hair algae

alpu · Jul 5, 2018

Nitrate 0 PPm
Phosphate .25ppm
Can't get rid of it

Crabs McJones · Jul 5, 2018

Can you provide us with some more info? Are you using RO/DI water for your water changes and top off? How much and how often are you feeding. What do your water change schedules/nutrient export methods look like. How many fish do you have, and what kind of cleanup crew do you have?

alpu · Jul 5, 2018

Crabs Mcjones said:
Can you provide us with some more info? Are you using RO/DI water for your water changes and top off? How much and how often are you feeding. What do your water change schedules/nutrient export methods look like. How many fish do you have, and what kind of cleanup crew do you have?

I do my water changes every month and get my water from the aquarium place also I have 8 fishes feeding time once a day.
And I have a couple of crap and snails

Crabs McJones · Jul 5, 2018

alpu said:
I do my water changes every month and get my water from the aquarium place also I have 8 fishes feeding time once a day.
And I have a couple of crap and snails

How much water are you changing at a time and what is your tanks total water volume?

alpu · Jul 5, 2018

Crabs Mcjones said:
How much water are you changing at a time and what is your tanks total water volume?

It's a 90 gallon tank and I do 20 to 25%

Crabs McJones · Jul 5, 2018

alpu said:
It's a 90 gallon tank and I do 20 to 25%

I would start by upping the water changes to around 10% 15% a week. And definitely invest in an RO/DI unit so you can make your own water at home and know exactly whats going into your tank. Part of the problem is that no matter what, when you test nutrients you're always going to test low to none because the algae is consuming it faster than it can become free floating into the water column and be tested for. So, more frequent water changes, and shorten your photo-period. What lighting do you have and how long are they on for?

alpu · Jul 5, 2018

Crabs Mcjones said:
I would start by upping the water changes to around 10% 15% a week. And definitely invest in an RO/DI unit so you can make your own water at home and know exactly whats going into your tank. Part of the problem is that no matter what, when you test nutrients you're always going to test low to none because the algae is consuming it faster than it can become free floating into the water column and be tested for. So, more frequent water changes, and shorten your photo-period. What lighting do you have and how long are they on for?

AI Vega 50% from 11 to 4

Crabs McJones · Jul 5, 2018

Manually remove as much as you can by hand, and then up the water changes to get those nutrients out before whats left of the algae can consume it

Also pickup an RO/DI unit and some salt mix to make your own water change and top off water. Its less expensive in the long run and that way you know you have 0TDS water going into your reef. Unfortunately you never know what the fish store is giving you.

grassy_noel · Jul 5, 2018

How old is your tank? And did you start with dry rock or live rock?

This could affect how you deal with the GHA.

cooltowncorals · Jul 5, 2018

You could use liquid phosphate remover like phosphate rx and then start running GFO or something similar to fix phosphate issue. Carbon dosing is an option but you need to increase your nitrates before you do that.

cracker · Jul 5, 2018

If You only have fish You could turnoff the lights. The fish won't care but the algae will.
Remember though when it starts to die off it will release all the nitrates stored in the plant.So You gotta do water changes to get this out. This where an rodi filter comes in . A little pricey agreed. However well worth it.
After all You really don't know how good the water from the lfs is. Good luck ! I'm fighting this stuff also.

reeferfoxx · Jul 5, 2018

I always opt for manual removal if you are to perform a manual water change. Much more satisfying that way

Once upon a time, back in April, I had a rock growing GHA. (Ignore the other [email protected] phase)

It wasn't the only rock growing GHA, there were other small patches here and there. Till one day I decided to get a 1.5 foot long piece of ridged airline tubing and connected it to a long piece of airline used for siphoning. Keeping my pointer finger at the end of the tube to stop and start the siphon, I also used my finger and the end of the tube as a pinch and pull tool. The siphon would vacuum the algae off.