Green Hair Algae help :(

[Fishkeeper101]

Okay,
heres the deal. Ive had serious issues with green hair algae in my main tank for well over a year now, and its to the point where my family is telling me to clean it out almost every other day.

I've looked into several ways to get rid of it, but none of them seem fesable for my situation.
I currently use tap water, and my phosphates are way high due to high ag. runoff in the local ground water.
Im sure nitrates are high too, though havent tested for a while.

I can not afford a RO system, and i wouldn't have room for one anyway.
I can not black out for any ammount of time, due to the fact that all my corals are attached to the problem rocks.
Ive reduced the photoperiod down to 12 hours... not really comfortable going any lower.
There was one thing that worked for a while... I traded green hair for a few diffrent types of macroalgae (which in hind sight were alot better to have than that stupid green algae) but a yellow tang has elimanted all the algae that I had.
Obviously tried some species of fish... my yellow tang doesn't really make a dent in it... Lawnmower blenny is more intersted in brine shrimp... tried not feeding the tank for a while, but didn't see any change.
Ran phosban, and noticed a near dead stop in the growth, but it stopped working after a month... have replaced it again, but I would really like to not have to use chemicals to get rid of it. (plus its not exactly economical...)

Im really at my wits end to get rid of the stuff.
I need help!
Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[ScubaDiver93]

DO NOT USE TAP! Go to an LFS that has RO water and use that but not tap...

 

[lancer99]

Hey fishkeeper,

You've noticed this is not exactly a *cheap* hobby.....

If you are budged-constrained, have you considered letting the hair algae grow, and letting wee beasties (copepods/amphipods) feast on it...that would be ideal for Mandarins, or maybe seahorses and filefish.

Maybe that's not what you wanted originally, but it's an alternative, and IMHO a good one.

-R

 

[huboldium]

hi,

i recently ended a year long battle with the dreaded green hair algae, so i know what it's like

i too was using tap water , which was probably full of phosphates

i tried using chemical products,3 day blackout, tried buying a huge clean up crew, tried algae eating fish, but nothing i did seemed to help. a combination of purigen and rowaphos worked temporarily for be, but i needed a real solution.i was pulling out handfuls of the stuff every day, and doing weekly 40% water changes, but it kept on growing and growing. Finally after loosing all but a couple of my corals, i decided something needed to be done

i went on ebay and bought a cheap $100 ro/di unit, when it arrived, i made up a huge batch of saltwater, pulled out all the rocks and scrubbed them - very carefully around the corals, then did a %90 water change with the fresh water. 5 days later, strands of algae were still there, but it defiatley had stopped growing - so i threw in a bunch of assorted snails (astreas, cerith, trochus) and they cleaned up the last of it within a week or two

i havent seen any since (4 months ago) and aside from the diatoms i get growing on the glass right before water change time, i have had no problems with it. I also run purigen in my fitler which seems to cut down on the algae growth as well.

i highly advise you to get an ro/di unit however you can, i'm sure the algae killed more than $100 worth of livestock, plus all the useless chemical treatments i bought and threw away. I only bring mine out once a week to use - it sits on the floor of the kitchen and i attatch it to my faucet, i fill up my salt water mixing tank, and my topoff tank, then put it away in the closet till i need it next(i live in a studio appartment so space is an issue for me too)

the cheap ro/di units aren't very good, but you can upgrade them over time, eventualy have a great system. You get the added benefit of healthier corals - within a day or two i noticed how much better my corals were looking. Even my fish seemed happier. I have also noticed that i no longer randomly loose snails, shrimp, and hermits which i think was probably due to copper.

the upfront investment can seem a little big, but it's payoff's are totaly worth it in the long run.

 

[ScubaDiver93]

http://www.twopartsolution.com/inde...ath=81&zenid=e1ed4ba95093414cfd214a0af5d5a0de

 

[Fishkeeper101]

thanks scuba for the link. Now how long do the filters last on average?