Green Hair Algae

[cameronh21]

I have a Fluval Evo 13.5 with a bad green hair algae problem. All of my nutrient levels are good. I realized the problem is the fact that I am using treated tap water instead of RODI water because I cannot afford an RODI machine. I would like to replace my water with either distilled water or store bought RODI is there any safe way to do this? I just really want all the green hair algae to be gone and I am lost on what to do. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Tank info:
Tank: Fluval 13.5
Stock: 2 ocellaris clowns, 1 yellow clown goby, 1 fighting conch, 5 snails, and a couple corals.
Light schedule: around 8 hours a day.
Water change schedule: bi-weekly.

 

[Hermie]

just wondering, why do you think untreated tap water is causing the algae?

I have my own theories but I was wondering what are your thoughts here

 

[cameronh21]

Wel

just wondering, why do you think untreated tap water is causing the algae?

I have my own theories but I was wondering what are your thoughts here

I posted about green hair algae a couple months ago and everyone was saying it was because tap water and I’ve heard that some tap water can have nutrients in it that can cause algae problems

 

[Hemmdog]

I would do a complete drain. Put your fish in a 5gal bucket with an air stone. Drain it all. Fill it up with store bought RODI SW, Catch the fish in the bucket with a net to not get tap back in the tank. Do it again after a month to flush anything bad the rocks had absorbed and released back out into the water column. You should be good to go after that. Hopefully.

 

[Hemmdog]

Oh and scrub your rocks with the gha on them when you do that. It will grow back a little bit but will hopefully die off quickly. Some people use hydrogen peroxide when they do this to kill the gha.

 

[cameronh21]

Oh and scrub your rocks with the gha on them when you do that. It will grow back a little bit but will hopefully die off quickly. Some people use hydrogen peroxide when they do this to kill the gha.

Thanks so much! Will draining the tank harm my corals or my beneficial bacteria?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Option B would be to black out your tank for a couple of days, pull as mush gha as you can by hand and treat with liquid Vibrant. Had a bad problem in one of my tanks and this cleared it in 9 days. Pencil urchin May devour some of it also

 

[Hemmdog]

Thanks so much! Will draining the tank harm my corals or my beneficial bacteria?

Nope just be fairly quick about it. You can stick your coral in the bucket with the fish if you like. If it’s attached to the rock try to do the 100% waterchange in 30 mins, hour tops. Some corals will be fine longer but that’s a safe range. The bacteria will be totally fine for a few hours. If you’re going to try the spot treating peroxide thing for gha do a quick search on here first on how to do it, I haven’t done it personally to advise but I hear it works.

 

[cameronh21]

Nope just be fairly quick about it. You can stick your coral in the bucket with the fish if you like. If it’s attached to the rock try to do the 100% waterchange in 30 mins, hour tops. Some corals will be fine longer but that’s a safe range. The bacteria will be totally fine for a few hours. If you’re going to try the spot treating peroxide thing for gha do a quick search on here first on how to do it, I haven’t done it personally to advise but I hear it works.

Thank you so much for your help! I replaced all my water with distilled water a couple weeks ago and everything survived and most of the GHA is gone! Although a little bit grew back, do you have any suggestions on keeping the GHA in check?

 

[Hemmdog]

Thank you so much for your help! I replaced all my water with distilled water a couple weeks ago and everything survived and most of the GHA is gone! Although a little bit grew back, do you have any suggestions on keeping the GHA in check?

Nice! Get a few hermit crabs for maintenance.