Grrr, Persistant Green Hair Algae

[Gregcoyote]

Both. They both attack the problem from different angles.


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[dmolavi]

From FantasyReef Databases-Viewing item "10 Step Plan for Nuisance Algae Control"...my only real concern is #4...

1. Remove Nitrates and Phosphates from the source water by using RO/DI water.
I already use RO/DI, zero TD

2. Do more frequent water changes. One a week is a good place to start.
I do 60% a week. It's a 20 gallon (15 net), so it's not hard

3.Manually remove the nuisance via pulling it out by hand, forceps or siphoning.
Wow, is this tedious. I try...Is there a good quality, stiff bristled brush that can scrub the stuff off?

4. Cut back on lighting, totally blackout the tank for a week or at a bare minimum, cut the lighting time in half.
I haven't tried this yet. My tank has duncans, zoas, acans, torch, frogspawn, and one birdsnest. What would the minimum acceptable amount of lighting be that wouldn't negatively impact these corals?

5. Increase your clean up crew. More snails and crabs are normally a good idea.
I have stomatellas and about 4 or 5 other snails in there.

6. Reduce the amount and frequency of feedings. Every two or three days will not hurt the fish.
Monday, Wednesday and Friday are it. A single (maybe two) piece of thawed mysis shrimp for each of my clowns, goby, and cleaner shrimp.

7. Rinse the frozen foods (thaw, pour out water, put in tank)
Done.

8. Add a refugium, or if you can't, then consider using fresh macro in the tank.
It's a nano, the fuge would be bigger than the DT As such, there's no room for macro in the tank.

9. Quit using additives such as coral growers and filter feeding foods. Even though the bottles may say they dont add phosphates and such, they do impair water quality.
I'm on the fence on this one. But I try not to dose what I don't need.

10. Get a protein skimmer.
Done.

 

[crister13]

I run both. Skimmers only take out roughly 30% of the junk.


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[melosu58]

3.Manually remove the nuisance via pulling it out by hand, forceps or siphoning.
Wow, is this tedious. I try...Is there a good quality, stiff bristled brush that can scrub the stuff off?

Try this. It worked for me when working on other tanks. Rubber band a toothbrush on the end of your siphon hose and while doing a WC scrub the algea off and siphon it out at the same time. Works great.

 

[Dary421]

3.Manually remove the nuisance via pulling it out by hand, forceps or siphoning.
Wow, is this tedious. I try...Is there a good quality, stiff bristled brush that can scrub the stuff off?

Try this. It worked for me when working on other tanks. Rubber band a toothbrush on the end of your siphon hose and while doing a WC scrub the algea off and siphon it out at the same time. Works great.

That's the exact procedure I used recently ,... Works great !!!

 

[Gregcoyote]

Every algae breakout I have had in the last few decades were brought rapidly under control by scrubbing phosphates down to very low levels


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[Ingy]

I'm thinking of pulling some rocks outta my sump and adding a scrubber. I kinda hate my SRO skimmer as it always needs to be tweaked.
Phosphates are already at 0 so I'm thinking of perhaps pulling my reactor out and using that pump for a scrubber. Still reading up on those things tho.
Not sure what size and flo and lights. Hmmm. More research.


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[Gregcoyote]

Your phosphates might read low because the algae binds it. Using GFO or Phosgard competes with the algae for free phosphates and eventually the algae begins to lose the battle.

Of course a algae scrubber is just a system to grow algae, then harvest it and the phosphates and nitrates it's composed of. Either way, algae is brought under control.


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[Dary421]

Three or four weeks ago my tank was a green hair algae forest ( due to a month of tank neglect on my part when "life" got in the way of normal maintence ) ,....a couple of lawn mower blennies , a cuc that due to my previous triggerfish , were always eaten ,... A new batch of gfo. ,some serious elbow grease and raising my alk slowly to a somewhat normal level has eliminated pretty much all of it,... The rocks are clean,no wavy clumps everywhere you look,.... Nice ! Hope you can get a hold of yours too and get it under control also.


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[dmolavi]

During my PWC on Sunday night, my alk was at 9.1. Should I try to raise it higher? I use baking soda in my ATO to maintain it, and it's usually between 9.1 and 9.3.

I'm also going to add Phosguard to my HOB box. I'm sure that dead/dying algae will just add nutrients to the tank that will then contribute to new growth...

 

[Ingy]

Dary, how big is the tank and how much cuc did you add? LFS here charge WAYYYY too much for the cuc and shipping from the distributor is $$ unless I exceed $200. I am willing to do that if it's appropriate.


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[Dary421]

Dary, how big is the tank and how much cuc did you add? LFS here charge WAYYYY too much for the cuc and shipping from the distributor is $$ unless I exceed $200. I am willing to do that if it's appropriate.


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135 gal + sump .... I originally just bought a typical cuc thru saltwater fish or somebody (?) that contained a bunch of tiny little snails and a peppermint shrimp that prob cost way too much for what you actually get and what they actually do BUT I bought a couple of Mexican turbo snails that are the size of a fricken walnut and wow do those things ever work !!! They remind me of one of those remote controlled vacuum cleaners that just never stop moving ., on the glass ,on the Powerheads on the sand,back on the rocks etc et. They are amazing !! Pare that with two lawn mower blennies and wow it works for me.


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[Ingy]

Have you ever had an issue with the blenny eating your SPS? With all the algae on everything, I'm nervous about it 'accidentally' nipping an SPS while eating the algae and then coming to like the flavour. I've read the lawnmowers can do that.
Any other blennys that anybody might recommend for serious algae control?

 

[Gregcoyote]

Roomba snail?


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[Gregcoyote]

I've never seen any of my blennies over the years harm corals.


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[Ingy]

What???
So I check Liveaquaria and JLAquatics. Nope. Nobody even lists anything about Roomba snails. Hmmm, google maybe??
Nope.
Wait, whats that, just below robo snail, IRobot Roomba vacuum. Click, light goes on Now I get it.

 

[crister13]

It's not good to buy things to get rid if algae. It's ok for them to help but you should get to the source of the problem. Your nitrates/phosphates are high. You should try to fix that.


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[Ingy]

If anybody can tell me where the nitrates or phosphates are coming from, I'm all ears. I haven't fed the fish in over a week and I've never over fed them. My tank is lightly stocked and the most food they ever got was 1 cube of rinsed frozen food twice a week. Rodi water changes.
Nitrates and phosphates have always been 0, even before the algae bloom.
Fix what? That is truly the question.


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[crister13]

The truth is if there's algae there are nitrates and phosphates. They're reading 0 or close to it because they're bound in the algae. They are the algae's nutrients. No nitrates/phosphates=no algae. Maybe they were 0 before, and when they started to rise the algae grew so it appeared that they stayed 0.


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[dmolavi]

What ingy is asking, and me too, is that nothing changed on our parts. Something brought it on, we are just trying to isolate it.

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