Green Hair Algae

[Deniss]

Hi,

I have green hair algae in my nano tank. I had elevated nitrate and phoshate levels, nitrate were around 25 and phosphate 0.04. A mate of me advised me to make a chaeto reactor, after 2 weeks of running a chaeto reactor my hannah phosphate checker gives 0 and my salifert nitrate test also.

The chaeto keeps growing, so i guess the chaeto is batteling with the green hair algae for nutrients? But i'm afraid that it will starve out my zoanthids (if that is possible)? Any tips, on what to do? Let the chaeto go for the out competing or add a clean up crew? My tank is 18 gallons, has a cleaner shrimp, 2 clownfish and a 6line.

 

[chefjpaul]

Adding a couple snails is good.

I'd personally use this time to find your balance. Slowly, steadily. Dont make any drastic changes, see where your reactor, feeding, takes you first.

.04 PO4 is pretty good, the causes could be from a couple different things: including rock, maintenance routines etc..

Manually remove any algae if it bothers you.
L
Are you using RODI? Skimmer? Waterchanges etc..

Little more info on your system would help. Pics are awesome.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yup. Scrub and then snails.

 

[Dennco2000]

Id go with the clean up crew. I have a lot of chaeto and zoanthids with no problems at all.
Get 5 hermits and snails and give it a couple weeks. Increase water changes and cut back on feeding to at least once a day for a while and you should be ok. I am guessing you had a possible nutrient issue and things just got a bit out of control.

Dennis

 

[Deniss]

Okay, i will try to give as much info as possible.

-My lighting is now 3 hours white and then 8 hours blue.
-I do every week a waterchange of 2 gallons, with saltwater that is prepare in a bucket with a wavemaker pump to mix it. I let this run for 48 hours before i add it to the tank.
-I'm feeding my fish daily, soms mysis or artemia. I defrost the ice cube and rinse it with water, then i throw it away and mix it with some tank water. Then i feed it, i feed my fish directly with a pipet, so there isn't any left overs.
-The algae started with a verry small spot on the back of my rocks, but it's now getting more and more to spread in the tank. Yesterday i had to take out some zoa frags because the algae was bothering the zoa's too much and they woudn't open anymore.
-The balance atm is gone, i can't detect any nitrate nor phosphate with my testing material. But the chaeto keeps growing, i run this on reverse cycle so i assume there is still some nitrate and phosphates around.
- I use a RODI setup, and silicate filter at the end of my setup, it gives me 0 TDS.
- I Don't have a skimmer running on my tank
-The tank is about 5 months old.

What snails would you suggest? A tectus snail?

 

[Deniss]

Id go with the clean up crew. I have a lot of chaeto and zoanthids with no problems at all.
Get 5 hermits and snails and give it a couple weeks. Increase water changes and cut back on feeding to at least once a day for a while and you should be ok. I am guessing you had a possible nutrient issue and things just got a bit out of control.

Dennis

Won't the hermits chase the snails too much in this smaller tank? The algae stabilised when i put my reactor on, i think if i didn't have it on my tank that it would have been out of control by now. The growing was dramatically increasing by the day, it started with a verry small spot.

Which snails would you suggest?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Several Small Mexican turbos to start

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Keep in mind a snail won't eat a 2in long Gha. It will eat a Nearly invisible Gha sprout.
I have one crab in my 30 g tank btw.

 

[chefjpaul]

Snails I like turbo , astrea- bulldozers, but best.

What type of rock did you start with?

Balance, yes its out, but now is when we find it. It takes time.
We all have been through this with new tanks. Learning each individual system takes testing, errors and slow adjustments.

If it is really out of control there are methods to eradicate, but a picture would help.

I personally would never not feed less, unless food was being wasted / not eaten. Not fair to fish and inverts because we dont like algae blooming.

 

[chefjpaul]

Keep in mind a snail won't eat a 2in long Gha. It will eat a Nearly invisible Gha sprout.
I have one crab in my 30 g tank btw.

So do I....in the sump. I've never seen one eat gha. Maybe I just don't pay attention.

 

[thunderdood]

In my experience, Scarlet Hermits are the best at mowing down GHA. I have about 7 in my 20g tank and haven't seen any GHA for years. In my fuge I have GHA that grows on spare frag discs and small rocks that I will occasionally put in the display to make sure the CUC has enough food.

 

[Deniss]

Keep in mind a snail won't eat a 2in long Gha. It will eat a Nearly invisible Gha sprout.
I have one crab in my 30 g tank btw.

I keep pulling the long hair algae out, but i feel i'm helping to spread it out more. Everytime you pull it out, there is verry small hairs floating around.
I pull them out with a round brush, turn it around and the algae hatches into it. Your crab is a mithrax crab?

Snails I like turbo , astrea- bulldozers, but best.

What type of rock did you start with?

Balance, yes its out, but now is when we find it. It takes time.
We all have been through this with new tanks. Learning each individual system takes testing, errors and slow adjustments.

If it is really out of control there are methods to eradicate, but a picture would help.

I personally would never not feed less, unless food was being wasted / not eaten. Not fair to fish and inverts because we dont like algae blooming.

I started with regular life rock from the LFS store, it's strange because i never had a really intense algae break-in period. It was verry minimal to some tanks i have seen on the internet, but now it's going hard.
I don't starve the fish out, i meant i direct feed them with a pipet untill they don't eat anymore. They even pick it out of
my pipet, it's funny, and it doesn't waste any food around the tank. I will try to make a picture later today.

In my experience, Scarlet Hermits are the best at mowing down GHA. I have about 7 in my 20g tank and haven't seen any GHA for years. In my fuge I have GHA that grows on spare frag discs and small rocks that I will occasionally put in the display to make sure the CUC has enough food.

Scarlet leaves the zoa's alone? I wanted to place them a few weeks ago, but then i have read from people that they could attack zoa's. Are the blue legged hermits good too?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I would not be Agraid to to trim or scrub problem Gha. I do ageywars use my turkey baster to make sure the rocks are clean.
Scrubbing Gha is a reef tradition.
I think it's a red leg hermit.

 

[CNDReef]

Mexican turbo snails eat hair algae at any size. I even place them next to the tuft of gha and they go to town on it.

 

[Deniss]

Alright, i'm going to order some snails and a few hermits.

Should i keep my chaeto reactor on this intensity where it's stripping my water from nitrate and phosphate too 0?

I might try complete blue lighting, and see how my zoa's react to it. I think my white light, feeds the algae too much. It's a full spectrum light.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Alright, i'm going to order some snails and a few hermits.

Should i keep my chaeto reactor on this intensity where it's stripping my water from nitrate and phosphate too 0?

I might try complete blue lighting, and see how my zoa's react to it. I think my white light, feeds the algae too much. It's a full spectrum light.

If the corals are happy, I wouldn't change anything else.

 

[Deniss]

I have seen improvement when i switched from 8 hours white, 3 hours blue too 8 hours blue and 3 hours white. My zoa's open more again, and look healthier.
That's the reason why i'm considering too goo full blue, and leave my full spectrum led bar out.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I have seen improvement when i switched from 8 hours white, 3 hours blue too 8 hours blue and 3 hours white. My zoa's open more again, and look healthier.
That's the reason why i'm considering too goo full blue, and leave my full spectrum led bar out.

I personally don't think light has much to do with with it(algae), but if the corals are happer def follow your gut. And Definitely get happy corals!
If the corals are happy they uptake more nutrients, and take away them from the nuisances.

 

[Dennco2000]

I agree with saltyfilmfolks, I might get a little more film algae on the glass if I run my big finnex strips longer than usual but otherwise I run my actinics 16 hours, and 3 to 5 white 36" led strips 12 hours a day with no problems. I think algae is a nutrient issue in most cases. Aquafuge2 HOB and some chaeto with a good clean up crew might just do the trick if your nano can accommodate?

Good luck

 

[thunderdood]

Scarlet leaves the zoa's alone? I wanted to place them a few weeks ago, but then i have read from people that they could attack zoa's. Are the blue legged hermits good too?

Oh yeah, totally forgot about that part. The con I've experienced with Scarlet hermits vs pretty much every other hermit is Scarlets will crawl on top and over any coral in their way causing the corals a little stress but they do clear out GHA. I have not personally experienced Scarlets attacking/eating corals/snails. I have had Scarlets with zoas in the past and have not had any issues. To counter them causing stress on my Dendros and acans, I have those corals on frag racks that are elevated so the Scarlets can't reach them. The pros have outweighed the cons for my tank having Scarlets.