Help with green hair algae

jackalexander · Mar 26, 2021

I’ve been battling GHA for a few months now and It’s upsetting because I got it on a frag plug from my LFS. It has only spread a little bit and it pulls off easily so my nitrates are >5ppm and phosphate is around >0.15. I have tried flipping rocks upside down to cover the GHA, manual removal, turbo snails (worked but didn’t eat all of it) and an emerald crab. Now, I’ve just set up a mini refugium in hopes of it out competing the GHA. A blackout would probably be the last resort because I don’t want to kill any coral

Zakery Murray · Mar 26, 2021

Hmm I would suggest doing some water changes to clean the water up a bit. Maybe more clean up crew if you think you could add more, specifically snails like nassarius or cerith. I believe the refigium has also a good chance of helping in the long run. No need to blackout, tons of options before that.

vetteguy53081 · Mar 26, 2021

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. GHA is not coarse or wiry, so 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. Green hair algae can be pulled out easily, and tooth brushed or scrubbed off the rock work. This is easier to do if the rock is outside of the tank. If it is growing from the sand sift it out with a net.
After cleaning ir scrubbing it, add some clean up crew such as Blue Leg hermits, Cerith snails, Chitons, Turbo grazers, Conchs, Emerald Crabs, Urchins and astrea snails

jackalexander · Mar 27, 2021

vetteguy53081 said:
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. GHA is not coarse or wiry, so 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. Green hair algae can be pulled out easily, and tooth brushed or scrubbed off the rock work. This is easier to do if the rock is outside of the tank. If it is growing from the sand sift it out with a net.
After cleaning ir scrubbing it, add some clean up crew such as Blue Leg hermits, Cerith snails, Chitons, Turbo grazers, Conchs, Emerald Crabs, Urchins and astrea snails

I chopped it down really thin and my turbo snail mowed through it but now he’s nowhere to be found so it’s growing back. will try this for sure!

jackalexander · Mar 27, 2021

Zakery Murray said:
Hmm I would suggest doing some water changes to clean the water up a bit. Maybe more clean up crew if you think you could add more, specifically snails like nassarius or cerith. I believe the refigium has also a good chance of helping in the long run. No need to blackout, tons of options before that.

I have 20 dwarf ceriths and 12 florida ceriths... I think I need to just pack it full of turbos and emeralds and then take some back to the LFS.

Suohhen · Mar 27, 2021

Astreae are a much better option long term imo. They might not be as effective but 99% of the battle is with manual removal anyhow

Hermie · Mar 27, 2021

manual removal + snails is best IMO, then you have to handle the nutrient export side somehow, such as a refugium as you mentioned.

rhostam · Mar 27, 2021

jackalexander said:
I chopped it down really thin and my turbo snail mowed through it but now he’s nowhere to be found so it’s growing back. will try this for sure!

Agreed. When I had my outbreak I used a pipe cleaner with the end bent up into a loop. It was everywhere after I drilled some holes into rock structure (and trying out new food + schedule). I placed coarse floss then less coarse floss in the filter and then turned up flow. I scrubbed it off and then netted what I could and changed out the floss when done. The turbos took care of the rest expeditiously so much so that when they finished they mowed down my Pom Pom and red ogo. Completely.

kutcha · Mar 27, 2021

I have actually gone away from a refugium because for me the chaeto and other macro algaes were not able to outcompete the GHA so i went with a algae turf scrubber and because the light on my ATS runs 20 hours a day it out competes the same algae in the display tank after manually removing the GHA from the display it doesnt grow back my yellow tang and lawnmower actually miss the stuff lol. Once in a while i will throw some GHA in my display from my ATS to give the tang and blenny.