I will get ph test done tomorrow but that’s exactly my problem I’m trying to get rid of a hair algae outbreak! Been using half dosage of vibrant once a week but also doing 10% water change weekly( with pinching and siphoning as much algae as possible. What a battle.
I know you would think I’ve been feeding too much but I grace been feeding once a day a small pinch just enough for each fish to eat.
Let me know if you have any ways to help.
Tank is 80 gallon 4” with two clowns/desjardins tang/baby hippo tang/ file fish and a newly added yellow tang in hopes to benefit the algae outbreak.
I run 2 hydra 32hd that were recently added ( algae was already there before this change.
Classic hob reef octopus skimmer for 100g
And a hydor 350 external filter.
I feel your pain - we've been dealing with green hair algae too. First war, used Vibrant, and it took about 3 months, but eventually we won
... or did we really win... maybe only 99.99% gone OR maybe reintroduced it on another frag, but went good number of months and then... is that? it IS... green hair algae back. That's when we realized its likely there forever and instead we needed a better plan than Vibrant forever as I didn't like growing macroalgae in another little tank to feed tangs.
It also was not feasible to go 'low nutrient' because starving fish is just wrong IMO. I did cut back on fish food some, but most say I still overfeed my 22 or so fish. Knowing food (and resulting fish waste/poo) would happen, we wanted better approach ideally without much dosing/effort during work week.
What has worked for us, includes:
- continued scrub, siphon and pull any green hair algae (now just weekly)
- dual chamber reactor running:
--- biopellets with BioDigest
--- brightwell NO4 cubes
- wooden blinds on southern facing door and windows
- main display tank white light only 5% with up to 10% at 2x day fish feeding times
- Red Sea NOPOX, as needed (lately maybe 10ml week, if at all)
- planted refugium in sump under tank running 24hour LED 5k spectrum 60w equivalent
--- caulpera
--- red dragon tongue also there, but SLOW grower and more for tang snack - may be moving that directly into main tank and let tangs nibble (red sea grape in main tank because it looks cool main tank glued to rock - fish ate/eat most all grapes off)
Just because above working for our tank, doesn't mean it will work for your tank. I continue to chant "I am smarter and more persistent than green hair algae" to keep moral up... I hated giving up my window view of our backyard, but sunlight I love is also fuel for that algae (I keep the blind up 3/4 of the way by my desk, and a wooden file cabinet blocks its sunlight from reaching other end of room where tank is located).
We originally had just one shorter reactor chamber with just biopellets and BioDigest, but both nitrates and phosphates needed lowered in our tank, so eventually we just paid the money for the dual chamber taller reactor. We also used MicroBactor 7 to help us get to stable point, but while we were using it a lot for a good while, these days we haven't needed to also add it.
More because we were having problems getting corals to grow thru all of this, but we got way more consistent with testing and testing more parameters (all on weekend and alk during week since corals uptake so much these days we've got to manually dose alk daily). Michael tried to bully me into doing it, but I was fine if we went FOWLR, so he eventually stepped up and began testing & logging of tests. He's much better about it all than I am (but he loves corals more than I do)
Based on my healthy, fat, continually reproducing bristleworms (part of CUC), likely I could cut further back on food, but some fish are absolute pigs while others are slow, and then my CBB still eats only live black worms. Getting the right food to the right fish is challenging given my diverse fish population in tank. I love my fish!
Keep at it. You'll get there. Most important is 1) removal (scrub, scrub, scrub & siphon) 2) eliminate algae fuel sources, 2A) white light (and/or green & red light, according to some), 2B) nitrates, and 2C) phosphates.
It's not an overnight process, and there were lots of frustrating moments (still are). We had algae kill/smother a few corals along the way (and we killed a few along the way...), but process really got us a lot better in a lot of ways (likely due to all the research).
You are also smarter than green hair algae. You can do it too!
