Hair Algae or bryprosis help

[RobertP]

Guys I'm dying here. I really think this is green hair algae but starting to second guess myself.
It has gotten worse lately and really hating it. Weird part is phosphates are .02 and nitrates are 0-.25!!!
I have cut back feeding over the past 2 weeks to one cube per day and have gfo and good bfs carbon running. Tank is 130 gallon and refugium is about 5 gal and grows chaeto very well. Have harvested it twice in 3 weeks. Skimming with lifereef and mag9.5 pump.
Been thinking false positive reading on phosphates because of all the algae. Went ahead and dosed with phosphate rx and used about 50 drops over the past week but no change.
Last week I pulled by hand and brushed one of the rocks as a test but it is back. Did a 25 gal water change. Also switched off red sea reef to hw marinemix salt.
Lawnmower blenny is super fat and added some 10 more turbos and 10 nitrite snails. Tangs wont touch it nor the hermits.

Alk 8.6
Ca 440
Mg 1450
Ph 8.1
Phosphate 0 on hanna high and .02 on red sea low
Nitrates 0 on red sea low

Sent off a Triton sample last week so looking forward to seeing what it says.

Really could use some help or advice.

 

[RobertP]

Forgot to mention tank is 9 months old and started with dry rock. Also change filter socks once a week.

 

[rockstarta78]

From the picture it looks like GHA. Do you see any fern like shape? Bryopsis usually look like fern. IMHO, for a 9 month old 130gl tank there's lot of fishes. Chances are your GHA is consuming all the NO3 and PO4. That's why you are getting the false-positive result. It can take over a year for a tank to finish fully cycling. The 6-8 weeks cycling time frame that we all throw around, that just makes the tank fish safe. I would start wet skimming, manual removal and do weekly 10% water change, if it's GHA. if it is fern like, that's bryopsis. There's a good thread that talks about Fluconazole for treatment.

 

[RobertP]

Thanks, I saw the bryopsis article but agree I think it is GHA as well. I would have sworn I pulled out some fern-like algae a few months ago that came in on a frag. I will try skimming more with more water changes. LFS said to pull all my rocks out and brush them off in a trashcan or start over and really dont want to do that!

 

[rockstarta78]

Thanks, I saw the bryopsis article but agree I think it is GHA as well. I would have sworn I pulled out some fern-like algae a few months ago that came in on a frag. I will try skimming more with more water changes. LFS said to pull all my rocks out and brush them off in a trashcan or start over and really dont want to do that!

Start over? Really? What kind of LFS would say $^%$ like that over GHA! I am not saying it will be easy overnight fix but you can fix this. If you stick to a strict plan when dealing with algae you can beat this. Yeah it might not look good for next few months, but eventually it will go away. No need to restart a tank that's already cycled. Just control your nutrient, have a good plan for nutrient export, grow chaeto (if you are not already growing chaeto). A good husbandry goes a long way.

 

[mibwb]

What is your water source? Using tap water for water change or toping off will raise phosphates. Always use RO or RO/DI water for adding water. Add some Mangrove plants to lower phosphates or add a Nitrate sponge.

 

[RobertP]

Only used rodi water since day one. I've been checking it everytime I make new water and it is always 0 Tds so I think it is fine. No that Lfs is not my favorite but good supply of snails.

 

[Bret Brinkmann]

Yeah that is definitely hair algae. Your Mg is too high for bryopsis to grow. My astrea and cerith snails do a great job on it and can get into the smaller crevices because of their smaller size. I honestly like having a little bit or algae so I know my snails always have something to eat.

I have an ULNS but still get plenty of algae growth. The rate of nutrient consumption equals the rate of introduction. It's just those rates are both very high so no build up and thus test reads zero even with all the growth. Even on my ULR Hanna I am lucky to see 10-20 ppb.

I don't know how you can get rid of it forever, but why not just enjoy the CUC so long as the growth doesn't get out of had? My algae doesn't grow on my healthy corals, sponges, or coraline.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

IMO. More cuc. You can also just use a toothbrush to scrub that off in the tank. When your done blow off the rocks and make sure you get it it to the overflow.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Fwiw. Bryopiss doesn't care how high the mag is. That was Kent mag supplement that worked. There was an impurity some believe is lithium that killed the bryo. They have since changed the formula.

 

[prsnlty]

You can also try h2o2 dosing. That's hydrogen peroxide. Take a piece out and put it in a small container with enough tank water to cover it. Put 1ml of standard hydrogen peroxide in the cup. Give it 24 hrs and see if it begins to turn white. If so, dosing h202 will work for you. You will need to dose 1ml per 10g of water volume daily.

 

[Bret Brinkmann]

Interesting that it was linked to an impurity in Kent. I used Seachem to raise my Mg after seeing the videos online and it worked for me. Took about a month for it to turn brown and then I cleaned it out and it never grew back. Since then it dropped below 1280 ppm once and then it started coming back. That is what prompted me to check Mg again. After raising it back to 1280+ (that seems to be my tanks threshold) it died and never came back again. Maybe Seachem uses the same mix as Kent?

I believe hydrogen peroxide dipping will kill everything won't it? I guess depending on how resistant the critters are to it. Be careful any soaked up H2O2 gets rinsed off the rock before placing back in your tank. You may have something in your tank that is sensitive to it and won't tolerate even small doses.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I've had a GHA outbreak as well. Back when Vibrant was the thing I purchased a bottle. Never really used it until my GHA outbreak. As an experiment, I've been dosing vibrant once a week along with KNO3 every other day. The GHA now sloughs off and gets trapped in the filter floss. Pretty amazing actually.

 

[RobertP]

Update: Got my Triton test results back and Lithium was found. Also had Lanthanum from the PhosphateRx. Iodine and boron were a little low so corrected those. Have done 3-4 20%water changes to get the Lithium out. P04 still shows 0 on normal hanna meter (not the ultra low) and nitrates are .5 on red sea low kit. Ca at 450, Mg is at 1460, and Alk at 8.6.
Also vacuumed out my sump and harvested the chaeto yet again. First time I have ever vacuumed out the sump but noticed a lot of detritus under the chaeto.

Turned the lights off for 3 days last week and most of the GHA is doing poorly. Most of it on the top of the rocks just blows off. Cranked up the flow as high as I could go without blowing sand everywhere. The GHA on the bottom left got indirect light from the window so it is about the only gha that is still green. Most encouraged I have been since getting this crap. Was VERY frustrated for a few weeks there.

The lights off seemed to really hurt the gha and already wondering how long I should wait before trying it again. Some of my wife's zoas haven't opened up back up yet.