GHA..... UGH....

[Phil501]

Tank is now 7 months old... 72 gallon bow... With about 25 gal eshopps sump.... Rock is dried puking... Did not cure., really didn't know to do that. Running gfo/carbon. T5 lighting 8 hours.... SPS is growing by I can not get rid of this green hair alge... 5 emrald crabs, yellow tang, and two urchins are helping but can't keep up.... I feed every other day a cube.... I'm about to start 1ml a gallon peroxide dosing as a last resort because I can't shake this.... Any other hints to this?

 

[sbash]

I feel your pain. Are you measuring phosphate and nitrates at all? How often do you do water changes? Can you get any sea slugs locally or online?

I hate to say it, but your best bet is to remove it by hand. The stuff on the sand, you should be able to vacuum it out. But with the stuff on the rocks, you should be able to pull it off. Any rocks without anything growing on them, you could pull them and scrub them.

I had a 65 gallon get pretty bad once (about 6 months after the initial cycle), I pulled all the rocks out one by one and scrubbed them down. You can do this with a coarse brush and a couple buckets of salt water (you want to scrub in the water and rinse).

To really get aggressive, cut down your lighting schedule, double or triple up your water changes, feed less and scrub everything at first sight.

 

[cmcoker]

Do this http://melevsreef.com/node/700

I have been battling the same, I'm finally starting to get it under control. I have done some peroxide dosing, I shutoff the pumps and applied it directly to a patch under water, and wait 10 minute to restart the pumps.

I also have used a siphon tune into a felt sock an sucked the algae out that way, as it starts dying it will release pretty good that way.

With the pukani, you will probably need to do some phosphate remover, like GFO.

 

[ngvu1]

I have a yellow tang and it nips all the hairy algae. Maybe your tank is 1 of the best candidates for an Algae turf scrubber. There are at least 2 sponsors here selling that. Maybe you present your case and they will help out as if it works for you, your tank will be a great advertising tool ;-)
http://reef2reef.com/threads/introducing-the-new-turbo-algae-scrubber-rev-4.212728/
http://reef2reef.com/threads/waiting-list-for-the-new-199-waterfall-scrubber.234096/

 

[Phil501]

I have been removing by hand a section every weekend and watch, and it slowly comes back. I do run GFO and change about every three weeks. Peroxide then vodka will be my last resort before I just take all the rock out. Oh and my pho is reading 0, that's because the algae is sucking it up before it can be read by read sea test kit...on and I only use RO/DI water....was just posting here for more ideas

 

[mrcoffee2]

Maybe take a look at vitamin c dosing. I dosed it because I wanted healthier zoas, but I was amazed what it did to the little GHA I had after 5 days... It was pretty mind blowing. Also zoas I thought surely were going to die came back better than ever...

 

[7FootReefer]

I would look into getting a sea hare. They are not much to look at, but all they eat is green hair algae. They do a great job of taking care of all the algae in a pretty fast pace. While he is in there mowing through it, keep an eye on the phosphates they will start to rise as the algae gets depleted and the algae will then come back again if they are not kept under control. Throw a sea hare in there for a few weeks, he will take care of the algae and when he is done eating the algae return him to the store or find him a new home, otherwise he will starve.

 

[Phil501]

I tried a sea hare....he was pretty big size when I got him....he seemed to go around it...I even placed him on patches and would go right on by...noticed he was shrinking so I was going to take him out and back to the fish store and could not find him, he was in the rocks...never to be seen again...Now i'm afraid the emrald crabs would get him