Hair algae nothing works....

[roger saltwaters]

I can't seem to get rid of green hair algae. I keep my water in pretty good shape and nitrates hover around 15-20. About a month ago I got a reactor to grow chaeto in with led lights wrapped around it. So far the chaeto has only diminished if anything at all and hair algae is starting to go nuts in the reactor . A week ago I added GFO and so far no luck at all. What am I missing?

 

[roger saltwaters]

It's a JBJ 45 with an external canister filter, reef octopus hob skimmer, hob bio pellet reactor, an algae reactor. So a little more water capacity than a standard 45. Everything else seems pretty happy other than my algae issue. Bio pellet reactor is about 2-3 weeks old.

 

[Ocelaris]

Algae once established is hard to get rid of. The only real way is to scrub/remove the existing algae and lower nutrients. That's the conclusion I've come to accept. For long term nutrient control have you evaluated your nutrients going in vs out? I've found that 2x 10w daylight led bulbs aimed at chaeto in my sump grows it like crazy. Also skimming and carbon can help.

 

[roger saltwaters]

The lights the lfs sold me are red and blue. I wonder if that is some of the problem. I have some cualerpa that seems to grow like crazy in my sump under a regular lowes hardware led light. Weird.

 

[twilliard]

I wouldn't say nothing works. H2O2 is highly effective against GHA.

 

[aquamn1999]

Your nitrates are very high at 15-20 for a reef tank. you need lower them to less than 2. Whats your PO4 lvl?

 

[roger saltwaters]

I'm trying to lower nitrates with bio pellets and the chaeto that won't grow. Don't know pO4

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

If the nitrates aren't coming down with water changes it mean you likely have a source IN the tank.
IE dirty sump, dirty sand dead snails.

 

[reeftilldie]

hand remove as much as possible, light off for 3 days, after that big water change to lower nitrate and find out what caused nitrate up so high and solve it. If that still doesn't work, possibly replace rock and sand.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

and definitely bump up the CUC. snails would be my choice.

 

[george1381]

Give it a trim then pick up a small urchin. That should pretty much take care of it. Then put it in the sump for the next small outbreak.

 

[The_Noooob]

I would trim and get a big cuc crew.

 

[izzyishh]

I can personally vouch for zebra snails pull out by hand as much as possible and get 2 big zebras they will do wonders!

 

[lou dog420]

Sounds like a PO4 issue. If you just started running GFO recently and levels were pretty high, it will exhaust the media pretty rapidly. I would start testing PO4 and change out GFO weekly until the alge starts to fade.

 

[850csmith]

My tank is been going for a little over a year now I have had hair algae since I started in the last few months I started using gfo and carbon. Remember to test phosphates and anytime they start raising change your gfo. I shorten my lighting to about 6 hours. Started feeding every 2 to 3 days to control my nutrients. New large cuc and manually removed as much algae as I could every 2 to 3 days before feeding that way food does not get trapped in algae and fuel growth. Bumped up my skimmer to skim wet. it took quite a while but doing all of these things you can get rid of any algae it took me two months after I started and everything is almost gone when you start this hubby everybody says nothing good happens fast in this Hobby and getting rid of algae that's also truth

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Hi Roger !

You have a nice tank with amazing coral

How is your problem?
I hope you solve your problem, but if not then consider building your own algae scrubber:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/l...urf-and-slime-algae-from-your-aquarium.86207/

Let me know how things are going on

Good Luck,
Zhenya