What is the best way aside from shutting lights off for a week to get rid of the green hair alge. I have a terrible outbreak and its driving me nuts!! I have even considered just getting rid of the probmatic rock, becuase it has come back a couple times now. Any help would be greatly appreciated. fyi tank is a 55 with just 1 400 w 20k MH...runs for about 10 hrs before the problem............ has been running good for about two years, but over that last few months this stuff has gotten out of control........thanks...:mad2:
nuisance green hair alge
- Thread starter JOHNNIE
- Start date
coralfarmer84
In Memoriam
your best bet is to take it out and scrub it with a toothbrush really really well. It shouldn't come back after that. Trust me thats the ONLY way. I've been there.
Bandsaw
New member
GHA needs nutients to feed on. Give it all the light you want. No nutrients - no GHA. You may have a bush here or there, but that is just part of the system.
Find out where your nutients are comming from. I've been down the road. I had to find my nutrient source. Found it in the salt mix I was using.
Find out where your nutients are comming from. I've been down the road. I had to find my nutrient source. Found it in the salt mix I was using.
hookdonreefs
New member
Turbo snails work great. When my tank was new every rock was covered with that stuff. I put five turbos and in 2 days they cleaned 40 lbs of rock spotless it never came back
finneganswake
In Memoriam
Nobody likes to hear this, but algae issues almost always boil down to room for better husbandry. Better skimmer, less feeding, more water changes, replace bulbs on time, run carbon, etc. Trust me, if you can find out what caused this algae bloom, you'll be a much better reefer. Good luck 
I'm just tagging along. I'm going through the same problem. Everything I test is good but the stuff will not go away. I had cyno about a year ago and I added some chemi-clean and it went away in 3 days and never came back. I wish there was a product that would do the same thing with GHA.
Bandsaw
New member
JOHNNIE, Please don't get discouraged. I don't know a reefer yet who has not had the pleasure of dealing with an algae outbreak of some kind. I know of some reefers who let the HA grow on the back of their tanks. It's a bit of a compromise, grow on the back and leave my rocks alone.
I am in the middle of the battle myself. Have been for about 3 months. Just two weeks ago, my HA was in deep decline, I figured I had it beat and in 2 months it would all gone. Then suddenly it came back with a vengeance.
The trick is to find out what is fueling the HA. For myself, I am looking at two possible sources as I am seeing a pattern of high and lows with my algae and they are related to either my brand of salt or my RO/DI holding tank is leaching something. I went out and got a TDS meter and tested my RO. It tested at 5 (expected here, the water going in has a TDS beyond the RO Units specs). Over a weekââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s time, the TDS of the water in the holding tank went up to 40. So either my RO water is becoming contaminated or the plastic tub is leaching something.
I may have some contaminated salt mix. Either way, my HA comes alive with growth when I do a water change.
As ugly as it looks, I am letting mine grow as opposed to picking it out. Any of my rocks that have good coralline growth is unaffected. I figure the more I let it grow, the sooner it will use up the nutrients in the water.
There are other sources that the HA may be drawing from. Your Live Rock may have had a natural build up of fuel. If that is the case, you are going to have to let the HA grow until all that fuel is depleted.
Just stay with it. It is depressing. There are days that I look at mine and just shrug. Especially this past two weeks when I thought I had it beat.
Good house keeping, feed to a minimum (mine get feed only every other day - sometimes every three days) - good skimming - and find those nutrients - and don't give up!
I am in the middle of the battle myself. Have been for about 3 months. Just two weeks ago, my HA was in deep decline, I figured I had it beat and in 2 months it would all gone. Then suddenly it came back with a vengeance.
The trick is to find out what is fueling the HA. For myself, I am looking at two possible sources as I am seeing a pattern of high and lows with my algae and they are related to either my brand of salt or my RO/DI holding tank is leaching something. I went out and got a TDS meter and tested my RO. It tested at 5 (expected here, the water going in has a TDS beyond the RO Units specs). Over a weekââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s time, the TDS of the water in the holding tank went up to 40. So either my RO water is becoming contaminated or the plastic tub is leaching something.
I may have some contaminated salt mix. Either way, my HA comes alive with growth when I do a water change.
As ugly as it looks, I am letting mine grow as opposed to picking it out. Any of my rocks that have good coralline growth is unaffected. I figure the more I let it grow, the sooner it will use up the nutrients in the water.
There are other sources that the HA may be drawing from. Your Live Rock may have had a natural build up of fuel. If that is the case, you are going to have to let the HA grow until all that fuel is depleted.
Just stay with it. It is depressing. There are days that I look at mine and just shrug. Especially this past two weeks when I thought I had it beat.
Good house keeping, feed to a minimum (mine get feed only every other day - sometimes every three days) - good skimming - and find those nutrients - and don't give up!
I forgot who the member was but he strongly advocated the process of "cooking" your live rock in order to combat GHA.
If you're interested in learning more, maybe this link can help you:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=437342
If you're interested in learning more, maybe this link can help you:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=437342
alphaferret
Pitcher Hill Reef Society
do you use ro/di- you should and make sure its had a filter change of late
water changes
what salt mix has extra nutrients in it- that ain't cool!
water changes
what salt mix has extra nutrients in it- that ain't cool!
Bandsaw
New member
alphaferret, I'm not sold on the idea yet that my Instant Ocean is the cause. Yet I have read enough bad press in other threads to make me suspeciouis.
I suspect more my RO/DI water tank is to blame. I've switched back to using 16L pails (Food grade pairs - had kanola oil in them) to see if things improve.
As for JOHNNIE, I don't know if he uses RO/DI or not. I do. Last filter changes just before Christmas.
I suspect more my RO/DI water tank is to blame. I've switched back to using 16L pails (Food grade pairs - had kanola oil in them) to see if things improve.
As for JOHNNIE, I don't know if he uses RO/DI or not. I do. Last filter changes just before Christmas.
raddogz
Premium Member
The buckets sometimes will leach stuff back into the water. Even the Rubbermaid Brute trashcans will leach a little back into the water. I use the 5g lfs water containers to hold the ro/do water for topoff and for waterchanges. It always test at zero.
Sometimes an open water container food grade or the simple hd buckets will start leaching stuff back into the water. Put those lids on to keep stuff from getting into the water.
gman0526
New member
What is normal? What kind of fishes are in the tank? How big? How much LR? Did you cure the rock in the tank with the sandbed in place? Are you using RO/DI water or tap?
I see somebody proposed "cooking" the rock, but b4 you even consider going that route you need to figure out why the algae outbreak started. I do believe "cooking" is an option and that it works great, but not b4 you find out why you have an outbreak in the tank. Fix the root of the problem first.
im dealing with this problem as well in my 120 fowlr.i got serious about getting my phosphates and nitrates down to a decent level.and took one rock out at a time ,in a 5 gallon bucket of my tank water,and used a good size brush and scrubbed them.then rinsed them off in some freshwater and put them back in the tank.
its been around 3 days now and i havent seen any yet.not to mention my rocks look sparkling clean.its about 180 lbs of rock.it took me awhile but well worth the effort.now im not saying that it wont come back,nothing surprises me in this hobby anymore.good luck.
its been around 3 days now and i havent seen any yet.not to mention my rocks look sparkling clean.its about 180 lbs of rock.it took me awhile but well worth the effort.now im not saying that it wont come back,nothing surprises me in this hobby anymore.good luck.
