Green hair algae

[JayD976]

Green hair algae any idea how to kill get rid of it? This stuff consumes my tank after awhile. I tried using algafix which worked on the red type completely killed it. But this green *poo-poo* is resilient, I have to resort to taking my live rock out once a month and scrub with a tooth brush to keep it under control.

I feed every other day. It's a 29gal tank with only a clownfish and yellow tail blue damsel and a clean up crew. Two power heads a penguin 200 bio wheel filter. My params are in check. Temp is around 79-80.

[Bill]

You could try cutting back on the light the tank gets. Other than that I'm not sure.

[JayD976]

Yeah ivebeen trying to do that. But when I'm not home someone turns the tank on of course then idk how long it's been on.

[Tim]

Do you run a protein skimmer?
Rapid growth of algae is usually due to excess nutrients.

[JayD976]

Do you run a protein skimmer?
Rapid growth of algae is usually due to excess nutrients.

No I got rid of it couple years ago, never could get it tuned right either too many bubbles and the cup filled to quickly or not enough and it didn't do anything.

[Tim]

Protein skimmers can often take hours, if not days to settle properly after being tuned, when tuned correctly it often appears that they are doing nothing but the skimmer cup is filling up very slowly.

How often/how much water do you change on this tank. Water changes are one of the best basic ways to reduce nutrients. Failing that you may want to look into reducing feeding and have a "blackout" period with no lights on for a few days to stop the algae growing.

Even if your test kits show 0 for phosphate and nitrate your levels could still be high enough to be causing algae issues. electronic photometers are the only real way to get an accurate phosphate reading at low levels.

Is the algae just on the rocks? or on the glass aswell?

if it is only growing on the rocks, it indicates that they are leaching nutrients back into the water.

Do some research into products like "rowaphos" for removing phosphates that are being leached into your water. A lot of people keeping delicate reefs have used it with good success. (SPS need very low nutrient systems for good growth and vibrant colour).

Depending on your level of experience and understanding with the biological aspects of a marine environment, maybe do some research into "carbon dosing".
Be sure to understand the concept completely before taking any action in this area. It can do great things but it can also kill all your inhabitants of your tank if done incorrectly. This system needs a reliable and powerful protein skimmer to work.

There has been increasing evidence that filter media like bioballs and sponges and sponge filters can become nutrient sinks in marine environments if they are not periodically rinsed of debris organic matter that collects over time in them. The nutrients then leach back into your system causing blooms of algae.
Do NOT rinse the media in tap water as it will kill the beneficial bacteria in the media, simply rinse in a bucket of tank water and then discard the water.

All of this situations depend on how old your tank is and exactly how your system/filtration are setup so a little more information would be great for us to help you further.

I hope I have been of some help.

[JayD976]

I change about 10gal a week ive been using phos-zorb in my filter which seems to help but once it's spent everything quickly spreads.

It grows on the rock and the sand. Not on the glass only the coralline algae grows on my glass.

The only media in my filter is the blue bonded filter pad with carbon and a bio wheel so there's no issue there as that gets replaced regularly.

I used to have a sump on the tank till about a year ago but that's when the problem began after some time as I believe it was a nutrient factory. So I dismantled that.

For now the algae is gone as I scrubbed it all off in a bucket of tank water.

[Tim]

Ok, thanks for the extra info that makes things clearer. I think due to the fact you have coraline growth that the nutrients are in fact leaching from your liverock and substrate.

Phosphate limits calcification, so if your water was high in phosphate the coraline growth would be inhibited.

what to do about it though... hmmm

I think what you are doing now would be almost as good as any. Maybe look into increasing the flow in your tank to stop any detritus settling in usneen areas.

All that I would add is to keep feeding to a very small feeds more often to make sure the fish eat as much of what goes in as possible and continue to manually remove the algae periodically. this will work as a nutrient export and eventually with patience you will see results. The other way you could fight it would be to add a refugium with some macro algae to leach out some more nutrients.

[KDodds]

Surefire way to eliminate hair algae...

Don't change anything about the setup. If you've no skimmer, keep it that way. If your lights are on 14 hours/day, leave them on. Light is only a small portion of the equation.

Do:

1. Manual daily pulling for 5-15 minutes per day. Yes, get your hands in there and remove it.
2. Increase water change frequency and volume. 10% per day until the situation is resolved is not unheard of, but start around 25% per week in one or two changes.
3. Be patient, it will resolve, and the growth between now and resolution will actually serve as nutrient export.
4. Increase circulation. Not necessarily turnover rate, but make sure there are no dead spots.
5. Do NOT buy anything "guaranteed" to eat the stuff. Blennies won't eat enough to control it, gobies will not eat it. Just about the only fish, IME, that can keep a tank clear are the two "Foxface" Rabbitfshes (S. vulpinus and S. unimaculatus), but both get far too big for a 29.

[callen]

Agree manually remove it. As K said it will take time but it will get less and less. We had a bad case and and we added a Sea Hare and he helped a lot.

[JayD976]

Yeah its been an on going battle for awhile always been manually removing due to the small size is the tank and Jo suitable species. As of recently I got a large tub to store water in so will be able to do larger changes at a time that should help.

[callen]

Are you using R/O water? Have to tested for phosphate?

[JayD976]

No I use tap water prime and I let it sitin a tub with a heater and aerator for Atleast a week. I'd like to get an RO/DI units just not in the budget right now.

[KDodds]

Definitely test your tap for nitrate and phosphate. If either are testable, increasing water changes could make things worse. Effectively, you'd be "dosing" the tank to encourage the algae. If PO4 is present in tap and tank, you might want to consider PO4 removing resins. Dosing Kalkwasser can also help bind PO4 out of solution (however it does not remove it from the tank). Lastly, if you're not housing any corals, have you considered going "planted"? Caulerpa spp. can be a tremendous aid in eliminating hair (and other "nuisance" algae). Of course, some people consider Caulerpa a nuisance as well. C. prolifera and similar appearing species seem to be the best, long term. The "feather" and "grape" Caulerpas are too prone to "going sexual". Most other "ornamental" algaes do not stand the test of time.

[JayD976]

I tested tap for nitrates couple weeks ago at 20-40ppm