Just wondering who has battled this reef plague. What have been the most successful ways of managing hair algae. I have had my tank fish only for 3 years and just recently started trying to grow corals. New lights, better filtration, and boom!! Hair algae like I've never seen. Luckily it is only on my substrate and not my live rock or any of the corals. The corals are all doing well. Currently i have 25 astrea snails, 4 emerald crab, 50 assorted hermits and a pencil urchin. They arent even touching it....... Just ordered 60 cerith 20 florida cerith, 5 limpits, 10, nasarius, and pulsing xenia on the recommendation of reefcleaners.org. hoping to squash it fast. I had tested the water several times and it is near perfect. No clue why this is happening especially in a tank that has done so well for years and never seen hair anywhere.... Just wondering about success stories. My tank is a 92 allglass corner.
Green hair algae
- Thread starter Jinanddevil
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It's likely due to "new lights". What is your photoperiod and how long are the whites on? Can you control the red and green separately? If so, try turning those off as they'll make it grow.
I've tried almost everything - fluconazole, peroxide direct treatments, shortening lighting period, vibrant, manual removal. It's typically due to high nutrients (nitrate and phosphate) but mine developed when my nutrients were very low and they've stayed in an acceptable range. Test your nitrates and phophates and see what those are.
I just installed a small refugium last week to grow macroalgae and hopefully outcompete the GHA. We'll see if it works.
With my lights i have two controls. One for white,red, and green. The other for blue. I typically have the whites on for about 9 hours then slowly turn them down for about an hour till just the blue is left for night. Ive tested my nitrates many times and the are almost non existant. Well under 10ppm. I had heard pulsing xenia feeds on nitrates and will compete with GHA. If that fails i will likely try a refugium filled with xenia. I've also heard that works well. Especially if the xenia does TOO well in the tank.....
My LFS gave me an idea on the red/green - use electrical tape to cover the individual LEDs for those colors (assuming there's a lens over the LED that you put the tap on). Might work (but mine doesn't have red/green so that wasn't the issue). I run my lights from 1:30 to 11, but the white are only on for 5 hours of that time period. So I'd say lower the hours for the whites and it might help.
Arabyps
Well-Known Member
I have been battling this in my 55 gallon tank for months. It was crazy all over the rocks. Urchins and CUC could not make a dent. I started Vibrant about a month ago twice a week. Also, target dosed hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) on some the the larger clumps. The peroxide "weakened" the clumps which allowed me to extract them with a siphon. Now the entire tank is responding to the Vibrant/H2O2 and I have been able to siphon off significant quantities each week. Hopefully soon it will all be gone.
I’ve dosed vibrant for months (5?) and it did weaken it so I could scrub it off the rocks with a toothbrush, but that wasn’t enough. Glad it’s working for you! I just stopped dosing it to try the fuge.
I am a little hesitant to try sea hairs. I know they target GHA efficiently, but was told thats all they eat. So when its gone they can be troublesome to feed. Also they can release a toxin that can be catastrophic. What is vibrant? Is it harmful to anything like inverts? How do i dose? Trying to do everything naturally without chemicals, but knowing may help if all else fails. Will also try running my lights less.
littlebeard
Active Member
What are your phosphates at?
I was able to battle GHA with a phosban reactor and blacking out the tank for 3 days.
I was able to battle GHA with a phosban reactor and blacking out the tank for 3 days.
ThePickeledReef
Community Member
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I heard the H202 hurts Cleaner Shrimp, is that trye
ThePickeledReef
Community Member
Probably a combined effort, blackouts, manual removal, water changes, god, try vibrant. Get it down and start making little corrections to keep it out.
I would assume the answer is yes. My peppermint shrimp made it through fine, but no skunk cleaner shrimp at the time. My hammer coral did NOT like it though and took months to recover. My trumpet coral wasn't super happy but recovered quicker. H2O2 works very well, but I would recommend using it outside the tank. If you can remove each rock and spot treat the algae with peroxide, then take a toothbrush too it, rinse in fresh saltwater and put back in tank.
If you run carbon, any toxin the dolabella sea hare releases shouldn't be an issue. Mine didn't help though, so who knows. Once you're done with it, pass it on to someone else who needs it. I wouldn't keep it in the tank long term.
Thanks for all the help guys. I read that BRS article and wow!! Vibrant is all natural and seems to be super affective with a good cleanup crew. I'm also going to try lowering my lighting times as well hopefully that will help keep it gone once it is.
Red_Beard
Valuable Member
I am going through the same in my 75. One observation that i have made is that the dwarf ceriths in number are the ones that really strip the rock clean. The one spot foxface mows down the long stuff and I have about 50 dwarf ceriths and added them in little clumps on the rockwork. Where they are there are patches of bare clean rock. They are good and small too so they get in all the little cracks and crannys. I also have a conch, a tuxedo urchin, and full size ceriths in there and while they are great algae eaters it is like asking the kids to clean the house....they just get the easy stuff and don't get very deep.
ThePickeledReef
Community Member
Cbones1979
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Losing battle on gha
Geez...it’s been weeks and the more I pull, more water changes, less feeding, the more grows. Here are some pics after I just tore a bunch out. Getting a large amount of CUC from reef cleaners that he thinks will do the trick but if not I need this off the rock before I upgrade to new tanks...
www.reef2reef.com
I thought my tank was gone too, after my gha started to grow everywhere. I got 5 mexican turbo snails and I have never seen my gha dissapear faster... got em from live aquaria, they are HUGE tho and reproduce like crazy, but def worth it if your worried about gha
