Green hair algae

[Gary Ellis]

OK I don't over feed and my lights run 8 hours with 3% white no red or green. I use about 60% violet, blue and royal blue. My tank is the red sea E260 with 2 AI 26's. My phosphates are 0.05 on the Hanna checker. I've been adding 7ml of food grade 3% peroxide daily. I have a Skimz algae reactor loaded with sea lettuce. Tank has been running a little over a year. I have nice purple coralline growing. Never had the hair growing up until one month ago. I'm not concerned about the hard green stuff on the rock but only the hair algae. Pictures taken with flash and lights off. What to do???

 

[Coldcloud]

I’ve been in a similar situation lately. I’ve got an algae reactor that’s doing great but I’ve got a few patches of hair algae that are thick and driving me crazy. I’ve been trying out a sea hare in my tank the past two weeks and it’s starting to eat it down. I’m going to take him back to my LFS when I get the situation under control though because my tank normally would not support it. I think my issue has been my lights but I’m about to switch over to LED in a week or two.

 

[DirtMcGurt]

Have you tested for nitrates lately? Also, you can beef up your clean up crew. Unless you already have. I've seen Turbo snails eat that stuff off small patches on my rocks. When I had bad GHA I found that manual removal was the only way. The GHA was real bad tho... I had to pull my rocks, scrub and rinse them, then I sprayed them with some fresh hydrogen peroxide and let them fizzle (out of the tank) for about 15-20 mins. Just note that doing this was a last ditch effort. Either it worked or I was leaving the hobby. After that I just tried to keep parameters stable and keep a balance of nitrates and phosphates.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

What is your no3? GHA can be a pain. If it was my tank I would take the rocks with gha out and scrub them with a stiff brush in a bucket of tank water. Siphon the sand clean under these rocks also. I have had good luck with my long spine urchin keeping everything clean once I did this. I also left a small area of gha so I can see how it looks. I use this as a gauge to feed more or less to keep no3 and po4 detectable between tests.

 

[Sierra_Bravo]

I feel you - it's a pain in the rear. I just came out of an episode that lasted six months. Things I did in no order of importance:

• Changed my refugium light (I run chaeto)
• Started a GFO reactor
• Consistent weekly manual removal with a toothbrush and siphon.
• Added targeted CUC (lawnmower blenny, money cowries, emerald crabs, dolabella sea hare, lots more snails
• Started dosing iron per Randy Holmes-Farley

The manual removal, coupled with increasing my CUC and holding my phosphates low seemed to be the most impactful, but it took a lot of time to finally break the cycle.

I will also say that dosing iron did seem to have an accelerating effect, but I started that towards the end when I was already seeing results.

 

[HawaiianReef]

I feel you - it's a pain in the rear. I just came out of an episode that lasted six months. Things I did in no order of importance:

• Changed my refugium light (I run chaeto)
• Started a GFO reactor
• Consistent weekly manual removal with a toothbrush and siphon.
• Added targeted CUC (lawnmower blenny, money cowries, emerald crabs, dolabella sea hare, lots more snails
• Started dosing iron per Randy Holmes-Farley

The manual removal, coupled with increasing my CUC and holding my phosphates low seemed to be the most impactful, but it took a lot of time to finally break the cycle.

I will also say that dosing iron did seem to have an accelerating effect, but I started that towards the end when I was already seeing results.

Were you measuring for iron? If so, what levels were you reading?

 

[Sierra_Bravo]

Were you measuring for iron? If so, what levels were you reading?

No, I did not test. It was a solution made from a dissolved Fergon tablet that Randy Holmes-Farley had recommended and dosed at very low amounts (I was dosing 3ml per week in a 120). Randy suggested there was danger in the amount you dosed, so I was not too worried about its effect on corals. I'm getting a server error searching for the post; I'll link it as soon as the site allows me to.

 

[Gary Ellis]

I have corals so taking the rocks out is a no no. It seems my problem started when I started using Reef Complete by Seachem to raise my calcium. Could that have something to do with it? I will check my Nitrates. Never thought that could be the problem.

 

[DirtMcGurt]

Most corals can be exposed to air for a little while. If its certain LPS their polyps would need to be retracted fully so the tissue isn't harmed. When I pulled my rocks they had Duncans and chalices on them. Also, I pulled Acans and other frags. If I remember correctly, I made a 50/50 mix of H2O2 and RODI water to soak any frags in while my rocks fizzled.

I'm not sure about the Reef Complete. I've never heard of it mentioned with other GHA threads. Nitrates are definitely a contributor. If N03 (nitrates) are too high, or too low, it can cause GHA growth. You'll want a balance of N03 and P04 (phosphates) to promote healthy bacteria and coral growth.

 

[Saltycrew]

It doesn’t look bad I would try a good clean up crew first. I ran into a bad GHA problem and I’m currently treating with fritz algae clean out. 1.5 weeks in and it seems to be doing a good job. I wouldn’t dose anything until it gets seriously out of control.