Green Hair Algae

Brian Battani · Oct 12, 2016

I have a 180 gallon reef with 3 Ai hydra 52 hd's. The tank is 3.5 months old and I am going through what appears to be a hair algae outbreak. With the lights on the algae appears to be brown, when lights off and looking at algae with flashlight appears green. I have tried everything, wet skimming, phosphate removal media (phosguard), lessened feedings, scraped with toothbrush (appears to go away but right back once powerbeads kick on. Phosphates and nitrates read 0 on multiple test kits. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated. I do have a small clean up crew consisting of approx 20 snails and 2 cleaner shrimp.
Alk - 9.5
Calcium 435
Mag - 1350
Nitrates - 0
Phosphates - 0

Diesel · Oct 12, 2016

Yep HA we talking here.
You doing the right thing but it ain't gone that fast.
You have probably some Po4 leeching out your rock and your not the only one.
What is your lifestock count in the tank?
Any corals?
3.5 months is still considered very young for a tank.
What test kits are you using?
The reason you don't measure any on your Po4 and No3 is that your HA is consuming it faster that you can measure it.
Not a big deal and feed food that is low on Po4 and No3.
Keep skimmer going and wet or dry it really doesn't make a difference other than by wet is you remove also more saltwater from your tank and you need to empty your cup more often.
What is your TDS on your RODiI water if you mix your own salt water?

meir · Oct 12, 2016

Same here I'm going thru ha and I've never experienced till now and it didn't just start it dropped like a bomb and took over so I'm trying to find out how to get rid o it, I heard that royal urchins work rly well, what's ur take on them

Brian Battani · Oct 12, 2016

2 snowflake clowns, 4 chromis, and 3 bartlett anthias. I have several SPS and a duncan. I am using the red sea and salifert for the nitrates ( never have seen a nitrate reading since the cycle) and hanna and red sea for the phosphate. TDS is 0 on the RO/DI (using 6 stage BRS) but reading a 1 on the handheld TDS meter. Just ordered fresh DI resin. Very frustrating as I can't seem to get rid of this stuff. It is so short I can't manually remove. I also have a fuge running cheato, was reverse lighting just switched to 24 hour lighting today.

Diesel · Oct 12, 2016

Any pics of your tank and close up from the so called HA

lion king · Oct 12, 2016

Try reducing or zero out your red leds. The red spectrum does not even penetrate to the reef in the wild. Red leds are most effectively used in algae scrubbers and causes all kind of havoc in a display tank. If you know your color wheel, the fact that the algae is brown with the lights and green without means you have a high amount of red. Red and green make brown. Too much yellow or lower whites(below 8k) can feed algae also. If you do this, scrub your rocks, and add something to eat it like turbos or the aforementioned tuxedo urchin; it will literally clear up overnight.

Brian Battani · Oct 12, 2016

Thank you! Here are a couple of pics

Paula C Owens · Oct 12, 2016

Just bought and moved and existing tank and having the same problem myself. New to saltwater and only had the tank moved and set up for about 2 wks now but tank has existed with everything that's in it minus the coral and mollies for about 3 yrs. think the Kenya tree is dead/dying but that's where the GHA is growing.

JaimeAdams · Oct 12, 2016

When I had a little issue with hair algae, after fixing the nutrient source I added a sea hare that cleaned everything up. Most snails and hermits won't eat the hair algae after it gets long. Urchins aren't a bad option, but I got rid of mine because of them taking my coral frags for walks. Scarlet hermits are supposed to eat hair algae, but are pricey for a hermit. You have to fix the nutrient source first and then use a clean up crew to clean it up.

meir · Oct 12, 2016

I don't have a nutrient source that I know of

meir · Oct 12, 2016

What cld be a nutrient in my tank I have a very simple filter

alan j t · Oct 13, 2016

I'm in the same boat, I just hooked up a gfo reactor. Idk what's feeding the algae.and almost no po4

JaimeAdams · Oct 13, 2016

As Diesel said above. Just because your tests come back as 0 or low does not mean that there isn't Nitrate and or Phosphate. The algae can be basically sucking up the nutrient as is is added to the tank through a food source, as it leaches out of a sand bed or old rock. There are plenty of reef tanks running high nutrient levels that do not have a battle with hair algae as well. In my opinion if you are battling with HA in a low nutrient system I would be looking at a better clean up crew. As I said above most of your snails and hermits won't touch the hair algae after it gets longer than about 1/4 inch. The exceptions that I know of are sea hairs and some urchins. The battle is to knock out the algae. Once it is mostly gone adding a well rounded clean up crew can easily keep it in check.

meir · Oct 13, 2016

So what's the best cuc for ha

JaimeAdams · Oct 13, 2016

Scarlet hermits, sea hairs and urchins, without mentioning tangs.

JaimeAdams · Oct 13, 2016

My #1 suggestion is a sea hare. The only down side is that you need to protect them from the blender of doom ie. power heads. They can ink, although I have only experienced this when they have been killed. This is from my personal experience. Once the algae is controllable your normal blue legs, astrea, trochus, ceriths and other grazers will normally keep it in check. Most of the time that I see a tank over taken with hair algae it is either a problem with nutrient export or a lack of grazing hermits and/or snails.

Diesel · Oct 13, 2016

meir said:
I don't have a nutrient source that I know of

You always have nutrients in your tank, sometimes they are undetectable for your test kits but you still have some.

Diesel · Oct 13, 2016

meir said:
What cld be a nutrient in my tank I have a very simple filter

What kind of filter you running?

Diesel · Oct 13, 2016

JaimeAdams said:
As Diesel said above. Just because your tests come back as 0 or low does not mean that there isn't Nitrate and or Phosphate. The algae can be basically sucking up the nutrient as is is added to the tank through a food source, as it leaches out of a sand bed or old rock. There are plenty of reef tanks running high nutrient levels that do not have a battle with hair algae as well. In my opinion if you are battling with HA in a low nutrient system I would be looking at a better clean up crew. As I said above most of your snails and hermits won't touch the hair algae after it gets longer than about 1/4 inch. The exceptions that I know of are sea hairs and some urchins. The battle is to knock out the algae. Once it is mostly gone adding a well rounded clean up crew can easily keep it in check.

Lawnmower blenny or sea hare as mentioned before will help you.
Dosing bacteria will help fight your No3 too but always keep testing.
Carbon dosing can be a method too but some may find that a little complicated.

JaimeAdams · Oct 13, 2016

Diesel said:
Lawnmower blenny or sea hare as mentioned before will help you.
Dosing bacteria will help fight your No3 too but always keep testing.
Carbon dosing can be a method too but some may find that a little complicated.

My lawnmower blenny only likes eating whatever I am trying to feed my chalices, acans and favias.