Green Hair Algae!

[ShawLovesFishies]

Hey everyone, need some guidance! We have two separate tanks, 45 and 180 gallons. The 45 we have had a little over a year and the 180 we’ve had for about 9 months. They were looking amazing then all of a sudden We started having an issue with green hair algae in both a couple months ago. We figured out the problem, our RODI was not good and needed filter changes way sooner than we expected. We fixed that issue and check it weekly however the green hair algae has taken over! We have all different types of snails and crap, urchins, conchs and recently added a sea hare in the big tank. It’s doing nothing. I try manually removing every few days but there is so much. We had tried reef flux. Ran it thru the same tank with no issues but the hair algae is still there. Tried it in the big tank and the fish started having a bad reaction within hours and had to abort the plan. What else can we do?

 

[DmitryB]

Bummer! I recently was able to get mine under control, although honestly not entirely sure how. I did a lot of manual removal and each time I did, it grew less and was more brittle. Big CUC and then I decided to get a Two Spot Bristletooth Tang, which is eating it. The Tang was not on my planned list, but it's a nice fish and I'm glad to now have it. However, the algae was already going away by the time the fish arrived, so he wasn't the reason. Maybe just keep manually removing? Check nitrates and phosphates as well.

 

[Baldyreef]

I absolutely agree with @DmitryB nitrates and phosphates are a the numbers to watch for gha and manual removal is essential as it is very stubborn

 

[Bear22]

Hey everyone, need some guidance! We have two separate tanks, 45 and 180 gallons. The 45 we have had a little over a year and the 180 we’ve had for about 9 months. They were looking amazing then all of a sudden We started having an issue with green hair algae in both a couple months ago. We figured out the problem, our RODI was not good and needed filter changes way sooner than we expected. We fixed that issue and check it weekly however the green hair algae has taken over! We have all different types of snails and crap, urchins, conchs and recently added a sea hare in the big tank. It’s doing nothing. I try manually removing every few days but there is so much. We had tried reef flux. Ran it thru the same tank with no issues but the hair algae is still there. Tried it in the big tank and the fish started having a bad reaction within hours and had to abort the plan. What else can we do?

FYI,

My dwarf blue leg hermits absolutely demolish hair algae. Not that I am trying to grow any, but because of the hermits I can't keep enough present in my tank as my emerald crab likes the stuff too.

 

[Baldyreef]

FYI,

My dwarf blue leg hermits absolutely demolish hair algae. Not that I am trying to grow any, but because of the hermits I can't keep enough present in my tank as my emerald crab likes the stuff too.

wow your lucky mine would never touch it lol

 

[Kooma]

I used to have thick hair algae. A pin cushion urchin cleared me and i havent dealt with it since.

 

[Bear22]

wow your lucky mine would never touch it lol

It's the only algae in my tank they like (when it's there). I hav a bit of macro ulva growing and they won't touch that at all.

 

[Jamie9]

For mine, it was multi pronged. A lot of manual removal. Added a fleece roller and algae scrubber to help get my nitrate and phosphate under control, and a tuxedo urchin that definitely helped until he one day mysteriously disappeared. I went from daily 10 minutes of manual removal to now my regular CUC can handle it and I pluck out 2 bits once every week or two.

 

[MichaelReefer]

I would say you need nutrient export as well. I personally use an Algae Reactor as well as a clean-up crew. I run mine at night for about 10 hours and havent had algae issues since. Manual removal will also help, but you have to get its food out of the water.

 

[RiptideAquaculture Verified Sponsor]

Do you have any recent phosphate (PO4) or nitrate (NO3) readings? Those would help give us a better idea of what’s going on. Keep in mind that hair algae can absorb nutrients as it grows, so low readings don’t always tell the whole story. A few photos of the tank and your filtration setup would be helpful, too!

 

[MNAquariums]

I agree with this, getting actual phosphate and nitrate numbers will help a lot.

I’ve had major GHA outbreaks myself, and in my case it wasn’t high nutrients but too low phosphate that caused it. I was running around 5 ppm nitrate and 0.03 ppm phosphate, which meant the system was basically phosphate-limited.

When PO₄ is too low, beneficial bacteria and microfauna struggle, and that gives algae an advantage.

Once I increased PO₄ slightly and started dosing beneficial bacteria regularly, the GHA slowly disappeared over a couple of weeks as the microfauna recovered and outcompeted it.