The battle with Green Hair Algae

Man, I can remember when I went through this myself, it SUCKS!

I really like the ideas of turning down or off the red LEDs and increasing the amounts of water changes.
 
Update: Last night I went home with a list of things to do from all your recommendations.

  1. Eliminate the red LEDs - Done (This may sounds stupid, but I think this is the issue, I just noticed that this GHA grows first and stronger right under the spot where the red LEDs are. Just sharing.)
  2. Reduce the light cycle to 6 hours - Reefkeerper reprogrammed
  3. Reduce the light intensity to 25% - Done, but to about 35% since it looked way too dark at 25%)
  4. Increase skimmer "wetness" - Done (The cup was at 50% already this morning)
  5. 20% water change - Done
  6. Started Dosing Vodka - Done :beer: (For the tank and for me too after all this work)
  7. Remove foam filter in the sump - Done
  8. Clean out the filter sock daily - Done and will continue doing this
  9. Pray to the reef Gods to get this out of my tank quick before I lose all my remaining hair(I'm not talking about green hair algae :hmm5:) - Done twice for good measure


This is the picture as of today of one of the rocks.
IMG_20141014_181610.jpg


This is the skimmer this morning. Looks like it is doing a better job.
IMG_20141028_181913.jpg


This is the CPR Media Tumbler, just for sharing.
IMG_20141028_181901.jpg
 
Make sure you keep a close eye on your salinity...Skimming wet will decrease it.....Think about adding a little saltwater to your ATO....Other then that, looks like your on the right track....Good Luck....
 
No surprise the algae scrubber got little support outside the people that actually use one. It's baffling to me.
 
Easttuth said:
No surprise the algae scrubber got little support outside the people that actually use one. It's baffling to me.
Click to expand...

Oh no dude. I haven't done this one yet because I have to build it first, but I will install it.

I just took the simple and fast items from all the suggestions first and next will be the scrubber. I actually plan on going to Home Depot over lunch today to get the stuff I need and start building it. I was thinking of doing something like the one on the link below.

Size wise, I can only go with a screen size of 7" wide by 10" long. As far as the light, I was thinking of making one out of the red LEDs I removed from my light and maybe add some white ones too. Hopefully, this will be good enough.

28h1oxe.jpg
 
That will be perfect and bigger then you need. Just make sure you get the light very close to the screen. Go to a fabric store to get the screen it cost about .67$ for what you need and then rough it up a lot. It needs to be really rough for the algae to hold on to it. If you can light it from both sides. if you cant then dont worry about it but try to get the whole screen lite. Red LEDs work great. I am using red LEDs on one and CFL on the other. Both are working great.
 
So I am having this same problem but I think it's green macro algae. I posted some pics above. Should I follow these same guidelines?
 
I haven't read the whole thread so I don't know if anyone has suggested this yet. acclimating black mollies to your tank may help they eat algae pretty aggressively.
 
ReefPiolot Thats same hair algae. If you do the same as webmanny you will beet it too. I have no doubt if webmany does all of the things suggested he will beet it and it wont come back. To be honest I have not seen someone try as hard as webmanny is. He takes great direction LOL. But I understand how frustrating it is. You feel like your doing everything right and yet its not going away.
 
Reefpilot11 said:
So I am having this same problem but I think it's green macro algae. I posted some pics above. Should I follow these same guidelines?
Click to expand...

Hey Reefpilot,

To me, it looks like what you have is very similar to what I see in my tank. The only difference is that I can't pull mine out in chunks like you showed in your pictures above.

The algae on my tank, essentially disintegrates and it becomes just green dark water. I noticed this when I emptied the tank and scrubbed all the rocks. At the end of the process, I just had a bucket full of green liquid and very little solid algae.

Having said that, I would give these suggestions a try. I just started yesterday, so I can't say what, if anything, will work, but at least I got a few more items from the team to try and I will come back to this thread with a weekly update to the pictures above.

Good luck man. I'm sorry you are going through this also, but at least knowing you are not alone in the battle, makes it a bit less frustrating.
 
sirrealism said:
That will be perfect and bigger then you need. Just make sure you get the light very close to the screen. Go to a fabric store to get the screen it cost about .67$ for what you need and then rough it up a lot. It needs to be really rough for the algae to hold on to it. If you can light it from both sides. if you cant then dont worry about it but try to get the whole screen lite. Red LEDs work great. I am using red LEDs on one and CFL on the other. Both are working great.
Click to expand...

Awesome suggestion. I just got back from Home Depot with all the PVC, glue and some hoses, but didn't find the mesh thing. Of course, no respectable handyman does knitting. Therefore, they don't sell this. :lolspin:

I will stop at the fabric store on the way home and try to get some of this stuff. I also have to start putting together the LED setup, which may be over the weekend. I will upload some pictures once all is done.

Thanks for the suggestion.
 
ed102475 said:
I haven't read the whole thread so I don't know if anyone has suggested this yet. acclimating black mollies to your tank may help they eat algae pretty aggressively.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the suggestion. In all honesty, I will try the removal of nutrients first and if after a few months I don't get positive results, I may give this a try.
 
Webmanny said:
Hey Reefpilot,

To me, it looks like what you have is very similar to what I see in my tank. The only difference is that I can't pull mine out in chunks like you showed in your pictures above.

The algae on my tank, essentially disintegrates and it becomes just green dark water. I noticed this when I emptied the tank and scrubbed all the rocks. At the end of the process, I just had a bucket full of green liquid and very little solid algae.

Having said that, I would give these suggestions a try. I just started yesterday, so I can't say what, if anything, will work, but at least I got a few more items from the team to try and I will come back to this thread with a weekly update to the pictures above.

Good luck man. I'm sorry you are going through this also, but at least knowing you are not alone in the battle, makes it a bit less frustrating.
Click to expand...

The stuff I pulled out in a big chunk is from my overflow. That stuff I'm not as worried about because it's just growing in there eating up nitrates.
 
Turk scrubbers are great but in the grand scheme of battling ur algae in ur size tank... It's like tredding water. I use one myself from time to time but it takes some time for it to start producing and exporting nutrients to the levels u need or want. If u do make the turf scrubber make sure u rough up the needle point screen up very well for it to actually start growing and a valve on the down stream. The turf scrubber requires the right flow for it to be able to produce sizeable algae clumps instead of a weak film of Nast. I didn't see what u used for flow control on the tank? 'Blowing off rock' is a sure sign of inadequate flow and can stall any solutions to ur algae problems. I hope this helps and we have all been there and there are a variety or combination of solutions that works for some but once I tried hydrogen peroxide I've never had problems managing it, Goodluck
 
I had really bad gha in my 30 gallon i had the algae growing to 2 or 3 inches long , all i did was water changes weekly cut my lights back a couple hours and made sure to vaccum gravel it went away within 2 or 3 weeks and then right adter that i got cyano lol
 
spoofer said:
Turk scrubbers are great but in the grand scheme of battling ur algae in ur size tank... It's like tredding water. I use one myself from time to time but it takes some time for it to start producing and exporting nutrients to the levels u need or want. If u do make the turf scrubber make sure u rough up the needle point screen up very well for it to actually start growing and a valve on the down stream. The turf scrubber requires the right flow for it to be able to produce sizeable algae clumps instead of a weak film of Nast. I didn't see what u used for flow control on the tank? 'Blowing off rock' is a sure sign of inadequate flow and can stall any solutions to ur algae problems. I hope this helps and we have all been there and there are a variety or combination of solutions that works for some but once I tried hydrogen peroxide I've never had problems managing it, Goodluck
Click to expand...


I believe the turf scrubber type you are referring to is a waterfall design...the upflow turf/algae scrubber works with a air stone instead of relying on water flow...and while yes it does take a few weeks to get up and growing it would be far better than relying on nutrient reduction alone IME
 
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