Green Hair Algae Removal

[Reef Wall]

Ok, so I have a veritable forest of green hair algae growing in my DT. I have physically removed it multiple times only to have it grow back. I have had enough so I purchased the Phosban Reactor by Two Little Fishes. Has anyone had success with this product? My other question would be. Do I need to physically remove all of the algae, or will it disappear as it dies? Can anyone give some insight as to the origin of my algae problem? Any advise would be appreciated.

Thanks,
RW

37gal DT
Eshopps 300gal. Overflow
10 Gal Sump
Maxi-Jet 4500 Return Pump
Coralife 65 Protein Skimmer
Phosban Reactor 150
Phosban Media
30 LB Live Rock
175W Metal Halide Mogul Socket
XM 15000k bulb
1 Green Chromis
1 Royal Gramma
1 Cleaner shrimp
1 duncan
2 kenya tree coral
Misc. Mushrooms
Misc. Snails/Hermits

 

[redneckgearhead]

What are your water parameters? How often do you do water changes? Lighting schedule, age of bulbs? Are you using tap water? How often and what are you feeding? In my battle against HA (from tap water and old bulbs) I cut down my lights to about 4 hours a day, replaced the bulbs, switched to RO/DI water, did twice weekly water changes and during those water changes I used 1/4 in air line to remove as much HA as possible. It is a LOOOONG process to get rid of this stuff but it can be done! Good luck and let us know.

 

[Reef Wall]

Water changes are done twice a month. I use RO/DI water. I run my MH 6 hours a day and my sump light 12. My MH bulb is about 3 months old. Nitrate 0, Phosphates 0 ( because of all of the algae). I feed once a day when I remember. Usually once every other day. I forgot to mention I also have chaeto in the sump.

I guess I will need to keep up with the water changes.

Does anyone run a phosban reactor?

 

[redneckgearhead]

yea I would increase to twice a week water changes. I also added purigen and I believe it helps. I do not have a phosban reactor but Im sure someone else does and will chime in. If you are feeding frozen cubes be sure and rinse with RO water. they tend to have alot of phosphates.

 

[Reef Wall]

I do use frozen cubes. How do you rinse with RO?

 

[TylerHaworth]

Defrost the frozen food in RO water,stir, settle, and then pour off the liquid, add more water, stir, pour off liquid after food settles... Feed to fishes!

Also... With those fish, one cube of mysis should last over a week...

 

[redneckgearhead]

i have a mesh filter sock, that I use to rinse my cubes. But Tylers way will work just as well.

 

[rickman]

I'm actually new to this hobby...at least salt water. However, I am somewhat of a perfectionist (except spelling) and have read a ton of info about "doing it right"...My new tank cycled great, my water parameters were respectable...Nitrates a bit high. But, I had the ugliest green hairlike algae growing all over my rock. I read and asked and read and asked....I ended up ordering 6 Mexican Turbo snails, put them in the tank in stragetic locations and 2 days later I took them to my LFS and bartered them for a gobie !! I don't know if this will help you, but I went from a panic case to happy camper very quickly. I even ordered a phosphate reactor, which I still will hook up since I got it..still working on nitrates with 10% water changes(R/O of course)!!

 

[rickman]

Oh yeah...I forgot to mentionthat I have a 34 gallon Red Sea Max and I realized that 6 Mexican Turbos was overkill for that size tank and I removed them once the "heavy Lifting" was done because I have a full compliment of CUC snails that should maintain the tank without starving

 

[BLAKEJOHN]

A phosphate reactor works only as good as the media you put in it. I have two of them, one runs ESV carbon and the other Rowaphos. My phosphates are at .02 - .03.
A reactor itself wont get your phosphates down. It takes quality RO/DI water, limited imports and maximize exports.

 

[map95003]

You are right, your nitrates and phosphates are reading low because of the GHA. The 2LF reactor is not bad but as already mentioned good media is key, in my experience running the media in a bag in your sump works just as good on a short term basis. I have 2 of them, I run carbon in one 24x7 and I run the other one with Pura PhosLock as needed if I notice any type of bad algae problems starting up...sometimes I get lazy and just dump the media in a bag and throw it in the sump for a few days to a week (rinse it first of course), the last time I used it was probably close to a year ago.

Get the reactor going, kill the lights for a day, cut back the lighting schedule, skip a few days of feeding, continue with the water changes. Make sure the media in the reactor is just slight bubbling at the surface....is your RO water reading 0 TDS?

 

[Reef Wall]

I physically removed all of the GHA. I did a 10% water change and will do a 50% water change today. How much light do my corals need per day? I don't want to cut the lighting back so much that my corals suffer. I get all of my water from the LFS. Do I still need to test it?

 

[knapp870]

One thing I found that worked miracles for hair algae. I had moved my tank when I moved from my apartment to my house with the only casualty being my scooter blenny disappearing. After that I started to get hair algae growth and battled it for a long time. I used RO/DI, plucked it manually, tried a lawnmower blenny who never touched the stuff, upgraded to a brand new MH fixture and light, all parameters appearing normal. Well, finally I was in my LFS and decided to rent a Sea Hare from them. I pay them 20, use him and when he's done bring him back for a 10 dollar store credit. That thing was a MACHINE! All hair algae was gone within a week to week and a half. I returned him and to this day dont have any problems with hair algae. Just a thought. But, you have to ensure that whatever started the problem in the first place is not continuing, otherwise it will just come back.

 

[redneckgearhead]

I found that It seemed to spread the HA more if I just pulled it off, and didnt actually siphon it out, I also shut my power heads off during the process to help siphon the last little pieces of it before it got blown away. I would take out the rocks that I could and scrub it off with a toothbrush as well. I would test the LFS water at least every so often just to make sure. Some have had luck with the giant turbo snails, I never did, they never lasted very long and never seemed to eat much of it, our tanks are usually to warm for them. And shutting down my lights for 3-4 days didnt seem to bother my corals. Its not always sunny in nature. This is going to be a long drawn out battle, but you can win.

 

[BLAKEJOHN]

I physically removed all of the GHA. I did a 10% water change and will do a 50% water change today. How much light do my corals need per day? I don't want to cut the lighting back so much that my corals suffer. I get all of my water from the LFS. Do I still need to test it?

Corals can do with out light for about three days, And yes you do need to test your water from your LFS. Even if you make your own you still need to test it. I test mine every time I open a new bucket or box. you never know when your gonna get a bad batch.

 

[jshoota]

Yeah, Yeah, we all know the optimum way to control pollution and hair algae is constant water changes. But, who really wants to do that? Honestly, I had my 120 gallon tank for 5 years now (pretty broken in) and everyone is healthy. Got Green carpet anemone since I put it up the tank. I have 4 clowns, 1 (big) royal gramma, 1 pigmy angel...blah blah blah, pretty much 15 fish, 2 cleaner shrimp, and cleanup crew, no fancy protein skimmer, Aquaclear filter and couple power heads....
The point is, was starting to get green hair algae problem that I saw coming but didn't get in control quickly enough. YES, I procrastinated.
Okay Okay, I have bio-overload. BUT, things are happy, corals are flourishing, fish are beautiful, corals are flourishing and spreading! JUST THE DAMN GREEN HAIR ALGAE!
I'm talkin' clumps, in which i let grow on purpose, so it was easier to pull off.
Tried phosphate pads and special "beady type" reducers, nitrate reducers, toothbrushed the damn stuff, bought, fox-face(BIG DEAL), tang (SO WHAT), and NOTHING! I have read and tried what others said worked, and got nothing.
Started to do water changes (WHAT?!) and couldn't change often enough to control nitrate and/or phosphate levels. (you don't want to know the levels either).
Sooo, I noticed I was lacking some cleanup crew.
I Bought 10 large turbo snails and 10 small blue legged hermits.
TA-DAH!! PROBLEM SOLVED. TURBO SNAILS SUCKED THAT THICK, CLUMPY, (THAT THE SO CALLED ALGAE EATING FISH WOULDN'T TOUCH). I KID YOU NOT. I WISH HAD BEFORE AND AFTER PIX.
Purple coralline algae flourishing all over rocks like crazy!
I'm not saying to be lazy like me, but I'm a big believer on the saying, "Don't fix what's not broke". If my fish and other inhabitants were showing problems I would have done other drastic measures.
So, in short summary, LARGE TURBO SNAILS are the miracle workers (for me).:notworthy: I would give the small hermits credit, but I specifically put 1 Large snail on a specific, large, jagged, tough looking rock to clean. BOOM! PRESTO! and clean, in a week or two.