Green Hair Algae explosion in new tank

[Creggers]

Hello R2R,

I have been cycling my new rocks and decided to throw a cube of Mysis shrimp to feed the various animals living in my rock work. I woke up the next day to an absolute explosion of GHA all over the glass, dry rock, and even some on the Live Rock.

I know that there's usually an ugly period when setting up a new tank, but the amount of algae that just exploded seemingly over night is insane. I'll admit that I'm pretty new to cycling a saltwater aquarium that's as large as this one.

Should I be at all concerned? or taking steps to resolve? I was considering getting some CUC members in there and scrubbing the rocks the best I can. Should I be concerned or just let the cycle go and let the tank ugly up?

 

[Webslinger]

no concern, ugly algae stages last a year. Brush off with toothbrush is gets real bad

 

[kartrsu]

Whoa that’s a crazy explosion over night. Hmm, I’d take the affected rocks out and give them a good scrub down. Is the tank still cycling? If it is, might be best to do manual removal and let the cycle run it’s course first. If it’s done, Id do a water change and get some turbo snails.

 

[vetteguy53081]

A little excessive. Reduce white light intensity and add clean up members such as:
Turbo snails
Astrea snails
Nerite snails
Nassarius snails
About 10 blue leg hermit crabs

BY ANY CHANCE, IS THIS TANK AT OR NEAR A WINDOW ??

 

[Creggers]

A little excessive. Reduce white light intensity and add clean up members such as:
Turbo snails
Astrea snails
Nerite snails
Nassarius snails
About 10 blue leg hermit crabs

BY ANY CHANCE, IS THIS TANK AT OR NEAR A WINDOW ??

It''s running in the basement and gets very little light outside of the LEDs which I've reduced the intensity of by almost 50%.

I also decided to shorten my photo-period by two hours and lengthen the time my Fuge runs to hopefully out compete the hair algae.

I guess now that the cycle is complete I can introduce a CUC to attmept to control some algae.

 

[NewbReefer3451]

Need a better CUC for sure the list suggested above looks good. However i would totally add some Trochus snails, they are my favorite. Make sure you have hermits to pick in between the rocks. And eventually after cycling you can have a blenny which we really help with the algae. Also you could have some excess phosphates coming in, which you’ll want to check, as its early to see algae like that.

 

[Creggers]

Need a better CUC for sure the list suggested above looks good. However i would totally add some Trochus snails, they are my favorite. Make sure you have hermits to pick in between the rocks. And eventually after cycling you can have a blenny which we really help with the algae. Also you could have some excess phosphates coming in, which you’ll want to check, as its early to see algae like that.

Just put in an order from reefcleaners.com and got a good mix of everything listed above. I went against my heart and even picked up two emerald crabs as I know they can be good with Algae. Once I start adding in some lps I'll reduce / remove the crabs as I hear they can be a bit nippy.

 

[NewbReefer3451]

Just put in an order from reefcleaners.com and got a good mix of everything listed above. I went against my heart and even picked up two emerald crabs as I know they can be good with Algae. Once I start adding in some lps I'll reduce / remove the crabs as I hear they can be a bit nippy.

Reef cleaners is the best. John the owner is great and his emeralds eat bubble algae and green algae like I’ve never seen before. But yes you will definitely want to keep an eye on them, I’ve had plenty of lps ruined because of emeralds and hermit. I mainly move to a snail CUC once the tank is stable for a year + . Remember only trochus can flip themselves easily so if you see turbos or astreas etc on their backs help them over. They can survive in their backs for a surprising time but will eventually die, so even if they seem crusted that’s just a protection they do when flipped. GL!

 

[michael inocencio]

I've been successful with sea urchins in the past as well. Sea Hare's will eat lot's of algae but for some reason I can't keep them for more than 2 weeks.

 

[NewbReefer3451]

I've been successful with sea urchins in the past as well. Sea Hare's will eat lot's of algae but for some reason I can't keep them for more than 2 weeks.

Haha same, my hares literally go missing after two weeks and I have no freaking clue where they go just disappear and I’ve had some big ones. Urchins you have to be careful with I’ve seen them kill all sorts of coral, nems etc

 

[brandon429]

For handy tracking in another thread: would you say that given equal parameter contact via the water, the live rock portion with coralline has the least algae/ most resistance

something causes algae to select where it anchors. The same params touch all zones, yet some select better for plants than others.

it appears to be stronger on the reflective new white rocks, and we study coralline as a literal algae fighter chemically itself...of course can be overcome at some point but would you agree based on your test here that live rock has natural algae control characters

you should lift out rocks and clean off algae manually, make gone.

spray 3% common peroxide lightly across the former invaded surfaces you already cleaned totally. Let sit two mins, rinse off and put back or don’t rinse off its not harmful and it doesn’t hurt bacteria. It makes algae stay gone longer. I estimate we have done this fifty thousand times in posts over the last 9 yrs of peroxide cheats in the hobby. It doesn’t harm the cycle, it harms the algae we don’t want.

you don’t want to leave that mass to be turned into animal pellet waste, you want it removed. When you get the 200 snails, add them to a clean tank not an invaded one. Feed them fish food, don’t use them as removers use them as preventers only, in the clean condition.

 

[Creggers]

I have some pencil urchins that hitchhiked on my live rock but I haven't seen them venture too far at all really. They turn up at night in the same spots and never seem to do a whole lot. Keeping an eye out as when they mature they'll probably get moved to sump / sold to LFS.

Reefcleaners only has Cerths, Nassarius, and Nerties so for now that's the snail force I have. My LFS has some other snails I may pick up but for now I'm going to see if the mix I purchased does it's job.

 

[Creggers]

For handy tracking in another thread: would you say that given equal parameter contact via the water, the live rock portion with coralline has the least algae/ most resistance

something causes algae to select where it anchors. The same params touch all zones, yet some select better for plants than others.

it appears to be stronger on the reflective new white rocks, and we study coralline as a literal algae fighter chemically itself...of course can be overcome at some point but would you agree based on your test here that live rock has natural algae control characters

I'd say 100% correct here - the live rock with Coralline has almost no pest algae on it. Very minimal if any. It also comes off very quickly with a quick scrub!

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

YAAAAAssss! Nice. Get an urchin or 2 and manual scrub/siphon. If your tank is big enough for a yellow tang get one.

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

Take that over Dino’s ALL DAY

 

[WallyB]

Hello R2R,

I have been cycling my new rocks and decided to throw a cube of Mysis shrimp to feed the various animals living in my rock work. I woke up the next day to an absolute explosion of GHA all over the glass, dry rock, and even some on the Live Rock.

I know that there's usually an ugly period when setting up a new tank, but the amount of algae that just exploded seemingly over night is insane. I'll admit that I'm pretty new to cycling a saltwater aquarium that's as large as this one.

Should I be at all concerned? or taking steps to resolve? I was considering getting some CUC members in there and scrubbing the rocks the best I can. Should I be concerned or just let the cycle go and let the tank ugly up?

That's not an GHA Explosion....

This is

I do notice the Algae is more concentrated on the Newer Rock. That's quite normal.
The other Older Rocks covered with Coraline look better.

However this is a early warning to keep your nutrients down.
Do all the common sense stuff.

As far as Critters to clean up GHA, there isn't much hope, nothing eats stringy thin film GHA except a Sea Hare.
I tried every critter possible, in an experiment.

Yes, the Tiger Cowrie also Ate GHA, but he also Ate Corals (SPS and his Favourite LPS)

Want to see a Sea Hare in Action. Amazing speed, but they die for some unknown reason.


So scrub the rocks (out of tank), rinse and put back.
Clean Glass, and try to catch the loose GHA, either by net, or a filter sock.

 

[t5Nitro]

I've got 3 rocks that look similar to wallys post above that I plan on removing and scrubbing today.

Question is can I scrub them in the tub quick and rinse under tap or should I mix some saltwater up to scrub in a bucket of similar salinity?

I'm going to scrub, spray with peroxide and let sit 2 minutes, then rinse and back in the tank.

 

[Cabinetman]

This could all be avoided with a big well lit refugium. You’ll get an ugly stage but it will be in there and not the display tank...

 

[Paul B]

I would not do anything. Go out to dinner and maybe have the linguine and clams, perhaps a nice bottle of Pino Noir.
Sit back and delight in the fact that you are looking at natures best way to remove unwanted chemicals in your water as what has been happening in the sea for quite a few years.
If you add chemicals be ready to keep doing that as that is how tanks crash.
Leave it alone.

 

[tnw50cal]

This could all be avoided with a big well lit refugium. You’ll get an ugly stage but it will be in there and not the display tank...

Note the word BIG. A small refugium in the 2nd chamber of your AIO tank ain't going to cut it. Seems you need a refugium almost as big as your tank to get it to work.