Help with green hair algae?

[charliedarling]

I have a nano Macroalgae tank with a growing hair algae problem. Any tips?

 

[lapin]

@Subsea

Any help here?

 

[Subsea]

Get a robust CUC, including the operator.

 

[Matt Bravo]

Inverts will work well, but check your nitrates and phos too. And if u don’t have many corals lowering lights also work

 

[charliedarling]

Get a robust CUC, including the operator.

I’ve got hermits, dove snails, trochus, turbo, cerith, marginella snails, they don’t seem to be able to keep up with it unfortunately

 

[charliedarling]

Inverts will work well, but check your nitrates and phos too. And if u don’t have many corals lowering lights also work

Thanks -

Nitrates are 2.5ppm
Phosphate is .04ppm

I dose 1ml (about 2.5ppm worth) of neo nitro daily. Otherwise my macros go pale and start dying. Nitrates will bottom out in a few days if I don’t dose. I have 6 or 7 small corals in there and tried turning my lights down and the macros hated it, two days and a lot of them melted.

 

[ronsonb]

Tuxedo urchin is the star of my CUC. Consider getting one and they’re super cool little things

 

[jeanjo85]

How old is the tank? I tend to notice hair algae problems when my tanks are newer (under 2-3 years old). If that's the case, just run some GFO until you don't need it anymore. Problems with adding too many invertebrates for me is that once the algae issue is fixed, most of them will starve to death which is kind of cruel imo.

 

[reefsUP2]

I have a nano Macroalgae tank with a growing hair algae problem. Any tips?

Syphon out as much as you can use a tooth brush to scrub while syphoning
And add a good CUC.

 

[charliedarling]

Syphon out as much as you can use a tooth brush to scrub while syphoning
And add a good CUC.

Syphoning is almost impossible; it’s a 5 gallon tank. By the time I get a siphon going half the waters gone lol xD

 

[charliedarling]

How old is the tank? I tend to notice hair algae problems when my tanks are newer (under 2-3 years old). If that's the case, just run some GFO until you don't need it anymore. Problems with adding too many invertebrates for me is that once the algae issue is fixed, most of them will starve to death which is kind of cruel imo.

Thanks for the info. It’s definitely a newer tank (4 months or so but I got it secondhand). I have some GFO but worried ill bottom out my phosphates

 

[jeanjo85]

I never have an issue with it.

Thanks for the info. It’s definitely a newer tank (4 months or so but I got it secondhand). I have some GFO but worried ill bottom out my phosphates

yes, new tank tend to run into these algae issues.sounds pretty normal to me. I never have an issue with GFO, if anything you can stop using it at any point.

 

[19Mateo83]

Tuxedo urchin is the star of my CUC. Consider getting one and they’re super cool little things

Mine won’t eat gha, he scoots around eating any developing coraline. Had to get a pencil urchin too to take up his slack. That little guy is an algae eating machine…. Plus he doesn’t redecorate my tank too

 

[sfin52]

That doesn't look like gha. Calothrix is def a possibility

 

[charliedarling]

That doesn't look like gha. Calothrix is def a possibility

Very very interesting I’ll have to break out the microscope and throw some gfo in and see if that’ll wipe it out. Appreciate the insight. Maybe a dose of chemiclean and I’ll be able to get rid of it? If only life was that easy lol!

 

[Subsea]

There are quite a few differrrent variety of Cyanobacteria & GHA:

I don’t think you have Calothrix

Reef Cleaners

A good guide to identify most of the nuisance algae that plagues the hobby. Complete with pictures and suggested treatments

www.reefcleaners.org

Calothrix​

These species of cyano often appear as a light slimy yet hairy/fuzzy nastiness that loosely attaches to your rock work. Air bubbles are usually trapped while escaping the "algae", just like in the picture to the left. Calothrix is a type of blue green algae that looks very similar to Dinos. We have them next to each other in the guide to help you distinguish the difference between the two.

Manual Removal: Remove the rock and scrub, and then fine tune with a toothbrush. Let the cleaners get the rest. It helps to use a net to collect the debris that will occur as a result of the toothbrushing.



GHA

Green Hair Algae​

Green Hair Algae or "GHA" is really a broad term that covers hundreds of species of green simple filamentous algae. These species tend to be simple, fine in texture, and have few distinguishable features. True species level identification requires a microscope.

Distinguishing it from look-a-likes: GHA is not coarse or wiry, it should break apart easily when pulled, and should lose form quickly when removed from water. If you can make out a root structure, or a stiff branching structure it is probably not GHA

 

[Subsea]

GHA is a macro algae.


Just as in my garden, I hand weed what I don’t want to see.

 

[charliedarling]

There are quite a few differrrent variety of Cyanobacteria & GHA:

I don’t think you have Calothrix

Reef Cleaners

A good guide to identify most of the nuisance algae that plagues the hobby. Complete with pictures and suggested treatments

www.reefcleaners.org

Calothrix​

These species of cyano often appear as a light slimy yet hairy/fuzzy nastiness that loosely attaches to your rock work. Air bubbles are usually trapped while escaping the "algae", just like in the picture to the left. Calothrix is a type of blue green algae that looks very similar to Dinos. We have them next to each other in the guide to help you distinguish the difference between the two.

Manual Removal: Remove the rock and scrub, and then fine tune with a toothbrush. Let the cleaners get the rest. It helps to use a net to collect the debris that will occur as a result of the toothbrushing.



GHA

Green Hair Algae​

Green Hair Algae or "GHA" is really a broad term that covers hundreds of species of green simple filamentous algae. These species tend to be simple, fine in texture, and have few distinguishable features. True species level identification requires a microscope.

Distinguishing it from look-a-likes: GHA is not coarse or wiry, it should break apart easily when pulled, and should lose form quickly when removed from water. If you can make out a root structure, or a stiff branching structure it is probably not GHA

Thanks, this is super informative

 

[charliedarling]

There are quite a few differrrent variety of Cyanobacteria & GHA:

I don’t think you have Calothrix

Reef Cleaners

A good guide to identify most of the nuisance algae that plagues the hobby. Complete with pictures and suggested treatments

www.reefcleaners.org

Calothrix​

These species of cyano often appear as a light slimy yet hairy/fuzzy nastiness that loosely attaches to your rock work. Air bubbles are usually trapped while escaping the "algae", just like in the picture to the left. Calothrix is a type of blue green algae that looks very similar to Dinos. We have them next to each other in the guide to help you distinguish the difference between the two.

Manual Removal: Remove the rock and scrub, and then fine tune with a toothbrush. Let the cleaners get the rest. It helps to use a net to collect the debris that will occur as a result of the toothbrushing.



GHA

Green Hair Algae​

Green Hair Algae or "GHA" is really a broad term that covers hundreds of species of green simple filamentous algae. These species tend to be simple, fine in texture, and have few distinguishable features. True species level identification requires a microscope.

Distinguishing it from look-a-likes: GHA is not coarse or wiry, it should break apart easily when pulled, and should lose form quickly when removed from water. If you can make out a root structure, or a stiff branching structure it is probably not GHA

Here’s some more photos of what I’ve got going on. Certainly more “brown” than “green” but always assumed it was just GHA. I had a significant diatom bloom (microscope ID) and as soon as that subsided, this algae issue spread all over the tank. Some of the cells looked very algae like under the scope so that’s what I figured it was.

This growth is from only one week after scrubbing the rocks down *clean* in the sink, it’s explosive.

 

[Subsea]

With such a small aquarium, you need to do a complete cleanup : RIP clean. Less than 2 hours work. Live rock with coral can be treated in a 10% solution of 3% h202 for 10 minutes, outside of tank. Remove all sand and flush with fresh water.

As a final thought, consider an Oxygenator system which uses hydrogen peroxide to manage system nuisance algae.