Green Hair Algae Battle

[SeaHorseQueen]

I've been battling GHA for the past 4-6 weeks after getting a new light and new corals before Christmas. I've lowered the lights (including extended acclimation time), done blackouts, physical removal, fasted the fish, and finally decided to remove the rocks and scrub the affected rocks and frags. The tank looks better and the coral are coming back out despite the cleaning. Fish are fine and CUC are still moving and doing their thing. I did (2) 50% WC a couple weeks ago and let the tank settle. I still hand picked the GHA but it grew back over 3 days. It just took over the tank so my last resort was scrubbing off the rocks and rinsing them off. I didn't realize I needed to rinse them in fresh SW but instead did fresh RODI water. I didn't touch every live rock, but the ones I needed to. I've been watching the tank and the animals. They're doing fine. But now I have bubbles/foaming where the filters are. Are those the built up nutrients from removing the algae? I changed the filter pads and activated carbon last night. I'm going to do a 50% WC today and keep testing the parameters stay in check. I'm having issues with KH not staying stable. What can I use to raise that and how do I use it? I've been using Fritz Perform Blue Box salt for several months without prior issues just I'm not sure if I got a bad batch or not.

Last nights parameters:

Salinity: 1.025 (refractometer)

Salifert Tests

KH 7.0 (been 6.4 for several readings but found it expired this month. I did shake the bottle to mix it up)
Ca: 380
Mg: 1170

Hanna Tests

Nitrate HR: 2.3-2.7
Phosphate: 0.05

Tank Info:

3yr 8M old
20g High
2" of sand bed
1 circulation pump off Amazon: 480mpg
1 Topfin SilentStream 10 filter
1 topfin Pro30 Power Filter
Light: Maxspend Blue Jump 260: At 40% (I can't seem to program the individual colors so I lowered the power from 70%).

Inhabitants:

1clownfish (I'd like to pair it at some point)
1 yellow watchman (about 2" right now and doing great)
CUC: 8-10 dwarf red & blue Crabs (need to re-count as the older ones have likely passed and I've started collecting shells that don't move for cleaning out), 2 bumble bee snails.

Does anyone else have any suggestions to get rid of GHA besides what I've already done? I have been watching BRS and other YT but I like to hear other Reefer's experiences. I'm looking to get a second circulation pump and hopefully that isn't too much flow. I also need to get a new gravel vacuum too. I had to toss my last one out after it sucked up the sand and I couldn't get it to budge from the line so I had to cut it short. I didn't exactly like this one anyhow.

 

[KrisReef]

I suspect that your salinity is low, which impacts alk and Ca. How do you calibrate your refractometer?

 

[breathing underwater]

Do you not have any snails or urchins? Just the hermits? If so, that would be the first thing I'd try, some trochus and turbos, and pincushion and tuxedo urchins.

 

[SeaHorseQueen]

I suspect that your salinity is low, which impacts alk and Ca. How do you calibrate your refractometer?

I calibrate it every day that I use it with BrightWell to 35ppt.

 

[SeaHorseQueen]

Do you not have any snails or urchins? Just the hermits? If so, that would be the first thing I'd try, some trochus and turbos, and pincushion and tuxedo urchins.

I have bumble bee snails. I do need to get more turbos though. I had thought about a short stem tuxedo urchin but wasn’t sure if it’d be ok in a tank my size.

 

[kevgib67]

I have bumble bee snails. I do need to get more turbos though. I had thought about a short stem tuxedo urchin but wasn’t sure if it’d be ok in a tank my size.

My son’s 55g was overrun with gha. He put a sea hair in and in 2 weeks it cleared his tank. He is currently supplementing with alge wafers and nori. I suspect it would tank about 4-5 days. A tuxedo urchin would work in your tank since they stay small.

 

[Hemmbone20]

Fluconazole works great. A product like ReefFlux.
If you’ve tried all the natural methods and are still struggling try researching that medication.
I was fighting algae for months and 2 weeks treatment of reefflux my rocks have never been cleaner.

Granted, if the root cause of your algae bloom isn’t fixed, it will grow back eventually.

 

[SeaHorseQueen]

My son’s 55g was overrun with gha. He put a sea hair in and in 2 weeks it cleared his tank. He is currently supplementing with alge wafers and nori. I suspect it would tank about 4-5 days. A tuxedo urchin would work in your tank since they stay small.

I might go ahead and get one. How often do they shed their needles?

 

[SeaHorseQueen]

Fluconazole works great. A product like ReefFlux.
If you’ve tried all the natural methods and are still struggling try researching that medication.
I was fighting algae for months and 2 weeks treatment of reefflux my rocks have never been cleaner.

Granted, if the root cause of your algae bloom isn’t fixed, it will grow back eventually.

I’ve got a couple ideas on why caused it. I believe the light is too strong but I didn’t back it off. Since I don’t have a rimless tank, I have to build a stand to hang it from. I plan to rent a par meter to double check it. My second theory is needing another circulation pump. It’s hard to find one that fits a tall nano that won’t throw the sand everywhere. There are definitely areas that need “worked” so I think as long as the second on doesn’t overpower the sand, that should help. I moved one of my zoas to the bottom to help with algae but it doesn’t seem to really like it much.

 

[kevgib67]

I might go ahead and get one. How often do they shed their needles?

My tuxedos don’t shed their spines .

 

[bushdoc]

I am not a big fun of chemical means to control GHA, I also suggest Urchins which worked for my tank.
One of contributing factors might be your relatively deep sand bed which acts as a trap for nutrients, I would do something about it.

 

[Hemmbone20]

I am not a big fun of chemical means to control GHA

I generally agree, but with a few exceptions, this being one of them.
To me, hair algae / bryopsis was growing around my colonies was causing irritation and stress, and every time I tried manual removal I broke things.
So far in my experience fluconazole has been a very positive experience.
My acros stayed shaggy and happy the entire time. Zero fatalities. Zero collateral damage.

 

[slingfox]

I am pretty your your salinity is too low. Get the Tropic Marin Hydrometer or the VeeGee Refractometer.

The other issue is you don’t have the right CUC, Get one tuxedo urchin, 1-2 turbo snails, and 8-9 Astrea and Trochus snail. Hermit crabs can be fun inhabitants but don’t do much for algae control relative to snails.