The live rock in my 210 gallon tank is full of green hair algae - nitrates got too high when skimmer quit working. I have greatly reduced light and physically removed a lot of algae but coral taking a hit. Have tried using small amounts of H2O2. Will do big water change on Tuesday. Algae may have slowed but does not appear to be going away. Suggestions?
Green Hair Algae
- Thread starter FrankSWood
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I'm using a wet-dry system w/ protein skimmer. Nitrates at 2.5 ppm, PO4 @ .23 ppb, Mg 1450 ppm, Ca 540 ppm, dKH 13.5, pH 7.6.
SPR1968
No, it wasn’t expensive dear....
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The cause of the green hair algae is more than likely raised phosphate levels if you mean 0.2ppm. You wrote ppb and their is a big difference?
And welcome to R2R as well Frank!
And welcome to R2R as well Frank!
The system is a little more than a year old. I have fewer than 10 fish, lots of blue-legged and blue-knuckled hermits, 7 urchins, one lawnmower blennie that avoids GHA, and some snails of various sizes and species.
Thanks for the welcome! And I did mean ppm. I've had 2 bags of PhosGuard in the sump for a while and will change them out today.
Yes, I had one in there last week but it got caught on the Vortech MP40 that I forgot to turn off when I put him in. Will a couple more this week.
SPR1968
No, it wasn’t expensive dear....
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The green hair algae is probably using the phosphate as a food source, so you need to eliminate that food source which means reducing phosphate to much lower levels and a good target it 0.03ppm so very low.
The odd thing is though, if you have GHA and 0.2ppm phosphate the number could be much higher in reality, as it’s common to have GHA with a zero phosphate reading as it’s used up as food.
To be effective GFO really needs to be used in a reactor and you will need to change it regularly to start as phosphate is reduced otherwise it won’t work properly. If you have corals, reduce the levels slowly to avoid affecting them adversely
The other thing you need to look at is were is phosphate coming from. Do you use 0 TDS RODI water for water changes ?
Your alkalinity and calcium are a bit on the high side, especially alkalinity if your aiming for ‘normal’ levels and this is a good guide
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/
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Lots of folks have had good success with Reef Flux. Rabitfish also are known for devouring GHA as with lawnmower blennies... IME, Ive had 2 tanks with GHA out breaks, I think GHA can explode on a very little amount of nutrients and a very little amount of light. I rather take more extreme measures than most.
Poor tank maintenance is what sent me into my year long battle. I'm slowly making some head way with mine. The physical removal seems to be the key to reducing it as it was early state GHA is quick to suck up and hold nutrients cycling it back into your system.
My battle has been slow, but highly improved by getting into a job with a set schedule [emoji1787]. I like to get a siphon going into my sump with a filter sock on the end while using a toothbrush to loosen it from the rock. 2 years set up and I'm still not certain if my phosphate is being leaked from once established rock that was just dried out and left in basement storage.
A clean up crew can help, but isn't the end all. A lot of herbivores don't like the stuff.
I'll be starting a YouTube channel soon with me trying to tackle my hair algae and tank maintenance issues as "The Landlocked Reefer."
The most recent issue I'm tackling is poor lighting. Feel free to check it out later in the week. They'll be my first videos so might not be the best quality
I'm guessing your tank hasn't gotten to the worst of the images where I started my journey?
My battle has been slow, but highly improved by getting into a job with a set schedule [emoji1787]. I like to get a siphon going into my sump with a filter sock on the end while using a toothbrush to loosen it from the rock. 2 years set up and I'm still not certain if my phosphate is being leaked from once established rock that was just dried out and left in basement storage.
A clean up crew can help, but isn't the end all. A lot of herbivores don't like the stuff.
I'll be starting a YouTube channel soon with me trying to tackle my hair algae and tank maintenance issues as "The Landlocked Reefer."
The most recent issue I'm tackling is poor lighting. Feel free to check it out later in the week. They'll be my first videos so might not be the best quality
I'm guessing your tank hasn't gotten to the worst of the images where I started my journey?
Thanks much for the reference - very useful. Some clarity since this weekend: pH is 8.1/8.2, PO4 still too high but adding PhosGuard, clean-up crew has been very effective at cleaning the algae but still adding a couple of sea hares tomorrow. Calcium has come down to 375 ppm, dKH has come down to 12.1 (from 13.5). Things are looking up after about 6 weeks of GHA takeover. Will keep you posted and send photos when it clears up.
