Hello everyone. I have an innovative marine 40 gal and lately I have been battling algae. I have a lot of green hair algae, but it's particularly in the low spots and in spots with little light. My nitrates are nearly undetectable, and my phosphates were a bit high at around 0.08, which I know is a bit high, so I got a reactor and put some phosphate minus in it a few days ago. I mainly have LPS and softies, and many of them are not doing very well, although it is almost entirely just my LPS suffering, while my zoas and many other softies are thriving. Alkalinity is relatively stable at around 10 dkh and my calcium is at around 480 ppm. I've had this setup for a while, and I've had some algae problems throughout, but my corals have always looked good unless algae is growing on them. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!
Green hair algae, help!
- Thread starter Reepher1
- Start date
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I would start by beefing up your Clean up crew.
mcarroll
10K Club member
Definitely what salty said.
Also, your nitrate limitation is probably hampering any competition your tank might give the algae (such as coraline algae) so I would focus on addressing that first before presuming there is anything wrong with your phosphate.
Do you know why you are nitrates are so low?
Also, your nitrate limitation is probably hampering any competition your tank might give the algae (such as coraline algae) so I would focus on addressing that first before presuming there is anything wrong with your phosphate.
Do you know why you are nitrates are so low?
I thought that it was good to keep nitrates low, oh well... I've been trying to keep nutrients to a minimum so the fish aren't fed very often, maybe I should turn my skimmer off sometimes, any thoughts?
mcarroll
10K Club member
Restricting food to your fishes is definitely not the right way to proceed.
If you have to feed the tank "too much" in order to feed your fish is properly, then you have too many fishes. Something will have to change.
To begin with start feeding your fish the correct amount and see what happens. (what are you feeding?)
Also remember that the cleanup crew is what mainly keeps natural reefs clean of algae – not nutrient restriction.
You are the primary cleanup crew member, so make sure you stay engaged with any algae growth. Engage more help by way of snails or other animals as appropriate. (Recall the story from The Cat In The Hat Came Back
)
It is always important not to let algae get out of control, so you have to stay engaged as the #1.
If you have to feed the tank "too much" in order to feed your fish is properly, then you have too many fishes. Something will have to change.
To begin with start feeding your fish the correct amount and see what happens. (what are you feeding?)
Also remember that the cleanup crew is what mainly keeps natural reefs clean of algae – not nutrient restriction.
You are the primary cleanup crew member, so make sure you stay engaged with any algae growth. Engage more help by way of snails or other animals as appropriate. (Recall the story from The Cat In The Hat Came Back
) It is always important not to let algae get out of control, so you have to stay engaged as the #1.
Ok thanks, I don't think that there's too many fish, but I will start feeding them more and more often gradually until it becomes maybe daily/ every other day I guess. I'll just keep checking nitrate and hopefully I can get a good balance slowly. Thanks
jdpeters
Active Member
How old is your tank? Do you have detritus built up? I think there is a lot to be said about the maturity and I know for me it took over 2 years before all my gha went away. Perseverance and patience is everything! Good luck!
CMO
Valuable Member
I've tried about every critter out there for hair algae and found urchins (blue tuxedo for me) to be the only thing to really make a dent in it. I like the tuxedo urchins since they stay pretty small.
I'd also agree with the above that while low nitrate is best, zero is not good and can really cause problems. I recently had a major algae/cyano outbreak when nitrate hit zero. And especially if you have a fuge you will want to keep nutrients detectable so your macro algae can out compete the nuisance algae.
I'd also agree with the above that while low nitrate is best, zero is not good and can really cause problems. I recently had a major algae/cyano outbreak when nitrate hit zero. And especially if you have a fuge you will want to keep nutrients detectable so your macro algae can out compete the nuisance algae.
CMO
Valuable Member
The urchin is my favorite CUC by far. It's quite a character and cover's it's self in all sort of things it picks up around the tank (no harm to corals though aside from maybe picking up a random zoa polyp here or there). Mine is currently cruising around with a good 4 inch chunk of hair algae attached to it for camouflage, lol.
The fuge would definitely help but it will put even more downward pressure on your low nutrient situation. So make sure you have a plan in place to maintain sufficient nutrients, otherwise the macro algae in the fuge will just die and cause a mess. You should also consider dosing something like this if you start a fuge to ensure it has proper nutrients to stay healthy.
http://brightwellaquatics.com/products/chaeto-gro.php
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