light. While they can and do tend to grow faster being fed, they do not require it and I personally would stop feeding them until you get the issue under control.

With

 

[Str8linespeed]

Absolutely do not do this! Get a phosphate test kit and test this water the next time, you'll see how much (10+ ppm) phosphate you are adding to the water column.

Snails and crabs wont eat the long strands either.

I do water changes every 10 days at this point whether I need to or not. Ill re-evaluate once everything settles and the excess nutrients are fully controlled.

I do test my phosphates, but I have never tested that water. Im curious so I'll do that the next time I melt a cube. I'll also make sure to just dump out the remaining food/water, into my net and only feed the food.

I'm right there with you on the GHA issue.

My course of action is aggressive GFO use(1/2C changed weekly), weekly 15% WC religiously, wet skimming, several weeks of 3 day blackouts to starve it of light, and some good old yanking and pulling.

I've been at it about 3 weeks now and I'm fonally getting the upper hand.

FWIW, unless you have NPS corals, I would totally stop feeding the corals until you get the nutrient export methods in check. Corals get 99.9% of their food from light. While they can and do tend to grow faster being fed, they do not require it and I personally would stop feeding them until you get the issue under control.

Im assuming you meant SPS corals. I do have a Montipora that I use the reef roids for. Perhaps Im better off spot feeding it instead of letting it float around the water column. Although, Im not sure how much that little bit of roids does damage to the water column. Im spot feeding my Dunkin and Frog Spawn the Mysis. They sure do love it and are getting huge, but your right I can stop feeding them, until I get this under control.

Here is a pic of what Im battling and it does not seem to be branching like that Bryopsis. All my patches of this only seem to be a 1/2" long. By the way, I really need to figure out how to take pictures of the stuff in my tank.. I suck at that LOL.

 

[homer1475]

No I meant NPS or Non PhotoSynthetic.

Sure your corals love it, but so does the algae with all the excess nutrients your putting in the water colum.

 

[Str8linespeed]

Oh sorry, still a noob!

I understand what your saying. Like I said I'll stop feeding them.

 

[inktomi]

A little off topic, but.. is it worthwhile straining other frozen foods as well? I always hear this about Mysis.. but what about Rod's Reef, Reef Frenzy, etc?

Those have a mix of things in them - I'd feel like I was getting rid of the finer food types by straining these foods.

 

[pisanoal]

A little off topic, but.. is it worthwhile straining other frozen foods as well? I always hear this about Mysis.. but what about Rod's Reef, Reef Frenzy, etc?

Those have a mix of things in them - I'd feel like I was getting rid of the finer food types by straining these foods.

Don't strain the mixed foods. That's the point of them. There are rotifers and things for coral/clams/sponges etc. Also, Randy Holmes farley did a nice write-up on why it's not worth it to strain the food. Its not significant when you consider the food itself plus fish poo, etc. The 10ppm in the rinse water that someone else quoted is entirely dependent the volume of water used to rinse which is likely about 10 to 100 mls. That equates to .1-1 mg of phosphates. Dilute that in a modest 40 breeder, or about 150000 mls of water and that number gets very very small...

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[110GTJ]

I am running an innovative marine fusion 40. I have a tune 9004 skimmer, mp 40 running very low on reef link, radio xr15 pro gen 4. for filtration i have filter floss, pond matrix in the innovative marine caddy. I am having algae isssues and need help. How often should I clean my return pump? Also how can I control this algae??

/Users/tjspyrka/Desktop/IMG_5967.JPG
/Users/tjspyrka/Desktop/IMG_5966.JPG

/Users/tjspyrka/Desktop/IMG_5965.JPG

 

[timnem70]

That pH need to come up a but other than that, mcgyvr is right, it will eventually go away on its own DO NOT DO ANYTHING Drastic your parameters look good. Just watch the feeding/lighting schedule. What are you using for nutrient export? What's your lighting look like (too much green and red 6500k? Skimmer? Water source (RODI) . If you have a fuge, grow your macro algae in there, it will eventually out compete the DT and go away.

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[timnem70]

My tank used to have a lot of bad algae, diatoms and cyano in the sand, some on the rocks, hair algae here and there. After months of syphoning sand and scrubbing rocks, I picked up first 2 black longspine urchins, then a month later a pair of diamondback gobies. The urchins worked great for the algae, and the gobies keep the sand clean. (they sand sift) I would 100% reccomend getting some urchins. They are way more efficient than snails. The sand gobies are good for me, but they do sometimes make the water a bit cloudy when both of them go around and feed for a few hours, so if that would bother you, then avoid them. The urchins are good, black long spine are best but if you dont like having something that scary looking then tuxedo urchins are also good. Are you sure it is hair algae and not bryopsis? bryopsis is nasty stuff and not a lot of animals eat it.
Bryopsis: http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n417/sallies89/IMG_3176.jpg
green hair algae: http://i764.photobucket.com/albums/xx283/helpinsmepls/002-1.jpg
bryopsis branches out kind of, while hair algae doent
good luck

That tank or at least the sand, is NOT almost a year old. I look at the pic, that's a fairly new setup. Seen a million on here... That's one of em

My tank is just over 4 months old. I've been working on keeping the water as close to ideal for my corals and fish. All of a sudden I've had a small outbreak of green hair algae on random spots of different rocks as well as my live sand turning slightly green and brown (Diatoms???) on the top layer. Im wondering is my water to "clean".

My water parameters are as follows?

Salinity 1.026
PH 7.99
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 2.5
Phosphates 0
Calcium 420
Magnesium 1245
Alkalinity 9.2

What can I do to get rid of it other than manual removal and stirring the sand??

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk