Help with green hair algae

Blueberry1988 · 2024-10-21T18:26:48-0400

Hi guys, I've been away for 10 days and my 15gal cube has been left with a automatic feeder that brought my Nitrate and Phosphate high and caused green air algae. The tank is a mix coral tank so I have SPS and LPS corals and a few mushrooms.
I'm thinking of getting a few snails and urchin to help clean up this mess but I'm not sure if they're gonna get the job done. What can I use?? Please help I've a bunch of corals coming

Knucker · 2024-10-21T18:42:44-0400

Court Jester Goby loves Hair algae and they stay small. Some snails do eat hair algae but they are well slow as snails. Mexican Turbo is a hardy eater. They just circle my tank over and over. I would also do a large water change and keep doing them because when that Algae dies your nitrates and phosphates will spike again.

Adding some Media that will remove nitrates and phosphates will be a good addition as well.

Stay away from algaecides! They might kill the algae but also a bunch of your coral too. At least in my experience.

I almost forgot to mention substrate sauce. It's a beneficial bacteria that eat the carbon out of the nitrates and phosphates. Bulk Reef Supply has them in stock. They also have the gut bacteria for fish ect

Blueberry1988 · 2024-10-21T19:19:25-0400

thank you for your response I was looking at a product Vibrant but I've never used it and I'm scared is going to affect my corals

Lavey29 · 2024-10-21T19:24:07-0400

Just get your hands wet first. No harsh chemicals.

Blueberry1988 · 2024-10-21T19:27:22-0400

Lavey29 said:
Just get your hands wet first. No harsh chemicals.

yes I'm trying but there's only much you can do with hand. the situation is not bad bad but is gonna be if I don't act. Ok so I'll try with my clean up crew and my hand see what happens... Does anyone recommend scraping the rocks with like a tooth brush?

Blueberry1988 · 2024-10-21T19:29:24-0400

I also wanna say that my parameters are normal now so that has been fixed
Nitrates; 0.09
Phospates; 0.08

exnisstech · 2024-10-21T19:30:12-0400

Were your N and P actually elevated? Personally I'm not 100% sold on high N and P causing gha. I have a tank that runs N 10ish and P 0.24-0.45 and I have zero GHA. I have another tank that runs N and P barely detectable and it's a mess with GHA. Wish I had the answer but I think there is more to it than elevated N and P levels.

Blueberry1988 · 2024-10-21T19:39:18-0400

exnisstech said:
Were your N and P actually elevated? Personally I'm not 100% sold on high N and P causing gha. I have a tank that runs N 10ish and P 0.24-0.45 and I have zero GHA. I have another tank that runs N and P barely detectable and it's a mess with GHA. Wish I had the answer but I think there is more to it than elevated N and P levels.

yes they were, not too much but they were, Nitrates were at 14 and phosphate at 0.15. so they were not crazy high but maybe because it went on for more than 10 days like that

Blueberry1988 · 2024-10-21T19:59:48-0400

Knucker said:
Court Jester Goby loves Hair algae and they stay small. Some snails do eat hair algae but they are well slow as snails. Mexican Turbo is a hardy eater. They just circle my tank over and over. I would also do a large water change and keep doing them because when that Algae dies your nitrates and phosphates will spike again.

Adding some Media that will remove nitrates and phosphates will be a good addition as well.

Stay away from algaecides! They might kill the algae but also a bunch of your coral too. At least in my experience.

I almost forgot to mention substrate sauce. It's a beneficial bacteria that eat the carbon out of the nitrates and phosphates. Bulk Reef Supply has them in stock. They also have the gut bacteria for fish ect

I've bought the fish, thank you for the suggestion!! nice looking fish too, hard to find but I've found it!!

Lavey29 · 2024-10-21T20:06:20-0400

Blueberry1988 said:
yes I'm trying but there's only much you can do with hand. the situation is not bad bad but is gonna be if I don't act. Ok so I'll try with my clean up crew and my hand see what happens... Does anyone recommend scraping the rocks with like a tooth brush?

How old is the tank? Cut lights to 6 hours for few weeks with blue and uv only no whites. Diverse cleaner crew with tuxedo urchin and turbos. Daily manual removal. Raise magnesium to 1500. GHA is a normal part of tank activity and can be remedied in this manner but expect at least 2 months work.

exnisstech · 2024-10-21T20:14:41-0400

Blueberry1988 said:
yes they were, not too much but they were, Nitrates were at 14 and phosphate at 0.15. so they were not crazy high but maybe because it went on for more than 10 days like that

How long has the tank been running and did you start with dry rock? I think its more of a bacteria / bio diversity issue rather than just elevated N and P that cause gha to grow. All speculation on my part with nothing to back it up but anecdotal evidence.
More detail from my post above.
I set up a tank last march and nitrates went to 10 and have been hovering there since. Phosphate started at 0.45 and fluctuate between 0.25 - 0.40 for the last few months. Tank was started with dry rock bare bottom but the sump is full of old live rock. Never had gha.
Another tank started 18 months ago dry rock barebottom but trays of live rock rubble in the sump and I've never had any trouble with GHA. N and P are barely detectable and I dose when I see 0.
Third tank I rescaped with all dry rock barebottom with no live rock. N and P barely detectable and also dosed when I see 0. This tank has been a mess for 14+ months with gha everywhere. I used Flux rx early on and ended up with cyano then did chemi clean. The cycle continued and I finally stopped adding chems and let the tank go. I did a couple of rip cleans along the way with manual removal durring water changes. It's still not perfect but is coming along. This was the gha from a 4g WC vacuuming the back wall a week or two ago.

vetteguy53081 · 2024-10-21T20:23:07-0400

Blueberry1988 said:
Hi guys, I've been away for 10 days and my 15gal cube has been left with a automatic feeder that brought my Nitrate and Phosphate high and caused green air algae. The tank is a mix coral tank so I have SPS and LPS corals and a few mushrooms.
I'm thinking of getting a few snails and urchin to help clean up this mess but I'm not sure if they're gonna get the job done. What can I use?? Please help I've a bunch of corals coming

Sounds like overfeeding may have occurred raising Phos levels and an abundance of light. Is this tank at or near a window?
Can you provide pic of the algae and tank under white light intensity? Assuming its an accumulation of gha, your best bet will be to place rock in a container of tank water and pull off as much as you can by hand and scrub the rest with a firm toothbrush and some 3% hydrogen peroxide.
Return to tank, reduce white light intensity and number of hours of white lighting and add some snails such as :
Astrea
cerith
turbo grazer
trochus

A Pencil urchin

8-10 Caribbean blue leg hermits