Help...Green Hair Algae is driving me crazy

[grassy_noel]

Thanks for the input. I'm glad that a turbo snail worked for you, that's one thing I haven't tried yet.

 

[Retro Reefer]

Tank looking great after black out, seems like your getting a grip on the algae.. I’m just starting to get a little GHA so I pushed my CUC up to 60 pieces

 

[Harrison Gordon]

What a nice thread. My tank is almost at a year, 75g. about 6mo ago I left for a month, came back to a tank overrun with an awful GHA that could only be scraped off with a screwdriver, so I replaced all the rock and added GFO to the system.

Otherwise, no major changes since then, phosphates went from 0.2 to 0.03, nitrates have gone from 15 to a 5-7 range. I've lengthened my photoperiod to 9hrs but might have to retract that and feed a little less generously, as algae is starting to grow a little faster and more diversely recently.

Otherwise, my CUC started at about 50 snails + hermits + shrimp, now down to only a couple snails and a single hermit (no idea why, algae is not in high demand). Hopefully I'm nearing the end of the uglies, it was really good for the past couple months but maybe it has one last hurrah. In general, I don't like to touch my rock but today I scraped some GHA and this slimy black coating algae off of one on the top more so to give the coralline more room to grow.

Should totally vacuum sand soon, although last time I ended up with a 14" filter sock full of sand! Definitely seems to be a great way to get rid of a TON of detritus that you don't even know is there...

As for my tank health, coralline is growing like crazy which is good but the bright-colored ones (neon pink, orange, blue) don't seem to last more than a few weeks. Has anyone had success with those really colorful ones?

Anyways, glad to see a great place for encouraging getting through the uglies, taking it slow and steady -- we need more of these threads and articles like it!

 

[grassy_noel]

What a nice thread. My tank is almost at a year, 75g. about 6mo ago I left for a month, came back to a tank overrun with an awful GHA that could only be scraped off with a screwdriver, so I replaced all the rock and added GFO to the system.

Otherwise, no major changes since then, phosphates went from 0.2 to 0.03, nitrates have gone from 15 to a 5-7 range. I've lengthened my photoperiod to 9hrs but might have to retract that and feed a little less generously, as algae is starting to grow a little faster and more diversely recently.

Otherwise, my CUC started at about 50 snails + hermits + shrimp, now down to only a couple snails and a single hermit (no idea why, algae is not in high demand). Hopefully I'm nearing the end of the uglies, it was really good for the past couple months but maybe it has one last hurrah. In general, I don't like to touch my rock but today I scraped some GHA and this slimy black coating algae off of one on the top more so to give the coralline more room to grow.

Should totally vacuum sand soon, although last time I ended up with a 14" filter sock full of sand! Definitely seems to be a great way to get rid of a TON of detritus that you don't even know is there...

As for my tank health, coralline is growing like crazy which is good but the bright-colored ones (neon pink, orange, blue) don't seem to last more than a few weeks. Has anyone had success with those really colorful ones?

Anyways, glad to see a great place for encouraging getting through the uglies, taking it slow and steady -- we need more of these threads and articles like it!

Thanks! Your post helped remind me to take some photos of my tank this weekend and post. Algae is still mostly at bay. It was completely gone until the Christmas holiday. I went away for a week and used my Eheim auto-feeder. I think it fed a bit heavier than my usual and I had a few patches of GHA pop up again. I've been selective treating with thumb-siphon and 1 ml doses of hydrogen peroxide. Hopefully that'll nip it. I really think the strain of GHA in my tank is super-human in its ability to survive without light, with little-to-no nutrients, and in incredibly high flow. It feels like it thrives on those conditions.

Other than my cleaner shrimp getting sucked into my MP10, everything else has been going fairly well.

 

[a;lksdjf]

If that was the extent of your hair algae problem and you were that worried about it, my year old 46 g FOWLR would give you a heart attack. And the worst part about it is my puffer won't let me add any sort of CUC other than my 5 nassarius snails and my skunk cleaner shrimp LOL.

 

[grassy_noel]

Oh no! You're right, I wouldn't have the stomach for that...

Also, in this week's bad news, I seem to have picked up a lovely case of Montipora Eating Nudibranchs. Ugh!!! I have 4 different types of montipora in my tank and they are my favorite corals, so it'll be interesting to see what (if anything) I can do to prevent them all from being eaten. This weekend I removed all of my montis, dipped them and scrubbed the undersides with a toothbrush. There were definitely eggs on at least one of my original pieces. I put two of them back into my main tank and the other two (including the original offender) into my empty hospital/QT/frag tank. Hoping to save at least a couple...

 

[Frogger]

lso, in this week's bad news, I seem to have picked up a lovely case of Montipora Eating Nudibranchs. Ugh!!! I have 4 different types of montipora in my tank and they are my favorite corals, so it'll be interesting to see what (if anything) I can do to prevent them all from being eaten. This weekend I removed all of my montis, dipped them and scrubbed the undersides with a toothbrush. There were definitely eggs on at least one of my original pieces. I put two of them back into my main tank and the other two (including the original offender) into my empty hospital/QT/frag tank. Hoping to save at least a couple...

I have montipora nudibranch in my display tank for the past 3.5 years and my monti's are growing fine actually they are the fastest growing corals currently in my tank and look great. I did everything you have tried in the beginning multiple times, scrubbing the corals moving them to different tanks. Unfortunately these little guys are extremely persistent and just when you think you have them under control 6 months later, Bobs your Uncle, there they are again. I have not heard many success stories in getting completely rid of this pest. Many people have bailed and completely removed them from their tank.

My approach originally was to manually remove them at night. I would remove a half a dozen every second night using tweezers. These little guys can really hold on and can swim really well, siphoning just doesn't work well. After I got bored with this approach I decided to just let them do what they do and see what happens. My monti's started to decline fast. I then added a melanarus wrasse to the tank originally to control red bug on my acros and low and behold the pest numbers were reduced drastically. If I look closely at night I can still see a few of the guys but the way I look at it, the coral is outgrowing the pest. I have never seen my melanarus wrasse eat one but he is the only thing in my tank that could eat them. I have not manually removed 1 nudibranch in over 1.5 years.

I am not saying that adding a melanarus wrasse will work but what I do know is controlling this nudibranch will make your algae issues seem like a cake walk. There are stories that "purge" works, however that has not been confirmed for the long hall.

I will not ever sell any of my montiporas nor have I bought any new ones in the past 3.5 years.

 

[grassy_noel]

I have montipora nudibranch in my display tank for the past 3.5 years and my monti's are growing fine actually they are the fastest growing corals currently in my tank and look great. I did everything you have tried in the beginning multiple times, scrubbing the corals moving them to different tanks. Unfortunately these little guys are extremely persistent and just when you think you have them under control 6 months later, Bobs your Uncle, there they are again. I have not heard many success stories in getting completely rid of this pest. Many people have bailed and completely removed them from their tank.

My approach originally was to manually remove them at night. I would remove a half a dozen every second night using tweezers. These little guys can really hold on and can swim really well, siphoning just doesn't work well. After I got bored with this approach I decided to just let them do what they do and see what happens. My monti's started to decline fast. I then added a melanarus wrasse to the tank originally to control red bug on my acros and low and behold the pest numbers were reduced drastically. If I look closely at night I can still see a few of the guys but the way I look at it, the coral is outgrowing the pest. I have never seen my melanarus wrasse eat one but he is the only thing in my tank that could eat them. I have not manually removed 1 nudibranch in over 1.5 years.

I am not saying that adding a melanarus wrasse will work but what I do know is controlling this nudibranch will make your algae issues seem like a cake walk. There are stories that "purge" works, however that has not been confirmed for the long hall.

I will not ever sell any of my montiporas nor have I bought any new ones in the past 3.5 years.

Thanks for your thoughts. Unfortunately, I don't think my tank is big enough for a melanarus wrasse, as it's a 20 gallon AIO. So far my nudibranch treatment of brushing and dipping seems to be working, but I'm prepared to just pitch my montis in the trash if they come back.

Between the algae, which is back with a vengeance, the montipora eating nudibranchs, and a new baby on the way this fall, I'm leaning towards finding a good home for my clownfish and non-monti corals and selling my tanks and hardware.

I can't put my finger on it, but this hobby seemed so much easier when I was in high school keeping a FOWLR tank. I'm so much more diligent now, and it's just way worse. The only fundamental difference I can think of is that in my old FOWLR tank I started with 60 lbs of beautiful, mature Fiji live rock straight from the ocean (it makes me feel guilty to this day). I think starting with dry rock in my current tank has just led to a lack of biodiversity, which has allowed the hair algae to dominate over other things (coralline algae, corals, etc.). Either way, it's been a fun 18 months, but soon I won't have the 3-4 hours every Saturday morning that is needed to keep the algae and pests from completely taking over...sigh.

 

[Frogger]

Thanks for your thoughts. Unfortunately, I don't think my tank is big enough for a melanarus wrasse, as it's a 20 gallon AIO. So far my nudibranch treatment of brushing and dipping seems to be working, but I'm prepared to just pitch my montis in the trash if they come back.

Between the algae, which is back with a vengeance, the montipora eating nudibranchs, and a new baby on the way this fall, I'm leaning towards finding a good home for my clownfish and non-monti corals and selling my tanks and hardware.

I can't put my finger on it, but this hobby seemed so much easier when I was in high school keeping a FOWLR tank. I'm so much more diligent now, and it's just way worse. The only fundamental difference I can think of is that in my old FOWLR tank I started with 60 lbs of beautiful, mature Fiji live rock straight from the ocean (it makes me feel guilty to this day). I think starting with dry rock in my current tank has just led to a lack of biodiversity, which has allowed the hair algae to dominate over other things (coralline algae, corals, etc.). Either way, it's been a fun 18 months, but soon I won't have the 3-4 hours every Saturday morning that is needed to keep the algae and pests from completely taking over...sigh.

Yes having a reef tank is a lot of work. I understand your dilemma. My tanks went through about 10 years of neglect (algae was 2" long, most corals died) when my kids were between 8 and 15 with taking them to sports, coaching, parties, school etc. You have to set your priorities and can always come back to a reef when the time allows. Your kids will only be young once.

You may want to consider a fish only tank, as it is a lot less work and algae only looks bad but the fish don't care. You can always reduce the lighting to reduce the algae.

My kids are adults now and I have all the time in the world.

 

[grassy_noel]

Yes having a reef tank is a lot of work. I understand your dilemma. My tanks went through about 10 years of neglect (algae was 2" long, most corals died) when my kids were between 8 and 15 with taking them to sports, coaching, parties, school etc. You have to set your priorities and can always come back to a reef when the time allows. Your kids will only be young once.

You may want to consider a fish only tank, as it is a lot less work and algae only looks bad but the fish don't care. You can always reduce the lighting to reduce the algae.

My kids are adults now and I have all the time in the world.

Thanks for the encouraging words! I currently have a little 10 gallon softy tank set up next to my main display and I'm considering moving my pair of small clowns to that tank and selling the "bigger" tank with all the complexity.

"Big" Tank:

Little softy tank:

 

[SoSublime]

Sorry to bring up an old thread.

Registered just to come on here and say that you're not alone.

Algae is wild and I'm not sure there is a true "way" to beat it besides just, let it go and sort itself out.

I recently set up a new tank. Looked beautiful and clean for about 1 month, and now, it's a "forest" of GHA. However, aside from running 40% dose of GFO to help keep po4 down, skimmer, slowly upping my CUC, and manually removing the algae. I feel it's best to just let it live.

The rest will sort itself out given time.

I wish you luck and hope you haven't given up.