Green hair algae in my bird's nest

[percula99]

I have some green hair algae growing in ny bird's nest. I don't have any hair algae growing anywhere else in the tank except at the very top behind my power heads. The bird's nest is in a relatively high flow area up high near my MH lights. The only way I can clean out the hair algae is with tweezers and I can't get it all out, so it eventually grows back. The algae is stuck to the coral, yet the coral is not dying, and continues to grow. But the algae is unsightly. My nitrates have been hovering at 20 mg/L (ppm) but I have done a major water change and clean up this past weekend and nitrates were below 10. Yet the algae has not disappeared yet. Any thoughts???

 

[sneeyatch]

try re-directing the flow a little. i have a green digi that was in high flow too. HA started growing on the tips on a couple of branches because the tissue started receeding. after i changed the flow around a little more, tissue has grown back (very quickly i might add) and the algae is gone.

other than lowering your 'trates a little too.

 

[toothman]

I also have hair algae on a acro., what a pia. I have tried lowering the nutrients down to almost zero, to the point that the acros looked anemic. In time the hair algea grows back. I remove the colony and pull as much as I can off but in a couple of months it grows back. Yes it is 4 inches from the surface and light, guess I will try moving it down and see what happens.

 

[tonyscoots84]

how about getting rid of phosphates....

 

[percula99]

Toothman, I got this reply on another forum. Maybe it can help you as well.

Lower your temp & pH if you can (stay reasonable) add a fuge with macro, get some scarlet hermits, keep plucking, hope for the best.

You might also try a phosban reactor.

Over all there's no magic, just be more determined than it is.

I switched my centre 250 watt for a 400 watt and since then my temp has gone up a few degrees. He said he has had scarlet hermits eating the gha in his tank, so that's worth a try also. I am running PhosZorb in my canister filter. My phosphates read 0.6. I do beleive that is relatively low.