jackalexander
Active Member
Ahhh… So I assume you have GHA (green hair algae) and you have been scouring the internet for success stories and ways people have beaten it. I was in your place 8 months ago but most methods I tried ended up failing so I’ll share how I defeated it. So here’s the beginning… I purchased a frag of birds nest from my LFS and I saw this funny looking hair algae on the frag but I didn’t think much of it. This was the mistake that nearly put me out of the hobby, a small mistake that led to the loss of hundreds of dollars and countless hours. The algae began growing slowly and quietly beneath the frag plug and one day I decided to move the frag and I noticed that the hair algae had become a bush. I knew immediately this would be an issue so I scrubbed it with a tooth brush and thought that was the end of that. Unfortunately for me, that was an even dumber mistake that allowed the hair algae to spread across the tank. Small patches began popping up and this gave me the motivation to try and eradicate it. I started flipping rocks upside down, didn’t work. I then started putting the rocks underneath the sand as much as possible, didn’t work. I got all types of snails, sea hairs and lettuce nudibranch. I decided it was time to step up the game and start using hydrogen peroxide. This came as a complete failure and I realized that I was dealing with a very aggressive and stubborn type of green hair algae. I then turned to the “miracle” vibrant. Turns out that didn’t work either. Double doses and all… Nothing was working. After months of fighting and losing corals due to bleaching and nuisance, I came to the conclusion that this wasn’t going to work out. So, I just decided to do the bare minimum to keep my fish alive and even then, my fish started to die off because of my lack of motivation. This was my breaking point, I realized that I wasn’t going to beat this algae and I could no longer properly care for my animals. But suddenly, I got a burst of motivation after going to my LFS after months of neglect and disaster. I made a plan… I was going to kick this green hair algae in the butt. I started by removing my corals from the rocks and scrubbing the rocks every single day with a tooth brush and syphoning it out while also doing 5g water changes. This was expensive but it was completely worth it. I then started putting filter floss in my first chamber, I would replace it everyday. I then got a lawnmower blenny and a small sailfin tang (I know, I know). These little guys were absolutely amazing and finished the job for me. I had to do this whole process for 3-4 weeks. By the end, I had lost $300 in coral as a direct result from the hair algae and $400 in fish indirectly from the hair algae. I ended up spending $200 on water (LFS bought) and around $20 in filter floss. In hindsight, I should have just spent the extra money to get rid of it before it became a problem. I hope this thread gives someone motivation and helps prevent similar issues from progressing.
The first image was taken in June at the height of my issue. The second image is from today, completely GHA free. I hope this thread helps a lot of people.
