How do I get rid of a HUGE green hair algae problem??

[jaydm93teg]

As said in the title i have a huge green hair algae problem.........its not on the front wall of the tank just the WHOLE back wall and the 2 sides. None of the live rock has this algae problem and really there is no algae at all growing on the sand bed.

Like i said its just the back wall and 2 side walls of the tank. I have about 6 big red foot snails and maybe 5 little snails because my hermit crabs killed the other little snails and took their shells......I have about 10 little hermit crabs and 1 emerald crab maybe 1.5 to 2 inches big.

It is a 29 gallon tank and my new 150w sunpod MH should be here tuesday so i wanted to start taking care of this algae problem before i started getting any coral in the tank.

Any help is greatly appreciated!!!!!

P.S: the rest of the contents of the tank. 1 green chromis, 1 bar goby, 1 little angle its blue/black/red forgot the name, and 1 fish that my g/f bought me that is blue/red/green/black its has a pointed lip and always sticks to the rock or sand bed it NEVER swims free through out the tank forgot its name too. I have all the names of the fish written down just not at my house right now. Anyway thanks again

 

[roland jacques]

What is your water quality like? Test it and then go from their. What kind of light is your tank geting and for how long?

 

[jaydm93teg]

I will test water tomm. The light is a sunpod150 watt mh. Not really sure what u mean by how long

 

[roland jacques]

How long of a time period is you tank geting light. is it also getting derect sunlight?

 

[jaydm93teg]

I as far as hours per day I don't know that yet I was gonna ask that when my light came in on Tuesday. No direct sunlight at all and right now it has a cheap light strip u get in a starter kit from walk mart that is probably on 8 or 9 hours a day

 

[glxtrix]

there is some different things you can do. To help kill it off you could do a 3 day no light. There is a topic over on RC about it. I do that once a month and have been for the past 3 years. It helps rid of algea as well as cyano. Tho that wont solve your problem, there is something thats growing it obviously. You could also check your magnesium and see where thats at. Raise it around 1500 and that'll help too.

 

[cameron]

This question and answer needs to be in the wiki and no I am not volunteering... just suggesting.

 

[jaydm93teg]

hey cameron what is the wiki sorry if its a dumb question

 

[ralph atl]

Phosphate reduction/ removal is most likely the answer. you have a few choices. Add a refugium with Macro algae. If you don't already have one get an inexpensive phosphate reactor for like 35 bucks and put some phosar or ROWA in there. (you'll need to CHANGE your media in phosphate reactor more often at first.) Your media might be getting saturated in 2 weeks depending upon how much is bound up in your rocks, tank, algae, etc. Use less media, change every 2 weeks. Use a great test kit like DD merk, Hack, or colormeter or send to AWT.

You must export the same or more nutrients than you put in. Overfeeding, tap water, high phosphate foods, etc. Use a phosphate reactor with some phosar or ROWA or whatever, and something to lower nitrates like a fuge, AZNO3, or whatever.

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[IMG]http://www.advancedaquarist.com/iss...st2003/chem.htm">http://www.advancedaquarist.com/iss...st2003/chem.htm</a>

[IMG]http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php">http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php</a>