Green Hair Algae - HELP!

[sroot17]

Help! My tank is slowly being overcome with green hair algae.

I have a 50g dt with 20g refugium/sump where i grow culepra.

My water parameters are good, 0 phosphates, 0 nitrates. I use ro/di water testing at 0 tds. I run carbon and GFO along with a reef octopus skimmer. Bulbs are a month old. Run 4 39w T5s, 3 aqua blue specials and 1 blue +. Those run for about 8 hours a day plus my moonlights which run for about 10. I feed every other day to ever 2 days.

I've tried turbos, hermits, lawnmower blennies, reduced lighting, added a refugium and nothing seems to be working. Today I noticed that its starting to grow on and kill my stylo! Enough is enough!!

What else can be done?!

 

[dherrera83]

That's a tough one. I had a small prob with gha but once I ran gfo in a reactor they all slowly vanished. Try turning off ur lights for 3 days then do a water change and replace gfo.

 

[yesjenks]

How your in tank flow?? I had hair a little while ago. What really helped was scrubbing as much of it of the LR as possible. Doing a water change taking as much of the loose hair out as possible and leaving lights off for 2-3 days.
Good luck man!!

 

[SaltyFlip]

Yea, mine killed my Red Monti and I was pissed. I got a lawmower blenny and didn't feed him for a week along with about 40% water change every week. Most of it is gone except for the one covering my Monti. Good Luck on your endeavor!

 

[Mattl22]

Sea hare will eat it but something might take it's place if ur po4 is high if ur tank is new it will go through phases till the system settles in keep up with the gfo and water changes
Also might wanna try prodibo or zeozym these 2 helped me get over a big hump !
Goodluck

 

[James983]

0 Phosphates on most kits just means little. If you have HA you need to check with a quality low range PO4 meter. HA can sustain itself on low PO4. I just won the battle against HA and took several steps.

1. Change RO filters and flush membrane
2. Raise Mg over 1500 with Kent Mg
3. Frequent water changes with quality salt. I switched from Oceanic to ESV. Everytime you do a water chage siphon and manually remove as much HA as possible. Any dead HA will create more PO4. so this step is very important.
4. Increase your clean up crew. I found the Lawnmower Blenny only eats short hair algea. I did not try a Sea Hare or Urchin.
5. Run GFO if your not already. I used a product called PO4x4 sold by Aquruim Specialty on line.
6. Change filter sock often

I believe most of my phosphates were leaching from BRS Pukani dry rock. It took about three moths of the above steps before I won the battle. If you let it go for any length of time HA will take control of your tank. Good Luck!

 

[MatthewScars]

Check out the 'search' feature on the internet. It's super useful.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-10/newbie/index.php
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-10/newbie/index.php
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-10/newbie/index.php
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-10/newbie/index.php

 

[Jzhou]

where did you get your rock from and how old is your tank. Worse case scenario, you rock might have trapped some phosphate.

 

[ryangrieder]

I agree with James. What test kit did you use? Was it low range? There is no way you have 0. Get a low range test kit and check it again. And check your TDS level.

All else fails, look into other threads about dosing ethanol

 

[Jzhou]

Be careful with ethanol, if you add too much you can kill a lot of livestock. Also, depending on the type of gha you have, it might not have any effect what so ever. I suggest you scrub all of the rocks out of your tank, then completely black it out for 4 days. This would include preventing all light from entering the tank from the glass as well.

 

[sroot17]

Thanks everyone. The tank is a little over a year old. I'm using a red sea test kit but will pick up better low range one this week. Can anyone suggest a good one besides a hannah? Salifert or Elos?

I have am mp10 and hydor 1050 for water flow. I do a 10g water change once a week and pick out as much gha as possible. My RO filters were changed 2 months ago.

I have been having trouble trying to get my ph up and recently switched to BRS 2 part plus mag.

I also recently switched from ESV salt to reef crystals.

Ok so the plan is to:
1) switch to a mesh filter sock
2) pick up an RO flush kit
3) new test kit
4) increase CUC, maybe try a sea hare
5) try to get mag up to 1500
6) will try a 3 day blackout in my dt. I have coral on most rocks so removing and scrubbing will be difficult.

 

[Jzhou]

did the gha come after you change in salt? ESV is by far a superior salt. Try a 4 day blackout. 3 days won't do much for you and 5 would be too long for your coral to survive.

 

[James983]

You can get feedback on the Hanna meters as I have no experience with them. I borrowed a low range meter until my HA was under control.

From all my reading, it seems that the Kent Mg works best for some reason. It is believed that there are some impurities within that kill the HA. Just be sure to siphon it out as it dies or the dead HA fuels more PO4 which feeds more HA.

 

[CoralMeister]

Be careful with ethanol, if you add too much you can kill a lot of livestock. Also, depending on the type of gha you have, it might not have any effect what so ever. I suggest you scrub all of the rocks out of your tank, then completely black it out for 4 days. This would include preventing all light from entering the tank from the glass as well.

I agree with being careful on the vodka. Vodka dosing is pretty much a last resort.

 

[sroot17]

did the gha come after you change in salt? ESV is by far a superior salt. Try a 4 day blackout. 3 days won't do much for you and 5 would be too long for your coral to survive.

It came on about a month after I switched.
Am now starting with Red Sea Coral pro. We'll see how that goes.

 

[sroot17]

Looks like i am gaining control of my situation. It hasn't improved drastically but at least its not getting worse.

Bought some kent mag, 7 turbos, a flush kit and a sea hare.

Current parameters:
no2 - 0
n03 - 0
phos - 0-.002 very hard to tell with salifer. Looks like 0 to me
alk - 4.5
ph - 7.9
calc - 390
mag - 1320
sg - 1.024
temp - 78

anyone have a hannah meter I can use?

 

[rebelson]

anyone have a hannah meter I can use?

For phos I assume? If so I do...lmk if you want to come by.

 

[sroot17]

For phos I assume? If so I do...lmk if you want to come by.

That would be great. I'll send you a pm. Thanks!

 

[sroot17]

Still having issues with GHA.

After much reading I decided to test my tds along its path from my ro/di unit to my tank. I have 0 tds out of my ro/di but to my surprise I am showing .04 in my freshwater reservoir used to store water for my ato.

Could my container be leaching phosphates and adding to my hair algae problem?

My only other possible cause is some loose detritus buildup in my sump.

I'm ordering a hanna meter this week, I give up trying to test with salifer or any other kits.

 

[ducati335i]

I would feed a little less, water changes weekly, scrub larger areas w a tooth brush, cones right off, keep testing for phos, and run gfo