Beep'ing Green Hair Algae

spiritwalker · Dec 22, 2018

cooltowncorals said:
Sea hares only eat hair algae and need like insane amounts so don’t be afraid to return him if you stop growing it or loan him to a friend who has GHA.

Yep. Happy to return or gift him when the job is done.

brandon429 · Dec 22, 2018

Baddest algae cure work I've seen in a long time. I'll link this to many. I hope they catch the self will, the resolve portion, long before peroxide stands out to them

hotashes · Dec 22, 2018

Great work bud, I’m another peroxide fan. So good having an accessible scape, being able to remove the rock and attack with h2o2 in separates bucket and rinse off whilst basting/scrubbing (I prefer vaster as it blows rocks helping keep porosity). Not a fan of those who keep algae invading their tank and just wait it out. Neat work

A.

spiritwalker · Dec 22, 2018

The minute you notice you are starting to have a gha problem you have to attack it from every algle and pull every lever. I'm not out of the woods yet but can breathe a sigh of relief for the time being.

Justin Cook · Dec 22, 2018

Wish I would have kept the accessibility of all of my live rock in mind before I went to town with the spray foam. Getting at the larger bases pieces now would almost require a complete and total overhaul. Thankfully I've had luck carbon dosing. Thanks for posting your experience, I may give peroxide a shot if things ever get out of hand again. (At least with the rocks I can remove)

hart24601 · Dec 22, 2018

Once you get it knocked down I would add some pincushion or tuxedo urchins. I have found nothing that will get algae like urchins. Nothing is free though, you have to make sure corals are glued or otherwise secure, but I don't have a system without at least a couple tuxedos. Their beaks can get what no snail ever could although I still keep trochus for the glass.

spiritwalker · Dec 22, 2018

hart24601 said:
Once you get it knocked down I would add some pincushion or tuxedo urchins. I have found nothing that will get algae like urchins. Nothing is free though, you have to make sure corals are glued or otherwise secure, but I don't have a system without at least a couple tuxedos. Their beaks can get what no snail ever could although I still keep trochus for the glass.

Considered getting one last night. Too many little sps frags and although they are glued down they pop off pretty easy. I was concerned they would all be stick to the urchin. Dont the urchins eat coraline as well?

hart24601 · Dec 22, 2018

spiritwalker said:
Considered getting one last night. Too many little sps frags and although they are glued down they pop off pretty easy. I was concerned they would all be stick to the urchin. Dont the urchins eat coraline as well?

Yep they sometimes munch on it although not really enough to control coralline growth. I have not found tuxedos to be able to pull off glued frags personally, but I have a large turbo snail that is good about knocking them off. He lives in the fuge for the most part now!

From what I understand urchins are the main controller of algae on the reef, so makes sense having them in my systems.

I only use pincushion and tuxedo now, I saw rock boring eat coral once. I don't trust other species 100%.

spiritwalker · Dec 22, 2018

Water change will wait until tomorrow.

Ran nutrient tests.
NO3 16 ppm
PO4 0.01 ppm

Not bad considering I scrubbed a bunch of gha in the tank and found 12 dead turbos this week. Many which were fully decayed.

These dang colors never match on this kit.. LOL. This is the closest erring on the high side.

Frogger · Dec 22, 2018

My tuxedo doesn't touch the green hair algae, he only eats film and coraline algae.

hart24601 · Dec 23, 2018

Frogger said:
My tuxedo doesn't touch the green hair algae, he only eats film and coraline algae.

Surprised to hear especially about the film algae but I guess all living creatures can be different!

brandon429 · Dec 23, 2018

This thread is ultimate proof that all reef tank invasions are not a matter of biology but a matter of psychology for the aquarist. Growback is a matter of biology.

To entertain, to keep, to watch another day (name your justification) the waving tufts of algae covering a system when the option exists to reverse that condition, it's pictured here, is a selection made by the aquarist. They want to be invaded, until something internal convinces them to will the uninvaded condition into place.

I bet in future years or months authors will peer into this possibility. Seems crazy I'm aware heh but everyone who makes a choice to take a tank back, or prevent it from ever going, are demonstrating modes of -resolve- researching and applying the toughest chemistry and biology our hobby offers isn't required.

All actions and parameters designed to ward off invasion should be applied in the clean, uninvaded condition that an aquarist has actioned into place. De cloud and garden the aquarium until balances are attained such that you don't have to.

spiritwalker · Dec 23, 2018

Did a 25 gal water change today.

Here are a couple follow up pics of where I hit the GHA with boiling RODI. As you can see it has stripped the rock. I would say this is an effective treatment. Especially if you only needed to spot treat an area. Obviously, keep the hot water away from corals.

White spots on the left side of the plateau. Looks like some dead coraline.

Again, bright white spot.

brandon429 · Dec 23, 2018

I have not seen boiling on gha ever, how neat is that. Perfect taking back of territory

spiritwalker · Dec 23, 2018

So if my math is right, the water change would have brought my nitrates down to 13 ppm. Seems like I'm going to need greater nitrate export if I'm going to have a chance of getting ahead of this.

Frogger · Dec 24, 2018

I think I am going to try the boiling hot water, many of my affected rocks are not removable from the tank. I have effectively used a mix of kalkwasser and lye to spot treat areas, however I can only do small areas at a time and mostly have only been using the mix to control pocillopora that seems to want to grow everywhere.

I have some hair algae growth, as well as cyanos and have almost no phosphates and nitrate, actually I have to add phosphates (potassium phosphate) and nitrates (sodium nitrates) just to keep measurable amounts in the water the corals from being brown. I have never had nitrates above 1ppm in the tank and phosphates are well less than .03ppm.
I am in the process of removing all the sand from my aquarium. Don't need it. I will grow lower light corals over the bottom like WWC does.

I find my bristle tooth tang goes to town on the hair algae and turf algae after I have treated it with peroxide. The peroxide must partially break down the algae making it more palatable to the tang. Maybe the boiling water does the same thing.

spiritwalker · Dec 25, 2018

Merry Christmas...

Today's water test..

Temp 78*
Spec grav 1.026
PH 8.19
NO3 16 ppm
PO4 0.02 ppm
Alk 10.1 dKH
CA 480 ppm
MG 1580 ppm

Nitrate does not seem to be budging much despite the water change. I did test shortly after feeding a few corals with reef roids.

Need to find more aggressive nitrate reduction methods. Been researching nopox and carbon dosing.

Sea hair seems active at night only and works slower than I expected.

Here is a pic for fun.

Waynerock · Dec 25, 2018

Pulling for you man hope you get that lawn trimmed!! I tell you once I kept my MG over 1500 any hair I get is always brown and removes very easily from the rock. When I kept around 1350-1400 it was a nice green but was very hard to remove. Good luck