Green Hair Algae

ltkenbo

ltkenbo

Reefing newb
So I've just set up by 55 gallon with over 100 lbs. of live rock and ever since cycling, I have been seeing lots of green hair algae growth. lights are on 11-12 hours a day which is normal, and I have a very small cleanup crew now (a turbo snail and 3 hermit crabs) which is helping some but the snail seems to like to stay on the same group of rocks. There shouldn't be any phosphates in the water because I use RO / DI water and as far as nitrates well, it always tests negative because I'm sure whatever nitrates there were after cycling got eaten by the algae.

Here is the snail:
DSC05176.jpg


Here is the center rock which is the worst, the circulation pump is right above it which also has a lot of buildup which I need to takeout and clean:
DSC05178.jpg


And here you can see the entire aquarium:
DSC05180.jpg


Open to any suggestions
 
Kill the lights. Their is no reason to have the lights on for 12 hours with only cuc in there. Most fish only system run lights 6 to 8 hours so you can see the fish the only reason to run lights longer is for corals. With limited cuc all you are doing is feeding the hair algae light and the cuc cant keep up. When you increase the cuc and start getting corals start having more light time. Every tank is different on how long the lights should be on. A reef tank is a fine line on enough light for corals and to much for algae.
 
I would suggest HEAVILY increasing your CUC. A single snail and 3 hermits can't even BEGIN to take care of that tank. Remove as much as you can by hand and scrub the rest with a toothbrush, then do a massive water change.
 
Also,just because your using RO water,doesn't mean you don't have phosphates.
Theres actually 2 kinds of phosphates.Inorganic phosphates are what you'd get out of tap water.The organic kind comes from die-off,fish food,fish :pooh: When you got live stuff in the tank,their producing organic phosphates,which the normal home test kit cant read.
 
Well as far as the lights I do have corals, the zoanthids that came on the live rock that I got that are starting to thrive. Yeah I just got another turbo snail today and 3 red leg hermit crabs, and a smaller snail nassarius maybe.
 
Remove as much of it by hand too. If it dies and decomposes in the water, it just re-releases those nutrients back into the water.
 
You can also use a hard bristle tooth brush and twirl the brush and the algae around it and pull it out that way. You can get closer to the rock that way.
 
Trying to remove it by hand is almost pointless it just goes everywhere. However, even though it is still growing, I noticed that wherever the snails and crabs cleaned, no new algae has formed there which is a good thing I guess. I'm going to try a water change today, and I am limiting the lighting but I can't just kill the lights with the zoanthids. Any other tips, do those anti algae chemicals work at all? How can I make sure I don't have a high ammount of phosphates in my water if I am using RO water?
 
You have to pick a little bit at a time, and not let go of it from your fingers. If you do it that way, it shouldn't get all over the tank. Just pluck it bit by bit.

I would avoid the anti algae chemicals. Most do not work, and some can have nasty side effects and harm your animals. The only one I can recommend is Marine SAT, which I had huge success with when my old 55 was over run with algae.
 
Allright so the algae seems to be getting better and not regrowing wherever I've removed it or where it's been eaten. I've killed the lights to try to get rid of the remaining hair algae the only thing I worry about though is the zoanthids that have been growing on my live rock (came with it when I got it) cause they are starting to thrive and open and developing color on the inside. However, I heard they are quite hardy so do I have to worry about killing them while leaving the lights off for a few days?

I've also been doing 5 gallon water changes everyday for the past 3 days and will continue for a couple more.
 
The zoas are usually pretty hardy. I went through a green HA outbreak when my 75 first came to me and I ran the lights very sparingly for a while, but the button polyps just shrunk quite a bit and have since come back and are growing quickly now.
 
It wont hurt your corals to leave the lights off 3 or 4 days.
Even in the wild,they dont get 12 full hours of lights every day.There will be days thats cloudy and overcast,days thats dark and storming,might even go for a week or more where they dont get any light.
 
So would it be safe to turn the lights back on (tomorrow I mean) or should I wait a little longer, and if so, how long. Most of the algae in the tank that is left is grey except for a few small patches. I think the reason I had algae before was because the water had been sitting in my tank for a few weeks before I added the live rock which could have given it some time to disolve phosphates and other stuff in the water.
 
Last edited:
Just try to manually remove the large clumps of algea and do a water change when you turn the lights back on

The algea is dying and releasing all those nutrients back into the water. So water changes remove some of the nutrients.

Dont want that to fuel another algea outbreak

Brian
 
Yeah I have been doing water changes everyday but I was wondering that if I keep doing that and removing algae clumps if it would be safe to turn the lights back on. I would like to add a fish soon considering the tank has been cycled for a while now.
 
I dont think it would hurt to turn the lights back on.
Just do like Bj said and remove as much of the algae as you can by hand.
 

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