Green Algae help!!

[Scubaguy10]

My 55 gallon is about 3 months old and I just got past the brown algae phase a few weeks ago and now I’m battling green algae. My CUC is snail only due to my tank being more aggressive and so I need some advice on getting the green hair algae down. The snails are doing ok on keeping the rocks relatively clean but the substrate is a mess and the water is tinted green. I have done water changes and have been trying Vibrant for a few weeks now but it doesn’t seem to be helping very much. I have an urchin, cucumber and banded coral shrimp as well. Any advice on things to add to my CUC or chemical to use? Thanks everyone!

 

[T-J]

What are your phosphates (all parameters if possible)? Also, what is your lighting and schedule? Vibrant can work, but it can take up to 9 weeks.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Might want to run a uv sterilizer. Can you post some pictures?

 

[Scubaguy10]

What are your phosphates (all parameters if possible)? Also, what is your lighting and schedule? Vibrant can work, but it can take up to 9 weeks.

I’m not sure what my parameters are other than my salinity is at 1.026 and ammonia and nitrate is reading at almost 0. I need to get a new test kit for phosphate. Here are some photos. My light schedule is white and blue from 0700 to 1800 and then blue only from 1800 until about 0200 then off from 0200 to 0700 it is the timer that was preset on the lights.

 

[T-J]

First off, get some test kits. Next, that light schedule is pretty long. Cutting the lighting will help. Also, that really isn't a lot of algae, especially for a new tank. I'd get a turbo snail in there. Based on how white everything looks, I'm guessing you're still going through the "ugly stage".
Is your light one of the black boxes, or is the type that come with a tank?
Also, on a personal note, make sure you keep that GSP segregated from the rest of your tank. Otherwise you'll have a GSP tank I see it's on a single rock. If you move the rock so it's not touching any other rocks, you'll keep it from spreading everywhere.

 

[1ByLand2BySea]

I favor natural course of action first prior to do any chemical treatment. UV sterilizer is very effective in treating green water. If you have the option of adding Dwarf Hermit Crabs and even Emerald crabs, they do a better job on hair algae.
But above all and as its mentioned above you have to know what your parameters are and keep them within range.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I pictured worse, This is not that bad. You can scrub in place with a firm toothbrush or simply add 4 each of the following snails:

Turbo
astrea
Nassarius
Nerite

and about 6 blue leg hermit crabs who will keep tank clean. Also reduce white light intensity a little

 

[01xp]

It's not that bad. This was pretty bad

 

[Scubaguy10]

First off, get some test kits. Next, that light schedule is pretty long. Cutting the lighting will help. Also, that really isn't a lot of algae, especially for a new tank. I'd get a turbo snail in there. Based on how white everything looks, I'm guessing you're still going through the "ugly stage".
Is your light one of the black boxes, or is the type that come with a tank?
Also, on a personal note, make sure you keep that GSP segregated from the rest of your tank. Otherwise you'll have a GSP tank I see it's on a single rock. If you move the rock so it's not touching any other rocks, you'll keep it from spreading everywhere.

Update: I tested the phosphate and it is reading as 0ppm with an API test kit. I use two orbit marine ic lights with the loop system.

 

[SDK]

I pictured worse, This is not that bad. You can scrub in place with a firm toothbrush or simply add 4 each of the following snails:

Turbo
astrea
Nassarius
Nerite

and about 6 blue leg hermit crabs who will keep tank clean. Also reduce white light intensity a little

I would agree with this. Slowly increase CUC and manually remove what you can...

Also, just be patient. A three month old tank that appears to have been started with all dry rock is still months away from fully stabilizing. If you have not added any photosynthetic corals yet, cut the lighting back and slowly ramp it back up over the next 60 days.

If it was my tank, the first thing I would do is get some Gulf rock rubble and live sand in there. Both to seed the dry rock and increase biodiversity, but to each his own if you want to stay with the sterile method of doing it...

 

[T-J]

Update: I tested the phosphate and it is reading as 0ppm with an API test kit. I use two orbit marine ic lights with the loop system.

API phosphate test kits are known to not be very accurate. I use a Hannah phosphate reader. My other kits always showed zero, the Hannah gives you a much better result.
I agree with the post above mine, reduce lights, let it continue to cycle for another few months.