Green Hair Algae Solution?

[jmon22]

Sorry, know there are a ton of threads on this, but advice is all over the place so hard to know which direction to go. Have a Tideline AIO 62g, rocks are ~3 years old so not dealing with new tank syndrome but recovering from water parameters being a bit off. Had cyano previously, once I used chemiclean to get rid of it GHA came roaring back in its place about 2 weeks later. Here are my parameters:

Salinity- Calibrated my refractometer and realized I was around 1.023. Currently in process to raise to ~1.25-1.26. Just a bit below 1.25 now. Not dosing CA/Alk while doing this to see where those end up.
Nitrates- 15-20
Phos- .03
Ca- 420
Alk- 8.5-9
Mag- Was low, ~1050, raised to 1250 with mag chloride, raising salinity should put me ~1450-1500

Purchased a tuxedo urchin, didn't do much. My astreas look like they carry more GHA than clean but currently fairly low on other CUC. Also took out rocks, scrubbed, and sprayed with hydrogen peroxide. Kept clean for 2 weeks but now coming right back. What should next steps be?

- Hope that raising magnesium will fix the issue?
- Purchase diverse CUC to help? Have a small yellow and tomini tang that pick but aren't making a dent (will rehome later, doing fine in a 4' at their size)
- Fluconazole? Hoping to avoid any more chemicals if possible.
- Decrease phosphates? Are they much higher than testing shows from the algae? Would hate to bottom out and get something even worse.

See pics. This is AFTER a pretty thorough scrub, so the problem is worse than it looks.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I don't see any snails in your pictures, get some turbo snails in there. It doesn't look that bad, parameters not bad. Just need some algae grazers

 

[jmon22]

I don't see any snails in your pictures, get some turbo snails in there. It doesn't look that bad, parameters not bad. Just need some algae grazers

Sorry forgot to mention turbos, purchased two in December, both were dead within 3 weeks. Haven't had issues like that with any other species, A few Astreas I've had for 3 years ago even bred in the tank, but too small to make much impact still.

 

[Peace River]

Also, don't forget to pull as much out by hand (including scraping). Reduce lighting and food for a period. Add snails that target GHA. If you have any rocks that don't have coral you can also pull them and spray with hydrogen peroxide. Good luck!

 

[jmon22]

Also, don't forget to pull as much out by hand (including scraping). Reduce lighting and food for a period. Add snails that target GHA. If you have any rocks that don't have coral you can also pull them and spray with hydrogen peroxide. Good luck!

Yep already pull, brush, hit with a baster, and scrape every day or two. Reduced lighting for a week but didn't help much. Scrubbed and sprayed all of the rocks with peroxide but was only a short term fix.

 

[slingfox]

For that size tank I would recommend an Algae Blenny. I assume you should also reduce how much you feed and get more CUC.

 

[Peace River]

Other approaches are to figure out what is feeding it (food, light, etc.) or get something to outcompete it.

 

[slingfox]

Yep already pull, brush, hit with a baster, and scrape every day or two. Reduced lighting for a week but didn't help much. Scrubbed and sprayed all of the rocks with peroxide but was only a short term fix.

I scrubbed my rocks every two weeks for six months. I ultimately got them clean by doing a tank reset which involved unmounting all the coral, scrubbing down all the rock with a wire brush, pouring boiling water on all the rocks and then spraying them down with a 10% peroxide solution. The rocks were taken over by dinos but I got rid of them in about 2 weeks. Tank will likely take 6+ months to recover. The coral are doing just fine including all the SPS. The coral were not doing great during the six month long algae outbreak.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

i have a lawnmower blenny and he never eats algae. Weirdly enough, i’m seeing my skunk cleaner shrimp appears to be trying to eat it.
More astral and trochus snails will do the trick. Possibly an urchin. Keep phosphates under .2.

I’m dealing with it right now and i think it’s just growing pains with a tank that is under a year old. Today I pulled out giant rocks and scrubbed at least 5 of them. That sucked. Especially knocking over frags off other pieces of rock. Many F words were yelled out loud.

 

[jmon22]

i have a lawnmower blenny and he never eats algae. Weirdly enough, i’m seeing my skunk cleaner shrimp appears to be trying to eat it.
More astral and trochus snails will do the trick. Possibly an urchin. Keep phosphates under .2.

I’m dealing with it right now and i think it’s just growing pains with a tank that is under a year old. Today I pulled out giant rocks and scrubbed at least 5 of them. That sucked. Especially knocking over frags off other pieces of rock. Many F words were yelled out loud.

Got a tuxedo. Love the guy but he's not making much of a dent. I guess CUC is probably the first thing I'll try.

 

[Pistondog]

You cant stop it without cuc help.
Ime cannot be managed thru nutrient control or chems.
Tuxedo or 2, 6 mexican turbo snails. Tiger conches will climb rock too.
Get a bottle brush and daily clean the long loose stuff, no need to scrape the rock, you cant get it all, that is what the cuc does.
It will take some time.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Sorry, know there are a ton of threads on this, but advice is all over the place so hard to know which direction to go. Have a Tideline AIO 62g, rocks are ~3 years old so not dealing with new tank syndrome but recovering from water parameters being a bit off. Had cyano previously, once I used chemiclean to get rid of it GHA came roaring back in its place about 2 weeks later. Here are my parameters:

Salinity- Calibrated my refractometer and realized I was around 1.023. Currently in process to raise to ~1.25-1.26. Just a bit below 1.25 now. Not dosing CA/Alk while doing this to see where those end up.
Nitrates- 15-20
Phos- .03
Ca- 420
Alk- 8.5-9
Mag- Was low, ~1050, raised to 1250 with mag chloride, raising salinity should put me ~1450-1500

Purchased a tuxedo urchin, didn't do much. My astreas look like they carry more GHA than clean but currently fairly low on other CUC. Also took out rocks, scrubbed, and sprayed with hydrogen peroxide. Kept clean for 2 weeks but now coming right back. What should next steps be?

- Hope that raising magnesium will fix the issue?
- Purchase diverse CUC to help? Have a small yellow and tomini tang that pick but aren't making a dent (will rehome later, doing fine in a 4' at their size)
- Fluconazole? Hoping to avoid any more chemicals if possible.
- Decrease phosphates? Are they much higher than testing shows from the algae? Would hate to bottom out and get something even worse.

See pics. This is AFTER a pretty thorough scrub, so the problem is worse than it looks.

The solution to GHA is elbow grease and a toothbrush, and lots of CUC.

You need to scrub and keep scrubbing everyday to get it under control.

You also need plenty of herbivores, in a 90 gal system I started with about 20 snails, and currently have around 40 or so I think. I also have 3 urchins, a lawn mower blenny and 4 trochus snails. Oh a Scopus tang and foxface as well which devour any bubble algae.

Keep Nitrate and Phosphate under control at around 10ppm Nitrate and 0.1ppm Phosphate.

Magnesium is a myth - it won't do anything and is not worth fiddling around with.

Stability is more important.

 

[slingfox]

I scrubbed my rocks every two weeks for six months. I ultimately got them clean by doing a tank reset which involved unmounting all the coral, scrubbing down all the rock with a wire brush, pouring boiling water on all the rocks and then spraying them down with a 10% peroxide solution. The rocks were taken over by dinos but I got rid of them in about 2 weeks. Tank will likely take 6+ months to recover. The coral are doing just fine including all the SPS. The coral were not doing great during the six month long algae outbreak.

Note also that I did not have GHA a turf algae that grew in thick mats like moss. For GHA I assume normal methods of feeding less and having enough CUC plus periodic scrub down should bring it under control.

 

[I never finish anythi]

Get 10x hermit crabs .