Green Hair Algae out of control. please help!

[JeremyAN7]

Would prefer something to eat all of this....

I've been trying everything. Skimmer is working.
Tried blenny's urchins, hermits. no luck
tried Marine SAT for several weeks
I remove what i can by hand, and by that little electric motor tool i have (vacuum)

But i'm not winning. I am not sure what nutrient is coming from where. I have reduced light cycle to minimum.
I use RO/DI water for makeup. (shows 0 ppm on TDS meter) and to make new saltwater
I feed at the lowest end (3 times a week, some pellets or frozen shrimp.

The tank is a 72gallon with a remora pro skimmer
Please help!
maybe someone can come take a look? I'm in Malden.
Jeremy

 

[reefstarter]

I have a starry Blenny that loves it

 

[JeremyAN7]

wanna lend me your fish for a month? (or sell him to me?)

 

[reefkeeper2]

If the rock is easily removable, get some hydrogen peroxide and dump it all over it. Let it fizzle for a minute and then rinse it off with a little sea water and return it to the tank. It will all die. Then do something about phosphate control like GFO or an algae turf scrubber or it will just come back.

 

[JeremyAN7]

I've done those things in the past. I think I need a resident algae eating fish to control it.

 

[Owen386]

I did everything in the book to control my HA . I can 100% say it is absolutely controlled in my tank. It was a long tideous journey tho to rid the tank of excess nutrients. The one thing I will suggest to remove it tho is a sea hare worked absolute wonders in my tank ate all of it!

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[Steviereefs]

Two words
TURBO SNAILS.
They will not only rid the hair algae but they are cheap and also keep it gone afterwards. You need to get the real deal Turbo's from a reputable vendor like underwater world at the Taunton galleria mall.
Put them in the tank directly on the problem areas and they will eat, get tired with a full belly and rest. When they get moving again they may stray from the problem area but don't be afraid to move them back to the areas. That's the key, is too move them back to the areas when they wake up again and move to other areas. They can find their way back to the algae but if your impatient and would like to get rid of the hair algae try it. It's not a overnight fix but they are the best solution for faster results and long-term. If you want a faster pace algae eater the hair snail is amazing but they can be hit or miss and if it's a miss the will die a stinky memorable death , I was lucky to get a great one.

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[Steviereefs]

BTW if your not comfortable with moving them around you definitely don't have to, they can do the work without any assistance very well, moving them to the site consistently will just help get the job done faster

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[JeremyAN7]

Would you believe I have astria snails with the hair algae growing on their shells..
I had a sea hare. It seemed to get stuck in the skimmer intake and melt..
Would there be anything wrong with getting all three:
1) Starry Blenny
2) 2 dozen turbo snails
3) 1 sea hare

thoughts?

 

[jah-hoeva]

Aren't turbo snails large? Two dozen may be excessive. What about a tang?

 

[JeremyAN7]

A tang may not like GHA idk. maybe a yellow? but i donno. Also the tank is 72g. so it's pretty big. (there is a lot of algae to eat)

 

[reefstarter]

You can take my starry but I may want him back lol and a yellow tang will help once the ha gets long turbos don't do much to it my starry cleaned out my frag tank in one week

 

[IPWitan]

Consider MEXICAN turbo snails. They are bigger than the others and can push things around. Notwithstanding, they eat and eat and eat. I would suggest getting a dozen. Then, when the job is done, give a few of them away. At that point you will need to find a balance that sustains them. When I had cotton candy algae (pink poofy stuff), I got six until it was gone. Now I have 3 - 1 in sump, 1 in over flow, and 1 in main display. The one in the over flow seems to go back and forth.

When I had a bristle tooth tang, I have zero algae problem too.

As for source, it is also possible that it is coming from your rocks. I have rocks from Florida which are the same as Marco's rocks and look similar to yours. Florida has got to be one of the top exporters of phosphate in the state. There is a reason for that... Anyway, with time, the calcium in the rock dissolves. And in the process, it can open up deposits of phosphate on the rocks which will release phosphate into the tank. Unfortunately, it can also be absorbed back into other rocks. As a result, even if the deposit is consumed, you will then have to wait till the phosphate leaches back out of the other rocks.

Be mindful that the snail poop must be exported via your protein skimmer, water changes, or refugium.

A friend of mine how uncontrollable hair algae. Worse yet snails would die in his tank. The assumption was that the rocks were leaching phosphate and copper. After a while, it passed. He also had a very fat yellow tang.

Hopefully this is something that will pass with the help of some Mexican turbo snails.

 

[Reefless me]

I have to ask, are you running any kind of mechanical filtering medium such as socks, sponges, foam blocks etc.? If youe not maintaining them frequently, daily would be optimal, but I recommend not using any, except when the tank is stirred up. The trapped waste has x-amounts of of water being forced through it, in turn forcing it to break down exponentially faster than if left in the sand for critters to eat, or to break down at a much slower rate to be removed by skimming as it releases its organic compounds.

This is ususally where I start on my hunt. I use mechanical filtration very judiciously. If I know I'll be stirring up the sand bed or blowing the rockwork off or any activity that will stir up detritus, which I do weekly with my high tech turkey baster. I install the foam sleeve into my overflow box until the water clears. It's then removed, rinsed and dried ready for the next use.

Secondly I would do a five gallon water change and hold the old water aside as a rinse, while you remove as much of the rock as you can and use a toothbrush to manually remove as much of the hair algae as possible.


Thirdly, to remove phosphate I have used GFO with great success. If you would like I have a media reactor that you could borrow and you can try it. It worked well for me. If you search the threads you can find the recomened amounts, and duration of use. If memory serves me, one would use half of the manufacturers amount and only for two weeks.

Last but not least as was recommended previously add a dozen or so turbo snails and other herbivorous critters.

I think after you do this your problem should be solved. If the tank has only been set up for less than a year it's possible you're suffering the tail end of new tank syndrome. Honestly from the photo, it really doesn't look all that bad. January 16th, I set up a sixty gallon cube with cured rock from an established system with new sand. I had an outbreak of bryopsis that grew on everything except the rock and sand. Here I am after battling it and winning I already have coraline algae growing on my glass and equipment.

If I have been long winded I apologize, but I try to be as thorough as possible. Good luck. Hope this helps. If you need I would be happy to make a house call.

 

[JeremyAN7]

Hi . I do not have mechanical filters any more (it's been 2 years). just the skimmer. (which IS productive) my tank is 14 years old.

 

[delta]

Yeah nothing is 100% in this case. I would get things that are know to eat it that you actually want in the tank. the risk is there are no guarantees

That leaves manual removal and blowing the rocks/hair algae out with a power head with more frequent water changes. Water changes are to reduce nutrients but mainly to siphon out the crap you loosen up from the hair algae.

You can have a healthy tank and hair algae living strong as it traps its food. That is why I suggest attacking it directly instead of over tank health.

 

[Roccus]

Lot's of things to digest here... algae is part of life in any system salt or fresh... I'd be concerned if I didn't see algae in my tanks...it seems you are taking steps to combat it... it's all about nutrient control...as others have said, clean with a tooth brush and "harvest" some of that algae.. not only will your tank look better, but you'll be removing the bound up nutrients... algae eating critters are OK for some control but in the long run... they only mask the problem ( as does changing the light cycle)... phosphate binding agents and carbon dosing my be your best long term solution.

 

[JeremyAN7]

So reefstarter gave me a starry blenny to borrow. So far he looks good . Think i saw him taking a bite. so we'll see. Also, I will start GFO later this week. Why do people run BOTH GFO and Carbon at the same time? Can I just run GFO?

 

[reefstarter]

You can but the carbon "should" catch any stray gfo before it gets in your tank. I'm sure that guy will help but you need to address the phosphates

 

[G.T]

Better water quality, and it will go away! Stop afixing a plaster, fix the issue!