green hair algae problems

monkiboy

Reefing newb
mine are similar to tubs in this same section but didn't want to overtake his thread and instead opened mine as the situation is a bit different.

i had requested confirmation that the below was indeed GHA in a separate thread:
https://www.livingreefs.com/green-hair-algae-and-prognosis-t41782.html

but only yote responded that it possibly could be.

this is what it looked like originally:
20120525_180343.jpg


i followed his advice and removed about 80% of it that i could which left a perfectly white sand underneath.

that lasted 12 hours before small islands the size of quarters of the same algae began growing again and now has come back worse than it was before.

for the last week, i've cut back my feeding to 3/4 a cube a week.

i replaced my GFO six days ago in case it was time, i tuned my biopellet reactor off in case they were clumping and causing an outbreak.

i change 35% of the water every week, this is in a 46g with four fish.

phosphates are reading .02ppm and nitrates/nitrates at 0ppm. pH at 8.4

light is on for 10 hours a day.

there is plenty of flow over the area with 2 mp10s (one at max 100% and the other 80%) covering the space.

two days ago it looked like this - the islands had gotten much larger:

20120528_1924212.jpg


now it looks worse than the original photo at the top.

can anyone confirm that this is GHA?

can someone else offer advice on what to do or what to check?

should i invest in some turbo snails (my crabs have killed and eaten all mine off)?

should i just keep removing what i believe to be GHA?

could a dirty skimmer be a catalyst for something like this? there is some green algae and coralline in my skimmer cone.

thanks for any help you can provide!
 
Try cleaning your skimmer- it couldn't hurt. And definitely add another CUC. If it were me, I would be picking out the killer crabs! ;)
Also, do you have a sump and/or refugium?
 
That is not green hair algae. That looks like cyano (slime algae). Usually cyano is red or purple, but it can come in green too.

There are rumors that certain hermits will eat cyano, but I've never believed this. There really isn't anything that will eat it. And you need to get to the root of the problem and prevent it instead of cleaning up after it.

Most of the time, cyano is caused by poor water quality (what are your parameters?) using tap water (do you?), overfeeding (how much/how often/what kind of food?) lack of flow (do you have enough powerheads?), and too many fish (how many and what kind do you have?).

You should use a turkey baster to suck out as much as you can manually. Then try to find the cause. It doesn't sound like you are overstocked, that you lack flow, that you are slacking on water changes, or that your feeding is off. So that leaves the question of do you use tap water?
 
Try cleaning your skimmer- it couldn't hurt. And definitely add another CUC. If it were me, I would be picking out the killer crabs! ;)
Also, do you have a sump and/or refugium?

ok, will do.

picked up 10 snails today. didn't want to overdo it either and increase bioload too much but i guess with nitrate/ites at 0ppm and phosphate at 0.02 it shouldn't hurt at all.

yes, i have a sump with a refugium. the sump is 30g with a 10g refugium in the center with chaeto, LR, and miracle mud.

WP_002544-1-1.jpg


and i think your note on taking out some of the killer crabs might be a good one but they attack each other, too so slowly their population dwindles anyway, haha.

That is not green hair algae. That looks like cyano (slime algae). Usually cyano is red or purple, but it can come in green too.

There are rumors that certain hermits will eat cyano, but I've never believed this. There really isn't anything that will eat it. And you need to get to the root of the problem and prevent it instead of cleaning up after it.

Most of the time, cyano is caused by poor water quality (what are your parameters?) using tap water (do you?), overfeeding (how much/how often/what kind of food?) lack of flow (do you have enough powerheads?), and too many fish (how many and what kind do you have?).

You should use a turkey baster to suck out as much as you can manually. Then try to find the cause. It doesn't sound like you are overstocked, that you lack flow, that you are slacking on water changes, or that your feeding is off. So that leaves the question of do you use tap water?

i hadn't considered green cyano but it makes sense. it is soft to the touch and does feel like cyano when i removed most of it last week.

i agree that i getting to the root of it is my ultimate goal. immediately, the snails won't hurt anything and i will suction with a turkey baster the rest of it.

i did forget to mention that it almost disappears every night and after thirty minutes with the lights on in the morning, it re-emerges darker and further spread out than the day before. so cyano does sound likely.

my water parameters i listed in my original post above. water quality as determined by parameter analysis is very good.

as seen in my photo of the sump/fish setup, i have an RO/DI unit (no tap water) and it reads 0 TDS out and 0.00ppm phosphate in the fresh bin.

i was feeding about half a cube a day of PE mysis and a bit of cyclopeez twice a week for four fish (maroon clown, three dot, blue damsel, and bicolor psuedo) in my 46g.

i have enough flow with two mp10s as shared in my original post.

thanks again for all the input, that's why i enjoy this site so much.

let me know any other thoughts!
 
Wow, you do have it set up really nice! It sounds like all your ducks are in a row. Maybe this is just a phase? :lol:

I would just try to continue manually removing it with the turkey baster as much as possible. Perhaps add another powerhead to get more water movement in that area.
 
Great advice! It wouldn't hurt to try cutting back your daylight hours to just 8 hours/day, to :) Mine are on from 2pm to 10pm.
 
Since it came back so quick,that tells us that it for sure isn't hair algae.

Here is what I'd do for cyano.
Do as Biff said and remove as much as possible like before.Then do a 50% water change followed by 4 days of lights out and the tank being covered to block out as much outside light as you can.
After the 4 days of darkness,do another 50% water change and remove any of the algae that is still visible.

Just Yotes way of getting rid of cyano.
 
ok, the turkey baster method wasn't working for me. i ended up taking out more sand and water than cyano. so i did what i could and used my hands and a net and got about 35% of it.

i did a 50% water change, then four days or darkness, and then another 50% water change.

today it is all gone. my sand is beautiful and white and clear, again.

i also lowered my light cycle/schedule from the 11 hours or so to 8 hours.

the automatic water changer i reprogrammed to do 70% water changes a week for the next couple weeks to see if it comes back. then if no problems will gradually bring it down to 35% a week like before.

anything else i should do, treat, test, or try to keep things the way they look now?

this is today:

d6391cec.jpg



obviously much better than 5 days ago:

20120525_180343.jpg
 
How old are your lights? Older bulbs can change the light spectrum, favoring certain growths. Agree with all other suggestions regarding flow, water parameters, etc etc.
 
Glad it's improving for you!

thanks - still good today and no signs of regrowth. hopefully i'm doing something right. i don't want to battle that again and put my corals through four days of darkness again despite all of them seeming perfectly fine afterwards.

How old are your lights? Older bulbs can change the light spectrum, favoring certain growths. Agree with all other suggestions regarding flow, water parameters, etc etc.
i'm on an LED setup so this wouldn't apply to me. thanks for your input nonetheless.
 
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