Need some advice (Algae Issue).

[Cyzax]

So my 220g has been pretty much problem free for the past year, but am now experiencing a major outbreak of green hair algae.

I had a lot of renovation going on in my home and I missed two water changes, which is a whole month for me. I'm wondering if all the dust and the lack of water changes brought this on.

Nitrates are pretty much unreadable and the only time the Phosphates were higher than 0 was when I couldnt do the water change for that month.

Things I've tried:

Cut down on feeding. I feed about a cube of mysis daily and its consumed rather quickly. I was feeding two large cubes twice a day.

20% water change every 4 days for the past month sucking out as much as I can.

Started using the powerhead to blow the algae off the rock, but that probably isn't the best of ideas.

My RO/DI filters were bad and I didnt realize it, so I was using poor quality water for awhile. That was adjusted last month and the issue appears to be getting worse still

Replacing GFO in the reactor monthly.

Beefed up the Clean Up Crew, including 10 turbo snails.

Bought a Sea Hare. He seems to not care about the algae as he was dying until I started feeding him sheets of nori.


My livestock include:

CopperBand Butterfly
Leopard Wrasse
Mocha Clown
Blonde Naso Tang
Purple Tang
Hawaiian Wrasse
Blue Spotted Jaw
Melanarus Wrasse
CheckerBoard Wrasse
Barlett Anthias


I understand that nothing happens quick in this hobby, but after what I've done, I expected things to get better and not worse. Any advice would be welcomed.


I've included some pictures to better describe the issue (sorry for the quality):

 

[johanasu]

Kinda hard to say about all of it, but a lot of that looks like cyanobacteria to me. The recommended solutions for that (red slime algae that is actually photosynthetic bacteria) is to black out the tank for three days. Or suck out as much as possible with a siphon tube and then treat with Chemiclean. Once all of the cyano is out of the way we can see the green hair algae better if there is much left.

 

[Cyzax]

In person it doesn't look red at all, but this is coming from a color-blind person. Not to say that isn't what some of it is as I haven't seen GHA bubble like that.

Also helps if I read all of the topics here as another thread talks about GHA and algaefix possibly helping.

Thank you for the advice, Johanasu.

 

[tcamos]

I agree that it looks like cyano.

If it were my tank I would get rid of all 10 turbo snails. They don't help, but they do add to the bioload.

I would also get rid of the GFO. This is a case where a little P might not be so bad in that it can promote the growth of micro algae that can compete with the cyano. It's something I learned from doing planted tanks that has an application in reef tanks that sometimes when a nutrient is lowed (in planted tanks it's usually Co2 that is the issue) then certain algae (or bacteria) can then exploit the niche because they require either lower levels of the nutrient or do well on a different nutrient (in this case cyano love nitrate). There is also the issue with how reactors hold detritus and can themselves create nitrate. I've found this seems to happen in my tank even when I clean them. I have the SpectraPure duel reactor and I recently just shut it off due to water quality issues and the tank got better pretty fast afterward.

What jonanasu wrote above sounds like a plan that would work. I would give the above a try first just to see if removing the snails and the GFO shows an improvement before using the Chemiclean but if not then the Chemiclean is a proven method.

 

[Vanpire]

I agree that it is probably not green hair algae. I would suck out as much of the algae as you can and then a 3 day black out..