Green Hair Algae

[asl4me76]

I have the nuisance in my tank. I know a lot of it is still the 'maturing' tank syndrome going on; however, it's ugly.

I have been trying to prune it back manually; however, it's exhausting. I do have some turbo snails in there and they're doing a bang up job on the glass; along with the astrea snails.

However, my yellow tang and foxface haven't touch it. I have over the course of time fed Nori daily for them. However; they don't seem to graze the rock at all.

I am wanting to try to get them to start grazing this nuisance away. Does anyone have any idea of how to get them to start eatting the stuff?

I know that everyone is gonna ask me what my nitrates and phosphates are at; however, I don't have them on me at the moment as I'm not at home. I will run a fresh set of tests tomorrow and post them for ideas as well.

Thanks!

 

[sanababit]

a sea slug, works wonders and when hes done pass it along or take it back to store for credit cause they only eat hair algae

sana

 

[THE ROOK]

Are Nudibranch's the sea slug your referring to? I'm in the same boat.

 

[reefworm]

here's some advice from one of the gurus:
http://www.melevsreef.com/gha.html

 

[strendo]

I had a problem with it too and used Kent Mag supliment. Theres a bunch of threads on it, worked great for me

 

[ctenophors rule]

i dont think that their are any nudibranchs that will eat algae, unless you are talking about sybiodinium zooxanthellae. lol

but sea hares are pretty good, just make sure your flow wont be too strong, and that your pump intakes are realy well sealed, like with a sponge cover.

if you dont have any corals you could try turning the light off for a few days, and then lowering the time they are on.

i find that algae can only grom when they have nutrients, no matter how much light you have, they still need those essental phosphates and nitrate, and others to grow.( law of the minimum) so if you limit your nutrients to undetectable levels, you will be fine.

good luck

 

[tsprice82]

+1 on treating with Kent Mag supplement. It is pretty inexpensive too.

 

[bohlke]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14719205#post14719205 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tsprice82
+1 on treating with Kent Mag supplement. It is pretty inexpensive too.

It depends if it is bryopsis or GHA, Kent Mag works great on bryopsis but not so great on GHA. I removed all my rock and re-cured it, that was the only way I found to remove it.

 

[THE ROOK]

I bought a sea hare from LFS this afternoon. It's going right after the GHA. Hopefully it'll eat it all before getting sucked into a Koralia. lol

 

[Mopar Reefer]

Add a phosphate reactor it did wonders for battling my GHA

 

[bubbly]

I got rid of mine using carbon / vsv dosing.

Just go super slow and be super careful so you don't overdose. If you start off with tiny amounts and very gradually ramp up, you can slowly get rid of all your extra nutrients in a very gradual and safe way.

It really works excellently -- it starts the bacteria growing, which uses up all the extra nutrients, which then get skimmed out, and has the effect of basically doubling your skimmer power.

Every time I have have had GHA / bubble algae etc. start to grow, carbon dosing knocks it cold -- I see the gha start to turn white and die off, and the tank looks beautiful again.

 

[sanababit]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14714770#post14714770 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sanababit
a sea slug, works wonders and when hes done pass it along or take it back to store for credit cause they only eat hair algae

sana

oops sorry i meant a sea hare, darn beer....

sana

 

[THE ROOK]

bubbly - What is "carbon / vsv dosing"?

 

[asl4me76]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14721830#post14721830 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by THE ROOK
bubbly - What is "carbon / vsv dosing"?

I get the carbon, but what the heck is vsv dosing?

 

[bubbly]

vsv is just another name for carbon dosing

vsv = vodka, sugar, vinegar

 

[asl4me76]

I've read various different things on vodka dosing. I heard it makes a tank look great, brightens the colors of the corals, along with eliminating the nitrates and phosphates.

I had a friend of mine come over and he brought his salifert test kit and it was reading high on the test kit for my nitrates. They're not super high, but they're high. They're at like 50 on that particular test kit.

My question is, does vodka do what they say it does? I'd be worried that it would crash the tank if it is done wrong, which of course I would do my homework for it to make sure before ever putting it in my tank.

I did some pulling of algae off today. It's not bryposis algae thank god, but still annoying none the less.

I did order a TLF Phosban 150 reactor along with some Phosban for the phosphates. However, I still have the nitrate issue, what's another method to rid of nitrates aside from vodka dosing?

Thanks

 

[bohlke]

I used the DSB in a bucket approach to take my nitrates from 5-10ppm to zero, its simple, safe, and cheap. You can see it here .

 

[THE ROOK]

The sea hare I purchased for $20.00 just mowed down the hair algea within 3-4 days. It's amazing.

I picked up some dried food, algea sheets. Hopefully I can keep him alive.