Green Hair Algae problem

[pjdunc]

First let me say how much I enjoyed the ARC meeting today. I was able to learn many things, meet some new people and get some new corals!

I have a GHA problem and honestly need help recommending what to do next.
About 5-6 months ago I had an outbreak while I was out of the country and had no one to take care of my aquarium. I returned to find GHA all over my rocks (2-4" long) and it had smothered my acros completely.

Over the last 3 months I have done water changes amounting to around 300 gallons. I have added GFO, chaeto to my sump, changed my lighting cycle from 12 hrs a day 8 bulb T5s to 8 hrs only running 4 actinic (the bulbs are 8 mos old from you guys), replaced all membranes in my RODI, and ramped up my COC to 2 tuxedo urchins, a tang, ~30 Mexican turbo snails, ~30 astrea snails, and 40 scarlet red hermits. I only have 3 fish in the tank so minimal feeding and only feed corals twice per week. Additionally I have been pulling GHA by hand and yet it continues to grow. If only my hair would grow that fast!

I have attached a picture...sorry for all the blue. You will see around the base of the rock the GHA and on the glass. The picture was taken around Thanksgiving. I can see some improvement, but that is only because of the pulling it by hand. If left alone for a week, it is as bad as it once was.

I just tested my parameters again and nitrates, nitrites and phosphates all read 0. I know the phosphate reading is because of all the algae.
I've ordered Phosphate RX although I didn't want to use chemicals but not sure what else to do. Any recommendations would be appreciated!

 

[ichthyoid]

There are nutrients in there, otherwise the HA wouldn't grow. When you went out of the country did you use a feeder? If so. could it have dumped excess food? Did anything die during that time?

I would suggest start by taking a water sample by your local fish store for a re-test, to be sure. What brand of test kits do you use?

Difficult to tell from picture, but I'm assuming that's at least a 120 gal.? (100 gal/month water change should make a difference)

What kind of filtration and/or fuge do you have, other than the chaeto? How often do you change the GFO?

 

[seand]

Definitely not snake oil

 

[ichthyoid]

Definitely not snake oil

"With continued correct use there are no undesirable side effects when using NO3: PO4-X. It is safe for all fish, corals and micro fauna. Even a large accidental overdose should not cause any irreversible damage as long as a suitably rated skimmer is installed on the system"

 

[seand]

Oh I use it and live it. I was meaning is not a fake cure-all, it actually works.

 

[lmm1967]

A sea hare will tear through it. If you can find one local I would ask if you can return for credit once he's cleared out your tank.

Several stores on the north side typically have them - I have seen them recently in both Premier and Pure Reef.

 

[Steve Burton]

Fluconazole worked for me

 

[jcook54]

I'm a NOPX user. I tested yesterday morning and had tiny amount of nitrate and phosphate. Down from the highest points I've seen in October 2018. I had a bad out break and now it looks great. The steps I took were (1) upping water cranes, (2) adding clean up crow with emphasis on blue legged hermits and (3) started carbon dosing.

 

[ichthyoid]

Oh I use it and live it. I was meaning is not a fake cure-all, it actually works.

I just quoted the Red Sea instructions, to illustrate that carbon dosing requires a skimmer (good/efficient/preferably over-sized,).

FWIW,
I ran a methanol fed nitrate reactor for several years, in a FOWLR (Fish Only With Live Rock) system.
It resulted in the BEST water parameters I've ever had in a marine tank, in over 40 years in the hobby.
I regularly harvested handfuls of pods from the trickle filter section (don;t laugh, that worked GREAT in conjunction with the denitrifying filter!)

 

[pjdunc]

I use Salifert test kits. The tank is 180g with a 55g sump. I didn't use a automatic feeder, at the time there were nothing but corals in the tank. Already had the water checked and readings are the same....I assume because the GHA is consuming it all. I did try the phosphate X but the results that I thought I would. The tank went cloudy for about 30 minutes at most and then it was clear. Since my understanding of it is that it suspends the phosphates in the water column, since my readings were 0 there was nothing to suspend. I am concerned that my live rock might be leaching.....I have had it for about 5 years....but it has been in the tank for about 16 months.

 

[seand]

Did you have algae problems the whole time you’ve used the rock (5 years)

 

[pjdunc]

No...it was fine for the first 10+ months in this tank.

 

[ichthyoid]

If you had nothing but coral & had a HA outbreak, I'm thinking you must have been leaching nutrients from substrate/rock.

Phosphate in solution is driven to precipitate on calcium. If substrate/sand or rock has been used in a system, other than an ultra low nutrient system, there is a good chance phosphate is there and will leach back into solution.

Calcium phosphate is stable & may not show on a test. That being said, Salifert tests have a pretty good reputation. I'm puzzled by the zero levels, yet lots of HA.

With that kind of system volume (~230 gal), doing ~100 gal/month water changes, you would still be doing close to 50% changes per month. That should slow HA, ime.

There may be a question as to where the nitrogen came/is coming from, because phosphate can't grow algae by itself...?

I'd 2nd the carbon dosing. Just make sure you have a good skimmer running!

 

[pjdunc]

Thanks for the information. I will check some of my other parameters tomorrow morning. I have checked but honestly concentrating on the phosphates.

 

[ichthyoid]

Since you already have significant HA in the tank, remember that there are nutrients bound up in it.

 

[seand]

Since you already have significant HA in the tank, remember that there are nutrients bound up in it.

What he said. I had to turn up my skimmer a bit when my GHA started dying so the loose nutrients didn’t cause another bloom. I figured this out on my own around the 5-6 cycle. Everything we learn, we learn the hard way.

 

[FutureInterest]

I feel that a few things need to happen when tackling any nuisance algae problem...

1. Identify the nuisance algae.
2. Remove more nutrients from the tank than are going into the tank. Phosphates/Nitrates.
3. You need to find something that willingly eats it.

So first off... are we sure its hair algae and not something else harder to get rid of like bryopsis? Its hard for me to tell in the photo. A lot of animals we use in the hobby will eat hair algae but very few will eat bryospsis. Another difference with regular HA is that bryopsis will grow well even with low nutrients. Fluconozole which is available over the counter is super effective against bryopsis and at certain concentrations can also kill off the hair algae. Take a zoomed in shot and post it here if you can. If not look online and compare contrast with pics that you find. Typically bryopsis is "feathery" when you look at it very closely.

As for nutrients, I won't add much there as I think there's a lot of great advice above on reducing your nutrients and I would follow that. I would only add that dosing a carbon source has always worked well for me in this regard.

As for finding something that willingly eats it... I would recommend going the fish route and getting something like a foxface or a tang. My old foxface would eat bubble algae, bryospsis, and hair algae.... he was a beast. If it was vegetation he just destroyed it.

 

[seand]

Only Bryopsis eater I know of are trochus

 

[FutureInterest]

One other thing to keep in mind is that all healthy reef tanks will grow hair algae unless you're running ULNS... which is ultra low nutrient systems and even then you'll have some algae issues as they are sooo good at utilizing available nutrients. Don't be discouraged if you're growing regular hair algae. It looks like you don't have any algae eating fish in there. Once you add them, they'll start on it and be happy its there. If you find that they aren't eating the hair algae... it could be because you're feeding them too much.

Whenever I see a hair algae outbreak, I just don't feed the tank that day. When I check the next day... it's gone . Then I go back to regularly feedings.

 

[ricky5415]

Sometimes the nitrate / phosphate comes from the rocks ( absorbed into the rock too). Be patient. Try to tackle it slowly/safely