Hair algae or some sort and how to handle it

[nightmarepl]

so I’ve been getting a lot of i think it’s green hair algae? Or something my tanks about 10 months old every day i get this brown / greenish build up on my glass and now on the rocks even on the snail shells looks like hair algae trying to find a way to get rid of it

Tank specs
10gallons
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 5
Nitrites 0
Calc 480
Phosphates .25-5
Ph 8.0
Alk 8

 

[ndrwater]

Check the nutrient levels in the tank and try to get a handle on it. In thr mean time, I would remove as much manually as possible. Once it gets a foothold, it can be a bear to deal with

 

[vetteguy53081]

Remove by hand and leave the rest to turbo snails, lawnmower blenny and yellow eye kole tang. Sea Hare will do wonders but will need continued algae source once tank is cleaned up

 

[Billldg]

Agree, check nutrient levels, your phosphates are a little high. What r your feeding habits?

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

well first, algae is a natural occurrence in the ocean. so it’s no surprise when we get it in our tanks. some people are ok with it and some aren’t. personal preference. it only needs a few things to thrive - light, saltwater and most need a firm attachment point. so what is the easiest factor we can change? well none of those. but a contributing factor is nutrients, specifically no3 and po4.

regardless of what your test kits tell you, there’s enough nutrients in your water for this particular algae to thrive. what test kits are you using? a common issue with algae are false readings in tests because of the continuous consumption of said nutrients.

i would do a big water change and scrub the algae off that rock, either in the tank or better yet, out of the tank. control nutrients by keeping up on water changes and not over feeding.

 

[nightmarepl]

Yah i tend to feed a lot i usually do a cube of mysis shrimp and some pellets through the day currently in running a phosguard for about a week now slowly coming down

 

[davocean]

For me I've noticed at about 9-10 months in a tank can go through some funkyness , sometimes people see cyano or HA or film algaes come up.
I have a sonic scrubber, it's basically like a bigger electric toothbrush that can be submerged, it's perfect for stuff like that, or even just a brush.

Also blow stuff off your rock w/ turkey baster or even a small PH to clean areas of dietrus.

I find once you get past that period and hopefully coralline encrusts it gets easier to keep that stuff from taking hold.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Increasing flow will help as well. Skim wet for a while. 3 days tank black out works well to kill pest algae.

 

[Redleg]

Manual removal and blue leg hermits have been working for me.

 

[nightmarepl]

For me I've noticed at about 9-10 months in a tank can go through some funkyness , sometimes people see cyano or HA or film algaes come up.
I have a sonic scrubber, it's basically like a bigger electric toothbrush that can be submerged, it's perfect for stuff like that, or even just a brush.

Also blow stuff off your rock w/ turkey baster or even a small PH to clean areas of dietrus.

I find once you get past that period and hopefully coralline encrusts it gets easier to keep that stuff from taking hold.

Yah i got coralline building up slowly I’ll just scrub it off with a tooth brush since it’s not like horrible yet once i. Added the phosgard a lot died off

 

[VR28man]

I just dealt with this. I dipped the "infected" (for lack of a better word) part of the rocks into half saltwater/half hydrogen peroxide mix. Hydrogen peroxide is regularly recommended for algae removal.

For rocks with stuff I value on it (e.g. ones with my corals or my maxima clam) I put the half/half mix in a bowl below the coral/clam and the GHA infested rock in the bowl. For formerly dry rock without any corals on it I just dump it all in half and half. However, for my Florida aquacultured coral with coralline and all kinds of other things I just brush it off.

 

[Turbo's Aquatics Verified Sponsor]

#15: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-01/eb/