Green Hair?????????????? HELP........

[Glassman 1281]

Hello all? I have had my tank going with great success(about a year) up until about 2 weeks ago.I have had a green hair algea major problem. ITS EVERYWHERE... I did my 20% water changes YES with RODI water,all my tests came back good, I have been feeding marine flake i have cut down to once every 3 days, i got 1 blue hippo, 2 clowns ,1 wrasse,3 chromis...
i only have about 10 snails 10 crabs 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 blood shrimp... My lights where on from 3-11pm i cut back to 2-9pm I have t-5 retros... What the heck will this go away or what???? The last time i did a water change i tried to get all that i can with my hands but it seeems to come right back`in about a week Like crazy.............Why all of a sudden???

 

[Mangas50]

i was once told get a seahare. I saw a video on you tube and the seahare cleaned up the whole tank quite quickly.

 

[...Manny...]

Any Sun light hitting the tank can cause it. A seahare will help but won't live long without a reoccuring food supply.

 

[nanoreefer22]

When's the last time you changed your RO/DI filters? What's the TDS coming out of it?

Sunlight hitting your tank will NOT make algae grow.

What are your parameters and what are you testing with?

 

[SI REEF]

seahare may get caught up in the power heads mexican turbo may help. Do you check your phosphates?

 

[SI REEF]

Are the bulbs a year old?

 

[reefman]

the tank pic looks funny. almost like the hairy algea are photoshopped in.
any pics with closer look at the rocks?

 

[18oreefer]

I wonce grew a whole tank of this stuff. After much batteling it is all gone. In the time it took to get rid of it i tried everything, EVERYTHING. The only thing that will work is getting yout phos and nitrates to 0. In the course of my struggle i read an article, of which i can not remember where it was. None the less it stressed that this stuff can live on fractions of a part of nitrate or phosphate. I had sea hares but i had no luck with them the longest one lived was 2 weeks and they didnt eat a whole lot. But thats not to say you wont have better luck. The root cause is nutrients nutrients nutrients. Get rid of them and the algea will soon follow. Best of luck in your fight.

 

[nanoreefer22]

I wonce grew a whole tank of this stuff. After much batteling it is all gone. In the time it took to get rid of it i tried everything, EVERYTHING. The only thing that will work is getting yout phos and nitrates to 0. In the course of my struggle i read an article, of which i can not remember where it was. None the less it stressed that this stuff can live on fractions of a part of nitrate or phosphate. I had sea hares but i had no luck with them the longest one lived was 2 weeks and they didnt eat a whole lot. But thats not to say you wont have better luck. The root cause is nutrients nutrients nutrients. Get rid of them and the algea will soon follow. Best of luck in your fight.

:iamwithstI'm with 18oreefer Great advice

 

[inkblue]

:wow: looKs bad...

 

[strendo]

I heard that Kent Magnesium supplement will get rid of it. Raise your mag up to 1600 for a week and it melts away. There's a bunch of threads on RC about it.

 

[nanoreefer22]

I heard that Kent Magnesium supplement will get rid of it. Raise your mag up to 1600 for a week and it melts away. There's a bunch of threads on RC about it.

And then what happens when you return your mg to normal levels?

 

[Glassman 1281]

There is no sunlight at all its in my basement with no windows... I just installed a Phosban reator, I just checked nitrates 0 ?? Yes the t5s are about a year not even maybe 10 months.... I cut the fedding the flakes to every other day and a pinch..... I have not checked or tested for phosphates but took advice from a fellow reefer to add one anyway.. My RODI does have a TDS meter and it reads 0 coming out. Its weird.. I know my pic sucks but thats all i got........ I just realized tonight that there looks like tiny bubbles are in the hair too...... Help???? Is everthing going to crash? How long can i stop feeding???? Maybe thats it? Im going to do another water change this weekend.....

 

[duke62]

your tank wont crash.relax and make sure your phosphates are as low as u can get them.the phosban reactor should help u.im surprised the tang is not cleaning that up for ya.

 

[18oreefer]

It is going to take some time for your phos to go down and you will continue to have algea, but it will go away. IT WILL TAKE TIME. Your tank is in no danger. just keep pullin out what you can when you do water changes and pull out the clumps when you have time.

 

[Glassman 1281]

Ok thanks all... Im going to test the phos. now its so ugly....... :bablefish

 

[boonani]

I'm still a noob but you mentioned your light bulbs being about a year old. I been reading that old lightbulbs can contribute to algae growth.

 

[MARCOANTONIOJR]

I once had a 29 biocube and was given a rock full of hair algae i put a bunch of hermits in there and they ate it all up, it didnt take one day though,but they cleaned up the rock completely.

 

[basiab]

I vote for old bulbs.
By the way, if you just feed flakes you should reconsider and find something better. Usually a variety is best but flakes is probably the least nutritious.

 

[pmui]

my hair algae would put your to shame. It looked like a Kelp forest. My 120gal. tank was filled with H.A. on my lie rock, power head. This was due to the fact I have not changed the water for 9mo+. I just keep topping it off w/ RO/DI.
The way i got rid of it was, 20% water change, hand pull as much H.A. as i could out of the tank. Change the bulbs. Use this stuff from Blue life phosphate control.
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem.aspx?idproduct=BL2131
I used the whole bottle in about 30days, Had my skimmer running at optimal speed. It pulled out thick goop for the whole month. I then added a phos-reactor to the sump. Now there is not a trace of Hair algae ever since. I still get diatom on the glass.