What could be feeding my green hair algae??

[garethwood]

4 months.. if youve still got gha after 4 yrs ide worry.. at this point gha is a godsent.. you could be battling some much nastier stuff!
As others have said.. dont worry, pull what you can, but try not to have hands in tank to often.
Gfo in small amounts changed regularly will help. As your tank matures the growth will subside.

For what its worth coral growth will help... i wont suggest kenyan trees as they drop branches and spread, but they grow like crazy and use up alot of the stuff thats feeding the gha, and will aid with the balance.
I run my tank with 0 mechanical filtration just a fugee and a small amount of carbon/rowa changed regularly.
my tanks been running 2 yrs and is pretty much algae free at this point. But it did take a yr for the dry rock to stop leaching and the tank to get to a natural balance.
Patience is key! trying to force it will only mess it up more imo. : )

 

[Mark9]

Get a few turbo snails and they will solve your problem.

 

[Bthomas]

Get a few turbo snails and they will solve your problem.

I have 2 that arnt touching it. I just don't really like turbos cause they get so big and knock things over. Also I quarantine all inverts for 76 days so can't really just add something to take care of it..

 

[GEORGE WALTER]

i am working on the same problem right now....

i am also dosing phosphate and nitrate for my sps...

the algae in the display is not spreading now, but it is very green.... still manually removing it every 2 weeks.... i am on a month with my H380 and i have mega growth on my cheato now.... so much that i had to remove half of it.....

its working but slow....

Thanks for this. I am having a similar experience...no spreading but very green algae that is not going away. I inherited the tank from somewhere else, so I don't have a lot of time behind it yet although the tank has been running for about 10 years. I'm going to take the slow and steady approach with this and see how it goes. I'll document it and post the progress/results over time.

 

[GEORGE WALTER]

I find that a lot of people that have gha do not clean their mechanical filtration often enough. That is especially true of canister filters(gha factories in my experience). Filter sock, floss or filter pads and canister should be cleaned twice a week to help control gha. Once under control they should be cleaned weekly. While mechanical filtration works well are removing detritus from the water column it is still in the system breaking down into nitrate and phosphates until you clean or change the filter media.

This is a good point. I have been good about doing this with my weekly water changes, but I will step the sock and refugium filter cleanings to twice a week.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Yeah I kinda figured that but are u saying it will just eventually go away on it's own with no intervention from me?

Eventually, it will. Eventually could be a very long time though. Generally speaking, if you have nuisance algae, measurable nitrates and zero phosphates, you have a phosphate problem. Did you use live or dry rock? Did you cure the rock before using it? If you did, how did you cure it?

If GFO is not cutting it for your phosphate reduction, you may want to consider supplementing GFO with another phosphate reduction method. A refugium might help. Organic carbon dosing (vinegar, vodka, sugar) might help as well, although it's not as straightforward. Organic carbon dosing removes much more nitrate than phosphate, so you will likely have to keep an eye on nitrates and dose them if they get too low. Lanthanum chloride is another option, but it's tricky to do right.

 

[GEORGE WALTER]

Get a few turbo snails and they will solve your problem.

I've got a combination of turbos and trochus snails that have been great on the walls and glass, but the rocks remain largely untouched. The turbos are real brutes as well, knocking crap down all the time. Overall, I'd like to try to fix this with a good water chemistry balance then a livestock lawnmower if possible. It seems that livestock can hide some of the real water issues which might make it hard to figure stuff out when I finally start adding coral.

 

[erky]

99% sure your rocks are leaching out po4 and your GHA is absorbing it. You are basically curing the rock in the tank. You should do some water changes to get the po4 out of the system, your clean up crew will assist a bit, but without any fish in there just kill the lights for a week and that should help with the sight of the GHA. However you need to get the po4 out of the rocks, this is very common for a tank your age. I wouldn't go and just a ton of stuff a LFS is going to suggest, they are in it to sell products when your patients will pay off and your wallet will say thanks.

 

[niQo]

You should do some water changes to get the po4 out of the system

How will water changes help lower PO4, when it's not detectable when testing the water? The only way it would help is to remove detritus/decaying after and GHA by way of a water change.

I think manual removal is your best option, use some kind of brush. Just be prepared it will take a while!

 

[Bthomas]

Here's what I'm dealing with just to give u an idea.. it seems to be mostly confined to that one area of rocks and the sand with other smaller patches here and there
I think I'm just gonna try to up the water changes to twice a week if possible and pull out as much manually during each water change.

 

[niQo]

Seems fairly "localized" a brush should take care of that quickly. Just fish out the floating GHA or use a filter sock after.

 

[Lninwa]

Good call to get a foxface, they will eat that algae. Not curing dry rock is the reason you are
Having the algae. Fishofhex did a great video on the importance of curing your rock in another separate container. He cured his for 4 months.

 

[Lninwa]

Most probably rocks leaching. I'd run GFO and change weekly and also do water changes to drop the nitrates. Biopellets or vodka dosing would also help.

Are you saying he should change his gfo weekly? He should test his phosphates and go from there

 

[tangtime]

Here's what I'm dealing with just to give u an idea.. it seems to be mostly confined to that one area of rocks and the sand with other smaller patches here and there
I think I'm just gonna try to up the water changes to twice a week if possible and pull out as much manually during each water change.

Yep, looks similar to what I was going through. It’s normal for a tank st your age. Pull it out get some Mexican turbos, berries, and cerith snails. It’ll be gone in a few weeks.

Po4 in itself doesn’t cause gha and it has been proven as such. My po4 is at .56 and I don’t have a strand...

 

[Lninwa]

Yep, looks similar to what I was going through. It’s normal for a tank st your age. Pull it out get some Mexican turbos, berries, and cerith snails. It’ll be gone in a few weeks.

Po4 in itself doesn’t cause gha and it has been proven as such. My po4 is at .56 and I don’t have a strand...

I’m impressed you have no algae even with some phosphates. So I have a question, what is considered high phosphates? Is it anything above .60?
What corals do you have and what is your nitrate level? My nitrates are 25 and my phosphates are 0 with the use of gfo

 

[itisjp]

Might have missed it but live rock or dead rock?

 

[tangtime]

I’m impressed you have no algae even with some phosphates. So I have a question, what is considered high phosphates? Is it anything above .60?
What corals do you have and what is your nitrate level? My nitrates are 25 and my phosphates are 0 with the use of gfo

That’s is the magic question! How high is too high, nobody really knows 100% For me too high is over .623 as I cannot test for it using the Hanna ulr, lol

There are beautiful sps tanks and some master aquarists that have in excess of 1.0

With you trates that high, it would be beneficial to have higher po4 for balance however.

 

[itisjp]

Might have missed it but live rock or dead rock?

If you don’t have anything on the rock then dump it in some peroxide and that will kill the algae off.

 

[norfolkgarden]

I’m impressed you have no algae even with some phosphates. So I have a question, what is considered high phosphates? Is it anything above .60?
What corals do you have and what is your nitrate level? My nitrates are 25 and my phosphates are 0 with the use of gfo

On another thread discussing parameters and sps corals, the *balance* of Alkalinity, nitrate and phosphate is one of the most important aspects.
Either all 3 on the higher end or all 3 on the lower end. But all 3 at similar levels.

I am still learning more after 6 years in salt and 20+ years in fresh water.

This was one of the more interesting things I have heard from a longtime reefer.
[emoji4]

 

[tangtime]

On another thread discussing parameters and sps corals, the *balance* of Alkalinity, nitrate and phosphate is one of the most important aspects.
Either all 3 on the higher end or all 3 on the lower end. But all 3 at similar levels.

I am still learning more after 6 years in salt and 20+ years in fresh water.

This was one of the more interesting things I have heard from a longtime reefer.
[emoji4]

I agree! My po4 is .56, no3 is 10 and alk is 10.2. Only time I had a problem is bottoming out po4 to 0, chasing a number...