Green Hair Algae and Feeding Schedule

[tdyrkacz]

My 93 gallon cube is now a little more than 2 months old. I cured the rock for approximately 2 months before starting the tank.

Right now I see some hair algae starting to grow in my tank. My Phosphates and Nitrates are at 0, but this could just be because the algae is using it up. My clean up crew does not appear to touch the GHA.

My question is about running GFO and feeding. I want to make sure I am not over feeding.
I have 2 clowns in the tank and soon will have a yellow tang. Right now I feed once a day. I give them half a cube of frozen food. Once a week I also feed the few corals I have with a little coral frenzy. Is this too much? Too often?

I run GFO for about 6 hours a day. Should I just run GFO all the time?

 

[twilliard]

Can you pull the rock out with the gha?
Hit it with peroxide and watch your po4

 

[tdyrkacz]

Unfortunately there is no way for me to take the rock out as it is cemented to the base rock.

 

[twilliard]

Unfortunately there is no way for me to take the rock out as it is cemented to the base rock.

Manual removal is best then while you can. It will grow out of control if left alone.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Run the GFO all the time. Sounds like your exhausting it quickly and not getting it out fast enough before the phosphate goes back up. What test kit are you using for the phosphates?

 

[tdyrkacz]

I am using Hanna Checker. It shows I have 0 phosphates. How often should I be changing it? When I see phosphates go up?

 

[tdyrkacz]

Manual removal is best then while you can. It will grow out of control if left alone.

How do I do this? I read somewhere to use a toothbrush, but how do I then prevent the algae from flowing all over the tank and just settling elsewhere?

 

[twilliard]

A siphon tube and pluck it off on your next water change

 

[dangros]

Adding to what @twilliard said: I did it as part of a water change. I had the wife hold the siphon hose on the water bucket side. As I scraped the alf off the glass and rocks, I would tell her to unplug the siphon as I sucked up any alg that came loose. This helped minimize the amount of hair that ended floating around and back in the water. I have to say, it worked well. After some time, I also swapped out the filter sock and made sure I put in new GFO - which I ran 24/7 till it was mostly gone. My hanna checker also read 0 once the GFO was in.

 

[Lenny_S]

GHA is triggered much more so from nitrates than phosphate. Try vodka dosing to help the bacteria consume the nitrate with a carbon source. And like others have said, remove as much as you can. Bio pellet reactors work great but take a while to start up and dial in.

 

[tdyrkacz]

I am using the API test kit to test nitrates and they are undetectable. Is this kit a good way to test or do I need to use something else?

 

[WindeyD]

I would feed 1/4 cube rinsed frozen food 5x per week. What kind of lightning do you have and how long are they on? What are your other parameters? Here is my thread; hope it helps!
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/gha-gonzo.214522/

 

[tdyrkacz]

I run Acan LEDs. I run them from 7 am until 11 pm, but the first 2 and last 2 hours are just moon lights or moon lights and a little blue lights.

Calcium is about 380, alk is about 7. I keep salinity at 1.025

I have not tested magnesium. So far I do not does anything, but it sounds like i may need to dose alk. Thanks for the thread. Gives me hope.,

 

[Lenny_S]

I am using the API test kit to test nitrates and they are undetectable. Is this kit a good way to test or do I need to use something else?

Undetectable phosphate made some sense since you were running GFO, but undetectable nitrates doesn't if you aren't already managing it somehow.

I run Acan LEDs. I run them from 7 am until 11 pm, but the first 2 and last 2 hours are just moon lights or moon lights and a little blue lights.

Calcium is about 380, alk is about 7. I keep salinity at 1.025

I have not tested magnesium. So far I do not does anything, but it sounds like i may need to dose alk. Thanks for the thread. Gives me hope.,

That is too long a photo period... Try cutting that back to only about 5 hours of full intensity light. (Maybe less until the GHA is under control)
A magnesium imbalance can also exasperated a GHA problem, I think you are on the right track with testing and perhaps adjusting it.

 

[tdyrkacz]

Undetectable phosphate made some sense since you were running GFO, but undetectable nitrates doesn't if you aren't already managing it somehow.



That is too long a photo period... Try cutting that back to only about 5 hours of full intensity light. (Maybe less until the GHA is under control)
A magnesium imbalance can also exasperated a GHA problem, I think you are on the right track with testing and perhaps adjusting it.

Thanks. I will post my exact LED schedule tonight, but I actually only run the LEDs at 50% strength from about 11 am until 4pm. All other times it is less than 50% with the first 2 and last 2 hours being only moonlights. I do have a fuge where I grow chaeto and I run a skimmer although still trying to dial it in. I run filter socks as well which I change every 3 days. My livestock is pretty low. With all that do you still think I should see some nitrates?

 

[Lenny_S]

With a fuge and macro algae it should take up some nitrate, but they don't typically take up all of it. Perhaps an independent test would be able to confirm your results. If you have a reliable and knowledgeable LFS nearby I would take them a water sample and have them run the full gambit (NO, PO, Ca, Alk, Mg). See if they come up with the same result.
There are a lot of reasons GHA gets out of control, the trick is to keep narrowing down to a cause for your case. It's just been my experience that excess nutrients is most often the cause, but it is certainly not the only one.... It's just a good place to start.

 

[tdyrkacz]

Okay here is my light schedule. I would appreciate it if you could help me adjust it.

7am - 9am White 0%, Blue 0%, Moon lights at 20%
9am - 10am White 0%, Blue 10% Moon lights at 20%
10am - 11am White 30%, Blue 30%, Moon 10%
11am - 3pm White 50% Blue Blue 60% moon 10%
3pm - 6pm White 30%, Blue 50% moon 10%
6pm - 9pm White 10%, Blue 50%, moon 10%
9pm - 11 pm White 0%, Blue 0%, moon 100%

Thanks for all your help.

 

[Lenny_S]

That light schedule doesn't seem overly high broken down like that. I don't think that's the real problem. I'd keep looking at the water.

 

[Reab]

I am using Hanna Checker. It shows I have 0 phosphates. How often should I be changing it? When I see phosphates go up?

It is possible that the rock you are using is still leaching some phosphate, along with the excess food that is not being consumed, the GHA could be consuming the phosphate as it is produced, leaving you with a reading of 0.

GHA is triggered much more so from nitrates than phosphate. Try vodka dosing to help the bacteria consume the nitrate with a carbon source. And like others have said, remove as much as you can. Bio pellet reactors work great but take a while to start up and dial in.

As I have stated before with vodka dosing, do your research and be careful with it. I personally dosed red seas no3po4x and had amazing results.

If all else fails, invest in a lawnmower blenny, you wont see GHA ever again

 

[Harold Green]

It'll take more than a lawnmower blenny to control the hair algae. Are you using a 0 tds ro water to make your tank water? I like the gfo/carbon reactors but they don't do much to remove nitrate. Lots of methods available to remove nitrates. From the amount of food and livestock I'd guess the real issue is the rock. Did you change the water during curing and did you measure phosphate levels in that water? At this point I would keep changing water in the tank, reduce lighting as much as you safely can with the corals you have, use a nitrate removing method, do manual removal and keep the gfo renewed. Best of luck.