green hair algae problem

[ashtonsteen]

I have a 55 gallon tank with coral and fish its been up almost 8 months now and everthing has been going great except within the past couple of weeks my tank has had an explosion of green hair water test fine and I dont know what to do.

 

[illdoya]

Water parameters? Did you change/add/do anything to tank that could have sparked the problem?

 

[ashtonsteen]

No I dont recall doing something that would cause I a spike I did change my supply of where I would get water to do water changes but I tested the water at the new store and everything checked out ok. My nitrates are above 10 my phosphates are just over .5 and nothing has died or been messed with the water looks crystal clear

 

[illdoya]

I always attribute GHA to high nutrients. I struggle to keep nitrates & phosphate "undetectable".

I just went thru a battle with it in one of my tanks - astrea and turbo snails helped.

What filtration do you run? Tank up 8m?

 

[illdoya]

I always attribute it to high nutrients but I'm not the expert.. There could be things I don't think of

 

[ashtonsteen]

I have a 20 gallon long for a sump I have a 3 inch sand bed in the middle chamber of the sump and I also have a built in media tray which has filter media and a bad of phos guard and a bag of carbon. I have another saltwater tank with the same set up and its doing great.

 

[gonpostal]

Do you clean your filter media and change out the carbon and phos guard regularly? Banded Trochus and Mexican Turbo snails have always taken care of any algae in my tank, and you could also try putting some chaeto in your sump.

 

[ashtonsteen]

Yea I change the media out every 2 weeks and I have 6 mexican turbo snails and about 10 blue leg hermits. Im going to try the chaeto and see if it works. Thanks

 

[Reefing Madness]

Phosphates at .5 or higher will certainly cause you problems.