Green Hair Algae problem...

SuperSaltwater

SuperSaltwater

New member
got GHA issue. reading 0 nitrite 0 nitrate and 0 ammonia. i lowered light hours manually cleaned the entire tank took forever. is it ok to use PHOSGUARD and PURIGEN with 0 nitrite, nitrate and ammonia? dont want to kill my sps and other corals. what tips do you got to get rid of this stuff, its slowly killing all my zoas.....:uzi:
 
I got rid of my GHA forest with an algae turf scrubber. Super simple to set up. It doesn't seem to even grow much algae, but I now have 0 hair algae in my display and the bubble algae is going away fast.

I too was reading 0 nitrates, 0 nitrites, 0 ammonia, as well as 0 phosphates. Tried GFO, tried vinegar, tried biopellets, tried 20% weekly water changes. Pellets may have helped a little, but nothing really changed until I added the ATS.

Check out the first picture and the bottom of the second page.

Darth Tater's 40 Breeder
 
If it's bad I'd recommend Fluconazole. Traditional advice is reduce feeding, remove algae manually, lower phosphates with GFO etc.

None of that worked for me, in 3 weeks Fluconazole removed 95% of my algae without harming my livestock.
 
Darth_Tater said:
I got rid of my GHA forest with an algae turf scrubber. Super simple to set up. It doesn't seem to even grow much algae, but I now have 0 hair algae in my display and the bubble algae is going away fast.

I too was reading 0 nitrates, 0 nitrites, 0 ammonia, as well as 0 phosphates. Tried GFO, tried vinegar, tried biopellets, tried 20% weekly water changes. Pellets may have helped a little, but nothing really changed until I added the ATS.

Check out the first picture and the bottom of the second page.

Darth Tater's 40 Breeder
Click to expand...

Do this long term ^^^^^

Short term - Use API's Algaefix marine. It will kill of any algae with harming your corals.
 
i manually removed all the GHA, added purigen and phosguard and it seems to be working. growth is slowed and i think its going to correct the issue. my phosphates were at around .5-1 it was to hard to guess the color on the test. i will test again tomorrow after 4 days on phosguard. :uzi:
 
I was having a GHA problem, so I removed all of the algae and started running chemipro elite to remove the phosphates, after almost a month, this caused my phosphates to drop too much which sparked a Dino algae issue that I'm still fighting. It also killed off all of my Chaeto because the Dino algae was winning the nutrient battle..
 
get a yellow Tang if u can. As soon as I put one in tank s/he ate up all GHA (even some that were growing around zoas that I couldn't get rid of) & bubble algae clean.
 
Ghost25 said:
If it's bad I'd recommend Fluconazole. Traditional advice is reduce feeding, remove algae manually, lower phosphates with GFO etc.

None of that worked for me, in 3 weeks Fluconazole removed 95% of my algae without harming my livestock.
Click to expand...

same.


wildman926 said:
Do this long term ^^^^^

Short term - Use API's Algaefix marine. It will kill of any algae with harming your corals.
Click to expand...


Algaefix killed off some things for me but never touched my GHA.


Phos may read zero, but still have thriving GHA. This is because phosphates are bound up in the living GHA. As some naturally dies that Phosphate will go back into the water to be taken up by growing GHA and by your GFO. Meaning GFO could be a long wait.

I did algaefix, manual removal, tons of GFO for about a year and was making no noticeable impact. 1 dose of Fluconazole and a 3 week wait, followed by 2 large water changes and I haven't had an algae issue since. I think the large di-off plus large water changes after, gave my GFO the chance to get caught up. Now any phosphates going in are able to be handled by my GFO.
 
SuperSaltwater said:
my phosphates were at around .5-1 it was to hard to guess the color on the test. i will test again tomorrow after 4 days on phosguard. :uzi:
Click to expand...

And thats the reason for the algae.. Plain and simple..
Reduce that to low levels and the algae should go away in time..

I'd guess the cause for the phosphate issue was overfeeding.. (as thats usually what it is)
 
mcgyvr said:
And thats the reason for the algae.. Plain and simple..
Reduce that to low levels and the algae should go away in time..

I'd guess the cause for the phosphate issue was overfeeding.. (as thats usually what it is)
Click to expand...

i do not overfeed, well i did a while back. but i don't do that anymore. :headwally:
 
SuperSaltwater said:
i do not overfeed, well i did a while back. but i don't do that anymore. :headwally:
Click to expand...

Define a while back?...
But sounds like a former smoker saying they can't have lung cancer because they stopped a while back... The damage was already done..
Now you are simply recovering from it..

But its either that or your water or salt mix is the other phosphate source..

Food/water/salt mix there is no other way phosphate can enter the system.. (well.. or added phosphate laden rock)
 
After you find and remedy the cause, get some turbo snails. My 50g cube was covered in hair algae (ro/di filters were overdue for changing), changed the filters and did several large water changes. Threw in 5 large turbo snails and it was gone in a couple of weeks.
 
mcgyvr said:
Food/water/salt mix there is no other way phosphate can enter the system.. (well.. or added phosphate laden rock)
Click to expand...

Once you control one or more of these sources, then you can over come your GHA issue. I truly believe in an ATS to help this for long term use. I have been on mine for over 3 years after my GHA issue, and have not seen a return of it, with no change in feeding, salt, ro, etc.
 
wildman926 said:
Once you control one or more of these sources, then you can over come your GHA issue. I truly believe in an ATS to help this for long term use. I have been on mine for over 3 years after my GHA issue, and have not seen a return of it, with no change in feeding, salt, ro, etc.
Click to expand...

another thing my skimmer needed to be cleaned and wasnt skimming for months after fixing skimmer, adding another skimmer, removing gha and adding purigen and phosguard the problem is taken care of. gha is on its way out. :dance:
 
Maybe the hair algae was living off undetectable phosphates built up in the rocks. Once the hair algae has sucked all the phosphate out of the rocks, it will die. If you have little hair algae on the scrubber, you clearly have low phosphate levels, or maybe something else has changed like the levels of iron in your tank, preventing the algae growing .
 
Fuzms said:
same.

If you can get phosphate levels down to below 0.03 ppm, the growth rate of the algae will slow right down. Hair algae needs testable phosphates to survive.



Algaefix killed off some things for me but never touched my GHA.


Phos may read zero, but still have thriving GHA. This is because phosphates are bound up in the living GHA. As some naturally dies that Phosphate will go back into the water to be taken up by growing GHA and by your GFO. Meaning GFO could be a long wait.

I did algaefix, manual removal, tons of GFO for about a year and was making no noticeable impact. 1 dose of Fluconazole and a 3 week wait, followed by 2 large water changes and I haven't had an algae issue since. I think the large di-off plus large water changes after, gave my GFO the chance to get caught up. Now any phosphates going in are able to be handled by my GFO.
Click to expand...
 
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