So my tanks been running for over 3 years now and I’ve been battling hair algae for about a year now. It grows in the cracks and crevices of my rock so scrubbing it is nearly impossible. I’ve heard that many inverts and tangs won’t eat it unless it’s super short so nothing in my tank is really picking at it. I added a refugium a couple of months ago and it got my no3 and po4 down to nearly 0, but the hair algae is still managing to grow. I’ve now reduced the photoperiod on my fuge because I no reading 0 nutrients levels isn’t good for the corals either. I have no idea how to get rid of this hair algae, will pincushion urchins eat the algae when it’s long? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Green Hair Algae
- Thread starter reefingJay
- Start date
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I just sent an ICP test out. My RODI system reads 0 tds but I will see what my water looks like when I get results back
Add lots of copepods, amphipods, and start dosing phytoplankton.
jepuskar
Active Member
I'm going through the same thing...green hair algae, found my pre-RODI filter for the incoming water to be exhausted with that reddish nasty look. Probably did a few water changes that were high in iron. My Nitrate/Phosphates are low too. Did a 50% or so water change on fresh filter and tested RO water with 0.00ppm Iron.
Literally having another filter installed right now pre water softener, 20" out in my garage. solely for Iron removal.
Get an ICP test for both the RO and main display. Most of the time people who have gha issues is bc either bad water or overfeeding sometimes both. Once you confirm the water is good I would do 3 to 4 30% water changes one every other day and during them manually remove as much algae as possible. Make sure the refugium is going while the tank main lights are off to encourage as much macro algae growth as possible to help uptake nutrients and out-compete the main display. At the end of the day you need to find the source of nutrients, this can be dirty water, overfeeding, too many fish, not enough rock, or not a good enough skimmer. Find the problem and stay consistent with your maintenance and the system will bounce back. best of luck
phillipsjo21
Community Member
I've been dealing with the same issue. My tds is reading 0, I'm running a UV sterilizer and a skimmer. I dose nopox as well and chlorine/ammonium remover. I have a spoiled lawnmower blenny that won't eat the green hair algae. I've put a ton of blue and red legged crabs in there and they won't eat it. I've had both urchins and a sea hare and both seem to not eat the hair and then starve and die. The tank is 2 years old and pretty well established. I've read where I shouldn't feed algae pellets or discs as well. Should I stop that and just feed flakes or maybe nori sheets? I also have lights on a timer that are mixed blue, white, red leds. Any help would be great. I would love to be able to have coral grow but it keeps dying. I have a 50 gallon tank with sump, only fish in there are 2 clowns and the blenny. We had a power outage for 4 days a few months ago and I started losing all my fish except these.
phillipsjo21
Community Member
And as a follow up, would this comment work too? "Add lots of copepods, amphipods, and start dosing phytoplankton"
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