Green Hair Algae

[hd12121]

Hi all:
I give up. Ive posted before about my GHA problem. It began about 4 months ago, reached current level quickly and remains. I have replaced the bulbs in my Red Sea Max 130D (34 gal). I have pulled & scraped and cleaned. I have replace the RO / DI filters. I religiously change 5 gal Red Sea Pro salt water weekly. I have added an algae blenny. I am adding MG to raise levels, My chemistry readings are as follows: sg = 1.0225; mg = 1300; NO2 = 0.0; NO3 = 0.0; CA = 440; pH = 8.4 (evening) NH3 = 0.0; dKH = 6.5; PO 4 3 = 0.00; temp = heater/chiller maintained at 79F. No unusual events preceeded the proliferation of GHA. I give up. I'm considering raising GHA and having a few fish and corals along for the ride. HELP!

 

[sporto0]

join the unfortunate club, what substrate are you using & is the gha growing on everything, glass, rocks, heaters, filters, corals, like it is in my tank?

 

[BairdimusPrime]

Same problem friend no matter what i do it just comes back
good luck recently i purchased indian star snails and they eat the hell out of it

 

[hd12121]

Hi: Its growing primarily on the live rock, the plastic of the pump exhausts and the wavemaker housings and strainer assy and, i suppose just to mock me, on the snails and crab shells with small patches on the sand also. I used Tampa Bay Saltwater live rock and sand and added the RSM sand also so I have about 3.5" of (very) live sand.

 

[Yogre]

All of your water parameters look fine to me. But, the nutrients the GHA is feeding on are coming from somewhere.

The only way I was able to beat a fierce GHA problem was with vinegar dosing. I had it everywhere, man there wasn't a single rock that didn't have long strands of GHA flowing from it. I tried everything, I even managed to literally starve some of my anthias to death. Not good.

In desperation, I tried vinegar dosing. Within a couple of months the algae was gone. I can finally feed my animals enough to keep them alive, and even thrive.

No doubt I would have left the hobby had this not worked for me.

 

[tommydee]

I'm in the same boat, had major algae issue since adding my first ever 3 frags of GSP and Xenia (new to this game) a few weeks ago. I'm in scrubbing mode, weekly water changes, and my skimmer is going nuts, (pulling much more junk than before) with I think water-borne algae. Algae is all over my LR and filter inlets, and glass.

Have similar water params, but have not got the calcium test kit, so need to check that. Also proving the theory that phosphate tests are worthless, since there is so much algae that it is consuming any phosphate before it would show up in the test.

Have not added additional fish, nor changed feeding habits since the coral adds, other than a phytoplankton feeding 2x/week. All animals seem OK, except the feather duster worm seems to be hiding most of the time. Tank is ugly mugly, with algae holding in bubbles on the rocks, and glass always getting green. I'm only lighting w/ Actinics 10 hours, and all lights for 8, but this also is not helping.

Riding along on this to see where it lands....

 

[macma101]

I had a GHA problem years ago when I had my 90gal. I tried a few things, not sure which one helped the most. First I cleaned all the rocks with a scrub brush, and removed as much of the GHA as possible from the glass etc. Next I put in 100 blue leg hermit crabs, and then added a refugium with different algae. Some where in all this I added a purple tang, like I said I'm not sure if any one helped more than the other or if it was the combination of all of them.

 

[kissman]

Hi all:
I give up. Ive posted before about my GHA problem. It began about 4 months ago, reached current level quickly and remains. I have replaced the bulbs in my Red Sea Max 130D (34 gal). I have pulled & scraped and cleaned. I have replace the RO / DI filters. I religiously change 5 gal Red Sea Pro salt water weekly. I have added an algae blenny. I am adding MG to raise levels, My chemistry readings are as follows: sg = 1.0225; mg = 1300; NO2 = 0.0; NO3 = 0.0; CA = 440; pH = 8.4 (evening) NH3 = 0.0; dKH = 6.5; PO 4 3 = 0.00; temp = heater/chiller maintained at 79F. No unusual events preceeded the proliferation of GHA. I give up. I'm considering raising GHA and having a few fish and corals along for the ride. HELP!

I was reading somewhere I think it was Julian Sprung's book on Algae and he was talking about low Alk helping to cause green hair algae. I had the problem along with water changes cleaning and raising my Alk to 9-11 dkh I no longer have hair algae

 

[tommydee]

hd12121, Here's my plan with progress, I'll tell you how it goes...thanks for letting me ride along this post with you.

Frequent water changes with major tank/glass cleaning(doing)

enhance clean up crew (done via large urchin and some hermits..the urchin is making a mess of the place with the looser LR, and knocked the Xenia out of place, but definitely putting a dent in the algae)

scrub LR w/ scrub brush (to do this weekend)

get Calc and Alk test, adjust Alk up (to do)

add flow beyond my HOB skimmer and power filter. (to do: any tips on powerhead for 29g?)

Anything I missed?

 

[kdirk]

Sea hare

 

[psyrob]

I had same issues...got a phosban reactor, running phosguard/carbon matrix combo, pulled out as much as I could, repeated pull out weekly, and the phosban reactor seems to have caught up to the problem, hair algae not coming back.....this has been about 6 weeks....

 

[fraggleRocks]

I had major hair algae issues in my tank that I just wasnt able to get rid of, over a 5 month period I have been able to drastically reduce it (and still going...) by adding an algae scrubber on to my current setup.

Anybody having algae issues and getting desperate should really look into it. You can DIY one easily, and if you have an extra pump laying around then the rest of the materials cost about $20 total. It also oxygenates the water and brings N and P down to zero eventually (N down to zero in 3 weeks, P is still dropping at 0.21) which is an awesome bonus and actually makes the hobby fun for me again. I dont have to worry about Biopellets or GFO anymore. I run carbon in a sock, and thats about it. I have a mixed reef with some SPS/LPS/ and softies.

 

[Dream2aReef]

I've tried many different "fixes" for my HA problem. Recently I read in another thread about a lot of people having luck using API Alage Fix Marine so, that's our next step. We don't like having to add chemicals into our tank if it isn't needed but everything else has failed. Good luck!

 

[srusso]

I've tried many different "fixes" for my HA problem. Recently I read in another thread about a lot of people having luck using API Alage Fix Marine so, that's our next step. We don't like having to add chemicals into our tank if it isn't needed but everything else has failed. Good luck!

Algae Fix should never be used, IMHO... Its horrible stuff... killing off algae in this manor is like chopping off your hand b/c you have a broken finger. In other words, the algae is a symptom no the problem. Imagine your tank as a huge pendulum, your goal is to have that pendulum swing as little as possible. Right now your tank is showing symptoms of algae b/c NO3 or PO4 are present. Why that is the case is your problem, and that is what needs to be fixed, not the algae... Using algae fix now would be to grab the pendulum and swing it as hard as you can... In fact the algae in your display tank maybe the only thing keeping your live stock alive right now.

Algae needs NO3 (Nitrate) and PO4 (Phosphate) to grow. Fish and Corals produce these as a by product/waste. If you have too much in the water your tank will start to grow algae everywhere. And if it didn't... your fish and coral wouldn't make it. Additionally the problem is perpetuated the longer these compounds are available in the water column, the more your live rock will absorb and will not release it again until the amount of NO3 and PO4 in the water column is lowered. At this time you will only algae only growing on your live rock until it uses all of the available "fuel"...

 

[srusso]

Also I more carefully read your post this time and you say that you have no NO3 and no PO4... how old are your tests?

 

[RVANANO]

Mine went away when I added a refugium to my setup.