Green Hair Algae Help

[kill4u]

Hello,

I have been battling a green hair algae outbreak in a 36G Reef Tank for the last 4-5 months... I have performed several large water changes and add Phosphate RX even though the Phosphates continued to read 0 using a API test kit. Seemed like it got a little better but it did not solve the problem....

So I ended up breaking the entire tank down and using a tooth brush to clean the rock and scraped/picked off as much of the algae as possible from everything else...... I ended up doing an 80% water change even though that is risky..... It looked a LITTLE better for about a week but now seems to be growing like mad again.....

We have been performing minimal feeding and there are only 4 small fish in the tank.....

My parameters are as follows: Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Phosphate all read 0, pH is low at 7.8, Alkalinity very low at 5 and Calcium is reading 420...My salinity is 1.022 and the Temp is 79......

The light bulbs in the tank have not been changed in the last year and are on for 6 hours per day...... (Light bulbs are special order from Red Sea since my tank is the early model that does not use standard bulbs.. ) And the protein skimmer in this tank is non-functional....

The tank has been setup for about 1.5 years in the current configuration....

As another aside... My test kits are approx 3 years old....?..?...

Any ideas?????? I am at my wits end.........

 

[Dkuhlmann]

What do you have for CUC? Mexican Turbo snails eat that stuff up and so do Lawnmower blennies.

 

[Kolkri]

I really hope you fix the problem. I was told a bigger tank would help me with my GHA so I upgraded from a 14 gallon to a 29 gallon but after seeing this I am afraid I made a mistake and well be having the same problem again.
Following this thread closely.

 

[Piranha_Owns]

look into peroxide dosing

 

[kill4u]

What do you have for CUC? Mexican Turbo snails eat that stuff up and so do Lawnmower blennies.

My CUC is pretty much non-existent..... 3 large Nassarius snails, 2 large Astra Snails and a Twin Spot Goby...... All of my hermit crabs and other snails died off in the tank.....

 

[Kolkri]

look into peroxide dosing

This did not work for me. I have read that it can work maybe if you catch the outbreak early.

 

[ghostman]

There are several things that stick out in your post that might be contributing to your hair algae problem. Do you use RO/DI water for topping off and making saltwater? Your bulbs are probably old which will also contribute to your hair algae problem. Your test kits are also probably a bit too old to be considered accurate. I would suggest the following:
1.Use RO/DI water with a TDS of 0 for all water changes
2. Install new T5 bulbs
3. Use some phosphate remover like GFO in small amounts and change it often.
4. Manually remove as much algae as you can, clean filter sponges or filter socks often....daily.
5. Get new test kits. If you have corals or plan to have them keep track of ammonia, nitrate, alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium. Use a refractometer for salinity checks and make sure its calibrated. Salinity for corals is best a little higher at 1.025-1.026. Alk is typically best from 7.0 to 9.0 and stable, Calcium is good 400+, and magnesium is good over 1300. Salifert makes nice and easy test kits. For phosphates, use a hanna checker to get an accurate reading.
5. Fix your protein skimmer if possible so you can export some of the nutrients in the tank.
6. Make sure you have an adequate clean up crew to remove unwanted algae.
That may sound like a lot, but with a few changes and accurate test results, your tank will turn around. Good luck.

 

[outy]

I'm 25 years in, and I cannot pinpoint my issues, because my test kits new or old show 0 for P

Every time I do a water change I get it. Now if my DSB is fresh not over 5 years old, it goes away after a month and ill get months with no GHA.

So for some reason my water must have N and P or A


My suggestion to you is a turf scrubber or chaeto fuge.

 

[SailorDan]

I just finished a GHA battle and knock on wood, may be winning.

I was also reading 0 on phosphate and very low nitrate with 4 small fish and minimal feedings in a 50gal tank. From reading around site, I discovered that if you have active algae growth, test kits can read zero since the algae is actively consuming the nutrients.

I manually removed as much GHA as I could, scrubbed the rocks in situ with a tooth brush and then blacked the tank out for 3-4 days. No lights and a blanket over the tank to eliminate any possible outside light. Tank looked great when I removed the blanket and turned the lights back on.

I've since become religious in changing my filter sock 3x week, installed a BRS GFO/carbon reactor and threw some cheato in a basket in my sump; hopefully these changes keep the GHA at bay.

I think combining a vigorous manual removal, followed by a large water change and extended black out period will stamp out your current GHA crop, then it is a nutrient reduction challenge to ensure it doesn't come back.

 

[OrQidz]

Good advice here. It's not a quick fix or a one time thing, but you can beat it back with persistence. Good luck - I hate GHA!

 

[nuttyd]

Had gha problems in my 55 for first two years. Same kind of setup. Fish only no skimmer. Try marine algae fix. This should get rid of most of it. Then get a cuc to control it. Two years after this for me, changing nothing in feeding or water, no gha. Used the additive only a month. Nothing after that. Not saying it will be the final fix but worth the shot.

 

[lonbrat]

Now some may disagree, but what I would do is get chaeto, and emerald crabs, or a lawnmower blenny...
My reason for each-

Chaeto, it's an algae, so it requires alot of the same stuff as pest algaes. You can also substitute this with many other more pleasant macro algaes. ^^

Emerald crabs.... this is a hit or miss...(apparently lol).... all mine eat all algaes, except film on the glass, I doubt they will attack your fish, I've had them since I started the hobby. ( only about 2 years ago though lol) and I've never had one kill anything.

And lawnmower blennies... I got one in the beginning of this hobby as well, I was battling hair algae for a while. But I finally bought a lawnmower blenny, he ate all the hair algae, in about two weeks. He started to starve afterwards, but I got him to eat algae disks and flake food in the last moment. He now eats everything but algae on the sand, he does try thoug.
Also, if you get a blenny I would be careful with any "blenny looking fish" here on out . But mine has easily become my favorite fish. ^^

All other answers are great for removing as well!!

 

[Deftones2015]

Test the topoff water for phosphates, then check the saltwater you are using for phosphates as well. Sometimes that can be the issue and if you're adding in phosphates with the salt mix being used, or the top off water (sometimes the storage container can be the culprit) you're fighting an uphill battle that will never be won. The gha has to be using nutrients from somewhere. If there is a lot of gha then it can be using the phosphates or whatever nutrients up quickly so that the test kits can't detect anything in the water column.

 

[Aframomum]

What kind of rock do you have? Source could be the rock itself leaching phos.

If its the rock then you may want to add a reactor to run phos media until the rock exhausts its stored supply - could take a long while.

 

[ScienceRulez]

In my tank, I've had to come to terms with the fact that I will most likely always have GHA. With so many people "helping" me with the tank, it's impossible to completely control everything.

There have been a couple of suggestions here that have helped a lot in my battle. One is an algae scrubber (trap). I have some egg crate in my sump with a light and once a week I take it out and scrub MOST of the algae off. The other was to improve filtration, I got rid of the pool filters and went with filter socks. I'm changing them out every day but it;s also helped me get things better under control.

YMMV, as I'm operating under very unique circumstances.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I don't use the socks anymore. IMO and IME they catch too many pods as they are circulated through the system. I'd prefer to keep my pods alive and in the tank, not in the socks.

What are your unique circumstances?

 

[ScienceRulez]

<snip>

What are your unique circumstances?

I work at a children's hands on science museum and several times a day the kids are allowed to touch and pet the invertebrates. So I get to deal with 50 bazillion kids reaching into the tank with who knows what on their hands.

 

[AZRippster]

Do a little research into Algae Turf Scrubbers (ATS). A properly designed one works awesome.

 

[Naterade86]

Is anyone aware of any fish or inverts that's will eat these little buggers. I purchased a rock a while back that I was told had a bunch of feather dusters on itno. They are no feather dusters? Instead it'd these annoying tube snails. Some new diamond gobys I added are really mixing up the bottom and these things are everywhere...please help

 

[kill4u]

Everyone,

Thanks for all of the advice......

The RO/DI water I use and the salt mix do not appear to be the source of my phosphates..... However, I will have to purchase new test kits to insure my results are accurate......

And I guess I will order lights and fix the protein skimmer......

In the mean time.... I may add a lawnmower blenny.....

Thanks again....