Hair algae!!!

Brian Baker · Mar 13, 2019

So I have some green hair algae all over my tank and I was wondering if there is a cheap DIY tactic to get rid of all of it and keep it away. I have a 32G BioCube and I have too many corals to scrape it. Anybody have any alternative methods. I am just really tired of looking at it and no matter what I do for the past year I can not get my phosphates down. I have tried Phosban, I have tried scraping, I have also tried pulling it off with my fingers while doing a water change. Nothing works.

Help please. All suggestions are welcomed.

cracker · Mar 13, 2019

Hey Brian, I'm also a Brian , Anyway I'm sure others will chime in on this. The Ha is from excess nutrients in the tank. They will want recent test results for No3 & Po4. Also lighting plays a roll. Water filter source. The usual method for getting rid of the stuff is by manual removal,cleaning the sand bed & a big cleanup crew . There are additives that will kill it but have mixed reviews.etc.
I also have a bad Ha prob I'm following & good luck !

IslandLifeReef · Mar 13, 2019

I agree with @cracker, parameters will help. I think Brightwell makes a PO4 remover that @WWC uses in at least one of their displays. When I had a bad GHA outbreak, I tried Vibrant plus manual removal and adding 3 turbo snails in a 40 gal tank. Be careful adding Vibrant or any PO4 remover. Slow is always better.

Brian Baker · Mar 14, 2019

Alk- 8.5
Calc- 400
Nitrate- 20
Nitrite- .5
Phos- .25
Ph- 8.1
Salt- 1.025

Hope this helps cause it doesn’t help me. Lol

Deezill · Mar 14, 2019

I have also read people raising their Mg to 1600 However when doing so I think this will have some effect on your clean up crew makes them lethargic might even kill some. I have very small clean up crew
but My Mg is somewhere around 1450. I have planned on raising it over the next few weeks but I keep forgetting to dose. Would you happen to know you Mg levels?

hanas · Mar 14, 2019

How old is your tank? Is it in the early stages? If so, give it time and keep up with GFO and water changes using RODI water. Cut back on feeding for now if you are feeding heavily and give it time.

I had this issue on my new build a year into it using dry rock only to cycle. I was tempted to use Reeflux or Vibrant, but instead cut back on feeding a little, picked up on the water changes (weekly) and changed GFO more frequently. I also hand removed what I could, and it cleared up in a month and has been gone for over a year now. This was in a larger sized tank as well, so it can be done without chemicals (other than GFO) if you put the effort in and cut the nutrients back.

IslandLifeReef · Mar 14, 2019

Brian Baker said:
Alk- 8.5
Calc- 400
Nitrate- 20
Nitrite- .5
Phos- .25
Ph- 8.1
Salt- 1.025

Hope this helps cause it doesn’t help me. Lol

Nitrite should be zero. Also, nitrate is high. I agree with cutting back on the feedings. Doing that coupled with manual removal and a more robust CUC should eventually fix the gha issue.

Brian Baker · Mar 14, 2019

hanas said:
How old is your tank? Is it in the early stages? If so, give it time and keep up with GFO and water changes using RODI water. Cut back on feeding for now if you are feeding heavily and give it time.

I had this issue on my new build a year into it using dry rock only to cycle. I was tempted to use Reeflux or Vibrant, but instead cut back on feeding a little, picked up on the water changes (weekly) and changed GFO more frequently. I also hand removed what I could, and it cleared up in a month and has been gone for over a year now. This was in a larger sized tank as well, so it can be done without chemicals (other than GFO) if you put the effort in and cut the nutrients back.

My tank is about a year old now. I am currently feed once every other day with mysis shrimp.

I also have my lighting schedule at full intensity for about 6 hours then it is just blue lights until midnight. Total off period is about 12 hours I think. Does anyone think that my lighting is a problem?

hanas · Mar 14, 2019

So based on your current feeding, you are going pretty light as is. I don't think your lighting schedule is bad, similar to mine in terms of full intensity. The fact you're still registering nitrate and phosphate with an algae breakout tells me how high your nutrients must really be. Basically, the algae is feeding off of these nutrients but even with that your still showing traceable levels. I would start doing weekly water changes and replace the GFO frequently until the algae starts to recede.

Do you have an corals (SPS), if so, watch your alkalinity while running GFO more frequently as the alk swings can cause RTN/STN.

Brian Baker · Mar 14, 2019

hanas said:
So based on your current feeding, you are going pretty light as is. I don't think your lighting schedule is bad, similar to mine in terms of full intensity. The fact you're still registering nitrate and phosphate with an algae breakout tells me how high your nutrients must really be. Basically, the algae is feeding off of these nutrients but even with that your still showing traceable levels. I would start doing weekly water changes and replace the GFO frequently until the algae starts to recede.

Do you have an corals (SPS), if so, watch your alkalinity while running GFO more frequently as the alk swings can cause RTN/STN.

So you will have to explain a GFO to me, not sure what that is. Also I have been doing weekly 5G water changes mixing my own salt using the reef pro from Red Sea. Here is a pic of what I have.

IslandLifeReef · Mar 14, 2019

Brian Baker said:
So you will have to explain a GFO to me, not sure what that is. Also I have been doing weekly 5G water changes mixing my own salt using the reef pro from Red Sea. Here is a pic of what I have.

GFO (granular ferric oxide) removes PO4 from water. Honestly, your GHA problem doesn't look bad. Clean your powerhead, manually remove as much algae as possible, and add a few turbo snails to eat what you can't remove. Keep up with the water changes and repeat the manual removal as necessary until the CUC gets the upper hand.

I think a lot of reefers would like it if their "bad" algae problem looked like yours.

That's a nice looking reef.

dwest · Mar 14, 2019

Brian Baker said:
So you will have to explain a GFO to me, not sure what that is. Also I have been doing weekly 5G water changes mixing my own salt using the reef pro from Red Sea. Here is a pic of what I have.

Toothbrush and siphon is all you need. Maybe a few more snails. Your tank looks very nice.

jfree07 · Mar 15, 2019

fluconazole works well, it sometimes takes more than a single treatment.

JayKim · Mar 15, 2019

Once the hair algae get established it's hard to get rid of. I ended up treating it with Fluconazole as well.

Brian Baker · Mar 15, 2019

I appreciate the kind words about my tank. The algae is hard to see in this pic but that rock in the back left of the pic has all of it. And I am afraid to scrape it off cause for some stupid reason all four of my anemones decided to make it their home. I don’t want to kill them by accidentally hitting them with the tooth brush.

Poseidon03 · Mar 15, 2019

Anemones are really hard to kill, trust me... I had a rock fall on one. It was ticked for about a month, dropped most of its tenticles, and then grew right back. I definitelt recommend more nutrient export in the way of gfo or a chaeto reactor. Your phosphates are really high, so you can dose phosphate RX to get rid of those (with a skimmer and foltsr socks/filter floss)