Grrr, Persistant Green Hair Algae

[Ingy]

How much skimmate is your skimmer pulling out in conjunction with your ATS?

 

[Gregcoyote]

A lot. All you have to do is smell it and you know you want it gone ASAP.


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[Ingy]

Mine is pulling nothing and if I increase backpressure there is just fizz.
All my protiens are at 0 (nitrate, phosphate and other nitrogens) , so I expect no real skimmate. Not surprising since I rarely feed my fish. Don't ask me what the algae is consuming, because I have no idea. This is getting so frustrating.
How much algae do you get off you ATS and how often?

 

[Gregcoyote]

About 5 wet pounds every 30 days for 500 gallons. I feed pretty heavily.


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[Ingy]

See, that's the issue. I'm not hardly feeding at all. I've lost a couple fish over the last few months I think because if not feeding enough. This dang algae is feeding off of something else, I just wish I knew what.
All the sand is sucked out. I'm ordering new stuff tomorrow. Fiji pink I think. I just wish I could get the non live sand, but alas it's not available here. I hate paying for bacteria when they are already in the system. Oh well, at least the wholesaler is not outrageous on his prices. $20 for a 20# bag.



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[Sniperhank]

What about the rock?

 

[Amitas]

The nutrients have to be in the rock, sense the algae is growing on the rock then, the only logical explanation is that the nutrients are in the rock and the algaes are consuming them before they reach the water column

 

[Bray84]

How do you test the rock to see what phosphates are leaching.


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[Ingy]

Algae is growing on rocks, sides and powerheads. Basically everywhere. I let it grow on the powerheads because I could easily pull them and remove it.
Anyhow with the latest sand vacuuming in scraped off all the algae I could. The rocks got a good cleaning too, but I couldn't get all the algae.


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[audifusion]

Have you looked into vinegar /vodka dosing ? The algae scrubber will start to work in a couple weeks too.

There is a vinegar dosing chart online somewhere, just look it up. You will need to leave your skimmer in though if you decide to go that route.

 

[Ingy]

I have done carbon dosing in the past, and I still have a small bottle of vodka (1.5 oz size) in the sump. But again, that is for binding and removing nutrients. I don't have any to bind. I stopped using the vodka when the skimmate starting to become fizz.

Anyhow, I have ordered 60lbs of Fiji pink which should be here on Monday. One more last bit of old sand to remove then the rebuild starts. I thought I might get a jump in Ammonia or nitrites with thye loss of almost all the sand, but nope. Checked last night and they are all at 0 (PO4 too). The algae doesn't seem to be coming back very fast, and the new ATS is getting a nice green algae start to it. I've got some trimming to do tho as its a bit loud in places, but that's to be expected.

 

[jeffaquarius]

After all the trial and errors you have done to remove those unwanted algae I have to say that what you might really need is just a good troop of CUCs.

 

[Ingy]

As soon as I get the sand in, I'm ordering them. Don't want to bury anybody.


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[Ingy]

Well after 3 trip to the airport Friday night, the CUC finally arrived at 10pm.
50 Dwarf Blue Leg hermits
25 Scarlet Hermits
5 Electric Orange Hermits
4 Lettuce Slugs
Lawnmower Blenny.
If that doesn't take care of my algae issue, its time to give up.

So I had the QT set up for the last week, when I pulled all the rocks from my sump and needed somewhere to put them. Put all my chaeto in there to. Amm, 'trites and 'trates all 0 after the week. Almost half the CUC went into the QT along with Mr Blenny. I put the worst algae rocks from my darkened curing bucket (which was a colossal fail) in there too. The CUC in the QT is already making a difference on the algae in there.

In the DT most of the new guys went right to work. Interestingly enough I counted 9 hermits of different types that molted right away. That's about 20% of the DT hermits. I expected something like that, but still interesting to be able to count them.

After a couple more weeks with no sign of ick, I'll move the blenny into the DT. I will also cycle rocks from the QT into the DT as they get cleaned up. Eventually everybody will move over there. Hopefully within a couple months. time to cross my fingers and see if this does it.

 

[Ingy]

Here's a few things I have learned in my fight against Green Hair Algae and other algae.

Myths

Reducing lighting will kill off the algae: Algae DOES NOT need any light at all to survive. Yes, it needs it to grow, but once its there it will live on (forever?) with no lighting at all.
Proof: I moved the worst of my algae covered rocks to a Bruute garbage can full of new salt water. A heater, circ pump and airstone were put in and the lid was put on. After at least 3 months (I think) when I pulled some rocks from the bottom out, they were still covered in a bright green hair algae. Complete darkness did absolutely NOTHING in the way of killing off the algae.

Getting your nutrient levels to 0 will kill of the algae: HA! biggest joke out there. Sure higher levels will PROMOTE algae growth, but it seems to grow just fine in a system with amm, 'trites, trates AND Phosphates all at 0. Yes, the test kits and hanna checker are all fine.
Proof: Not only are my readings all at 0, my phosguard has shown NO colour change after 8 months. And my skimmer was more like a fizzy, um, thing, again indicating there were no long string proteins in the water.
What is my GHA using to grow, I'm not certain, but I'm having a heck of a time keeping my alk levels up. Perhaps GHA can grow using some type of carbonates. IDK. But both the GHA and Chaeto did just fine growing with nitrate and phosphate at 0.

Things that worked, somewhat

Dosing with Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) will kill algae (and other stuff): No, simply dosing with it wont do anything to anything. However targeted applications of H2O2 will kill algae. I used 25-40 ml in a 110 gal + sump system.

H2O2 dipping: This worked to kill algae. I dipped some corals (LPS and shroom covered rocks) that seemed happy for the treatment. I read that SPS can't handle the dip, so I didn't try.
Problem: I can only get 500ml bottles of 3% solution. That is the strength I used, but 2 bottles was needed for some dips. H2O2 turns into plain water very soon after pouring it out of its container, so you can't save it for tomorrows dip. I think you can get 25% H2O2, but not where I live. If I could I would have used a 5 gal bucket 1/2 full with RODI and then mixed the H2O2 to a 3-4% solution and dipped all algae rocks and my hammers too (too big for me now).

That's it.

 

[San Raphael Catfish]

Scopas Tang to the rescue. Better than any blennies, and way more hungry. I did put a plastic screen from cross stitch or some crafty thing in my refugium, and that is no the only place that GHA grows. The Scopas Tang is always on seek and destroy mission for GHA.

Any they are a cool looking fish as well.

 

[Ingy]

Greg, I sent you a PM regarding the ATS.