eating green hair algae

[JeremyAN7]

I've posted before.. but still have the problem. have removed manually several times, doing lots of water changes, running protein skimmer, experimented with various reactor media... still have the problem..

so what LITERALLY eats its body weight daily (or close) in GHA? and if you say sea hare, how do I keep them out of the powerbeads? (I've had that issue)..

ideas?

 

[Curren007K]

Hey Jeremy, I battled green hair algae for a year. I tried a lot of quick fixes here and there and I'll tell you none of them worked. I had GHA on everything from the live rock, to the sand, equipment, glass, coral, hermit crabs, etc. I found none of my clean up crew would do a serious dent in the abundance of algae growth, and I experiment with a lot of critters. I tried running phosban, vodka dosing, and a whole lot of other crap. My routine evolved into manual removals with a tooth brush for the live rock, cleaning the equipment, and sifting the sand. Keeping up with routine weekly water changes, keeping the parameters in check, and using SeaGel in a bag. I found after severely annihilating the crap out of the GHA manually and using SeaGel, it absorbed the excess phosphate silicates before the algea could and prevented it from growing back. Now with that being said I'm still not 100% GHA free, but the little I have left is a snack and is kept in check by my blue legged and scarlet halloween hermits.

 

[JeremyAN7]

Interesting. I was thinking about doing the same thing... Starting with a complete tear down of the tank to allow me to scrub each rock with brush in a small tank with a large canister filter to really make a first attack on the algae, also scrub the glass (with the tank only water in it) and "vacuum" the sand with the canister filter and sand vac attachment while doing a generous water change... put it all back together.. then small versions of that monthly for a while... It's a LOT LOT LOT of work.. and prolly need help. :/

 

[JeremyAN7]

Anyone see anything wrong with this plan? Also, was thinking or rinsing the rocks (ones with nothing or ONLY polyps ) in 2/3 tank water 1/3 hydrogen peroxide for 5 mins. Advisable ? what corals CANNOT be dipped like that?

 

[JeremyAN7]

Someone please verify

 

[sfb911]

First off, I have to ask, have you tested phosphates and nitrates? Also are you running gfo? Do you have a refugium? What size is your tank and what is in it? I hate to be 'that guy' but you could do a lot of things and depending on other factors not solve your problem....

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[sfb911]

Also are you sure it's GHA and not something else like Bryopsis?

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[jah-hoeva]

Turbo snails are great for GHA.

 

[JeremyAN7]

I have been through this a lot. 72g tests for Po2 and No3 come up at 0 which implies that the GHA is controlling it below the test threshold. i do NOT know the source of the nutrient not WHICH nutrient is feeding the GHA. I'm reasonably certain it is in fact GHA based on all the pictures and times I've posted here for second opinions. so when it comes down to it, I do not know the direct cause.

I have tried turbo snails and they moved everything around, had a bite, then died.

 

[sfb911]

You might look into a bio pellet reactor. I know a lot of folks have had success with those. There are risks like with anything else but especially where you don't know the exact source.... That may be a good route to investigate.

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[Owen386]

Honestly I had an awful gha problem, tried a bunch of different methods to rid. Nothing seemed to work. Then 3 days later all gone. Still have it growing tho don't see any.???

The magical SEA HARE!! Happy to say going on at least 6 months and still a happy inhabitant of my mixed reef.

Never had a problem with the power heads. I also keep rbtas with no problem either. I run jaebos rw fwiw.

I am a big believer in keeping an all natural reef. And in a natural reef your sure to find algae growing with sea hares eating it. So when in Rome.

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[dilligaf29]

+1 on sea hare they love it

 

[Paul B]

2" of Manatee for each 10 gallons of water.