Help...Green Hair Algae is driving me crazy

[cracker]

That's exactly what Iv'e been doing for a good hour. carefully pulling out what I can and scrubbing with a tooth brush . Then it will be blast time ! I have an old penguin attached to a stick This really blasts the crud out /off the rock Grassy, I was also losing a lot of snails after a couple weeks. I started Slow dripping new snails for hours . 2 at least Maybe over kill but the snails seem to live for the long term.

 

[grassy_noel]

Thanks friends, Super helpful!

I drip acclimated the snails, urchin, and emerald crab I picked up today about 4x as long as usual, so hopefully that helps. Everything looks happy so far.

Planning on a fun plucking session tomorrow morning!

 

[grassy_noel]

Well, the tank is looking pretty good after a cleaning this morning. Nothing new, it usually looks great on Sunday and gets worse throughout the week, but today for the first time in weeks I thought, “this is looking pretty nice!” It finally felt worth it, even if it only lasts a couple days.

There’s considerably more coralline algae in recent weeks. Maybe 30-40% coverage of the rocks now.

Also couldn’t help myself and picked up a gorgeous montipora digitata this morning at Aquashella. Photo doesn’t even come close to doing it justice. Baby blue flesh with bright orange polyps and green tips. It has fully encrusted the plug and has three tips about ready to take off.

 

[grassy_noel]

Well, here it is, the surrender update. Well, kind of...

After 5 months of fighting this green hair algae with every method I could find on this and other forums (more cleanup crew, reduced feeding, increased feeding, more water changes, no water changes, less light, blue light, no light for 3 days, GFO, fluconazole, a double dose of fluconazole) I have decided to resort to extreme measures. Blackout.

First, I acknowledge that I am the victim of my own mistakes. I caused this algae outbreak by intentionally overfeeding for a period. Then, I couldn't stick to one treatment method for long enough to see if it would really work. The problem is there's just too much conflicting information out there. And since nothing I tried ever made a noticeable improvement in the ~3 week time period that my patience seems to last, I just kept moving on to the next. The sad part here is that I can't come back and say I know which one thing worked. But at least in the end I'll win anyway.

You can see that on August 18th (previous post) things were looking ok. The corals were all thriving and the algae seemed to be returning more slowly each week. Then I changed two major things:

1) I bought more cleanup crew (half a dozen trochus snails and a tuxedo urchin) that were either dying on arrival or I didn't acclimate them well enough, because within two weeks basically all of them had died, plus my tailspot blenny who had been doing great for like two months. The urchin decomposed into a hollow shell in the period of 6 hours while I was at work, I didn't have a chance to remove anything but the empty husk. A nutrient bomb. Snails were a similar story. I managed to get half of the blenny out before it decomposed.

2) This all happened at the same time that I was trying to do no water changes so the algae would "starve" itself of some essential nutrient.​

Well, the combination of these two events lead to the biggest explosion of algae growth I've seen to date (photos below), and the cause for my apocalypse solution.

About 6 weeks ago I set up and cycled a QT tank, and have been using it as a refuge for my smaller clown who was getting beat up by the bigger one. This past weekend, I moved every piece of livestock (all corals, cleaner shrimp, bigger clown) to the QT tank along with my radion XR15. I left my snails and emerald crab in the display tank and taped up construction paper over all the sides. There it will sit fallow for 3 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks, I'm not sure yet. I'll keep testing Nitrate and Phosphate and use the skimmer, carbon dosing, and GFO to manage them as the algae dies off and releases nutrients. I'll keep changing filter socks to remove the dead algae. I'm really hoping in 6 weeks I open up a pristine, blank slate. Then I'll start the process of bringing it back up very slowly. Probably starting with several months of letting coralline algae grow on the rocks before I add any fish or corals. Maybe 3-6 months from now I'll begin repopulating it.

For now, everything seems happy in the QT tank, even the two clowns are getting along well (I think the blenny was getting between them). So, as long as that lasts they will stay in their refuge until I can properly "mature" the display tank, like I should have done in the first place a year ago.

I'm curious for anyone's thoughts on this idea. If you have experience, any idea how long the blackout should be?

Thanks for following along!

 

[pharazon]

I’m not going to criticize your techniques or your plan - whether they are flawed or solid doesn’t matter much to me since you’ve taken steps to ensure the well-being of your animals.

I do want to say I’m glad you’re still fighting it, even if it’s become an even bigger pain in the wrasse. People have left the hobby over simpler, easier things.

I’ll see you in a couple weeks, hombre!

 

[BootyPup]

I was in your same shoes a while back, I tried blackouts, water changes, pulling GHA, adding CUC, I went all across the board. But, the only thing that got rid of my GHA, and it still hasn't come back after a long time, was Vibrant Reef Cleaner. I know you tried Fluc. but if nothing else works, I would recommend Vibrant to you. People have said it can take a few doses and weeks to kick in, but in my situation, I had a horrible GHA infestation, but it started disappearing in three days, and was practically completely gone in a week.
While I cannot say this would be the case for you as it seems to vary from person to person, I would seriously recommend this to you for your next step if a black out doesn't help.

 

[pharazon]

I was in your same shoes a while back, I tried blackouts, water changes, pulling GHA, adding CUC, I went all across the board. But, the only thing that got rid of my GHA, and it still hasn't come back after a long time, was Vibrant Reef Cleaner. I know you tried Fluc. but if nothing else works, I would recommend Vibrant to you. People have said it can take a few doses and weeks to kick in, but in my situation, I had a horrible GHA infestation, but it started disappearing in three days, and was practically completely gone in a week.
While I cannot say this would be the case for you as it seems to vary from person to person, I would seriously recommend this to you for your next step if a black out doesn't help.

You know what, with the livestock out of the tank and no lights, I support this idea 100%

I’ve stuck to hand removal because I have a conch that I’m emotionally attached to and don’t want to chance it’s health. FWIW, I know what you mean about doing to many things at once and not being able to attribute results to your actions. I ran Flucon for 21 days, but the hair algae never seemed to be bothered. I also installed a very large UV system toward the end of the treatment. I finally scrubbed the rocks thoroughly and vacced everything I could while running the UV. The GHA is not gone but has taken much longer to grow back than previously. I’m not sure if the Flucon weakened it, if the UV helps prevent spread via water column, or if an element it was thriving off of is becoming depleted. But it’s looking like an uphill battle.

Long story short, I would have tried Vibrant a long time ago if it wasn’t for the conch. I say go for it.

 

[BootyPup]

You know what, with the livestock out of the tank and no lights, I support this idea 100%

I’ve stuck to hand removal because I have a conch that I’m emotionally attached to and don’t want to chance it’s health. FWIW, I know what you mean about doing to many things at once and not being able to attribute results to your actions. I ran Flucon for 21 days, but the hair algae never seemed to be bothered. I also installed a very large UV system toward the end of the treatment. I finally scrubbed the rocks thoroughly and vacced everything I could while running the UV. The GHA is not gone but has taken much longer to grow back than previously. I’m not sure if the Flucon weakened it, if the UV helps prevent spread via water column, or if an element it was thriving off of is becoming depleted. But it’s looking like an uphill battle.

Long story short, I would have tried Vibrant a long time ago if it wasn’t for the conch. I say go for it.

With this also, I would like to point out, it would be good as pharazon said to perhaps do it while the livestock is out of the tank as while I had no issues with my livestock, and the majority of people didn't either, I have seen one or two cases where there was an issue, whether it was due to Vibrant I can't say, but it can't be ruled out..
Also this is just another thought I had while writing this, and I don't know how true it is or if I am thinking right so someone please correct me if I am wrong, but it might also be good to do it during the lights out as the GHA would not only begin to be negatively affected by the lights out, but then it would get the effects of Vibrant choking off its sources of staying alive?

 

[pharazon]

Also this is just another thought I had while writing this, and I don't know how true it is or if I am thinking right so someone please correct me if I am wrong, but it might also be good to do it during the lights out as the GHA would not only begin to be negatively affected by the lights out, but then it would get the effects of Vibrant choking off its sources of staying alive?

Also less of a risk of developing another problem like cyano which I believe I’ve seen several Vibrant users end up with?

Also, turn your powerheads to max to keep dying stuff suspended, run filter socks/floss and change media frequently. Scrub the rocks. Go nuclear on this crap. You’re basucally re-curing your rock while it’s in the tank.

The process might not be as long as you expect if you hit it really hard.

 

[BootyPup]

Also less of a risk of developing another problem like cyano which I believe I’ve seen several Vibrant users end up with?

Also, turn your powerheads to max to keep dying stuff suspended, run filter socks/floss and change media frequently. Scrub the rocks. Go nuclear on this crap. You’re basucally re-curing your rock while it’s in the tank.

The process might not be as long as you expect if you hit it really hard.

Oh yes I forgot about the other algae problems, I didn't specifically get anything horrible, but I know others did, I did however get what I think was a light film algae layer over some small parts of the sand and the glass, I just manually removed it for less than a week and it was over. However again, it is not a guarantee you won't get some other algae.

Also again, a plus one to the power heads. You definitely want those blasting to get rid of anything and everything. Perhaps set up a filter sock as well in your sump if you don't have one already to catch the floating GHA.

 

[grassy_noel]

Thanks for the support and advice!

Based on the under-side and shadow areas of my rock where I get absolutely no GHA (you can see them in the photos), I'm predicting that a several week blackout will kill it all without having to use an anti-algae product.

But, if I unwrap the tank in a month and the GHA is still there, this a route I may definitely consider.

 

[Paul B]

It has ben about 14 weeks since I moved my tank to my new house. The algae cycle just ended and almost all the algae is dead. I never changed the water or did anything else.

 

[brandon429]

There’s an easy way to rid this tank of that algae within a week of the post in May no blackout needed sent message, it’s an easy fix.

 

[Waynerock]

There’s an easy way to rid this tank of that algae within a week of the post in May no blackout needed sent message, it’s an easy fix.

Please tell me too oh wise one!

 

[brandon429]

works ctd
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/reef2reef-pest-algae-challenge-thread-hydrogen-peroxide.187042/

 

[grassy_noel]

It has ben about 14 weeks since I moved my tank to my new house. The algae cycle just ended and almost all the algae is dead. I never changed the water or did anything else.

Paul, I'm envious of your patience and your confidence.

Do you think it makes any difference that your tank is well-established and mine is relatively new (~10 months) or would the "do nothing" strategy have worked in both cases?

 

[Paul B]

Yes I do. But algae is pretty stupid and when they exhaust all they need, they die. Remember it is not a curse, it is a beneficial plant like tomatoes. If it were not for algae, your Mother would not have been born, and if she was not born, chances are that you would not be either.

New tanks with all new water should grow algae. I don't know why but neither does anyone else so don't worry about it. But it is self limiting and will pass. I still get small cycles of it occasionally but it is a healthy thing, not a harbinger of doom. It grows on every healthy reef in the world, I am just to lazy to put up a picture of every healthy reef in the world with algae growing.
The tanks with the most tweeking are the tanks with the most problems.

 

[grassy_noel]

So, I wanted to post a little update.

A 4 week blackout made a big dent in the GHA, but did not get rid of it completely. I took all of the rocks out of the tank and scrubbed them with a brush in a bucket of saltwater. I removed the substrate from the tank as it was covered in old, dead GHA, too. Then I "swapped" the livestock from the smaller QT tank back into the main tank (which was now empty of rock and substrate) and I put the old rock into the QT tank for another 4 weeks of blackout.

Finally, after the extended blackout, I moved two pieces of the old live rock back into the main display and discarded the rest. Below are some photos of what the main tank looks like now. Everything seems to be doing well. All livestock survived the transitions from tank to tank (except for a couple snails).

Would you believe, though...that after 8 weeks in the darkness and being scrubbed clean in a bucket 2-3 times, the two old rocks (purple ones in the center) are growing GHA again?

My nitrate is at 2-3 ppm, phosphate at 0.05-0.06 ppm. I'm feeding pellets, 0.03 grams per day (yep, that's right, I'm weighing food now...ugh) 100% of which get eaten. I blast off the rocks with a turkey baster and then siphon up detritus as part of a weekly 20% water change. I've been spot treating every other day with 3-4 ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide in the tank with all the flow turned off. I realize if anything this is probably "too clean"...and yet I'm still growing GHA.

As part of my water change this week, I'm going to remove the two rocks with GHA and give them a hydrogen peroxide cleaning outside of the tank, being careful to avoid the couple of corals on those rocks. Frankly, I don't know what else to do.

At least maintenance and water changes have gotten much easier now that the tank is bare bottom. I don't think I'll ever have a sand bed again, even though I love the way sand looks.

 

[CODE3EMT]

2 words........... SEA HARE. I have one in my Reefer450 and it has completely destroyed my hair algae. Now I’m running some HC GFO from BRS and really keeping up with water changes, feeding less and running Kessil AP700 shorter.

 

[PorterK]

Just giving my thoughts here: I had the same exact problem in my tank (green hair algae everywhere!). It ended up being because the water I was using to mix the salt wasn't good quality and I had been leaving the lights on for too long.

Eventually I ended up taking a tooth brush to everything. I bought a turbo and he tore that algae up! After that I reduced the photo period to 12 hrs a day and started to run gfo and gac.

I had hair algae as bad as you did, didn't try any chemical remedies... just a really good cleaning, adding a turbo, and 5 20% water changes over the course of 3 weeks. By the 6th or 7th week it was completely under control. Oh yeah, the RO/DI system I got during that period that helped a ton!

I think the key here isn't to focus on getting rid of all of the GHA, but getting a part of your cuc that will keep it under control.

Also... be careful scrubbing those rocks with zoas... palytoxin is no joke!