Green Hair Alage

** lol damn I spelled algae wrong and can't edit the title **

I started having a GH outbreak about a month after doing a 60% water change and scrubbing all my liverock in the water I removed from the tank to battle some other algae problems which stemmed from not using RODI water, a bad skimmer and filter set up. I checked my levels when I noticed the GH and I had phosphates 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 20ppg. With some great guidance on this site I changed my media about 8 days ago and now my levels are all at 0 and my tank temp with the lights on is 78.5 (these are newer PCs). My question to everyone is how long should it take for this stuff to starve off? I have noticed some hair floating at the top of the tank, not sure if it was die off though. Could low flow be an issue?

 

I would increase flow if you feel it's low. I always pass on the info that I used a known hair algae eating sea hare and it mowed through the hair algae that was left in my tank. I did remove manually as much as I could, increased my flow in a 75g to using 2 Koralia 3 PHs. HA has been gone for many months now. Good luck to ya (BTW within a week or a bit more, all traces of HA were gone, then I had to remove the sea hare, they need that algae to survive.)

 

My flow is 550 GPH in a 47g bowfront with 60lbs of LR. I was thinking of 2 Koralia 3s too, but is that overkill? Looking into SPS corals, I have zoas and palys. Where did you get your sea hare? I only found a dwarf one on drs foster smith onne, but it is listed as "expert only"

 

I found mine at a LFS and I think the difficulty in keeping them is they may not take nori or other seaweed as a food source and will starve to death if there isn't enough hair algae to sustain them. You could go with a Koralia 3 and a Koralia 2 if you're thinking two 3s may be over kill. There is a flow director cap that comes with the Koralias that keeps chaotic flow in check, and there are external flow regulators for the Koralias also. I just watch how my corals respond to the flow around them. Some, like the frogspawn can rip on their skeletons if there is too much flow around them. Reading up on the amount of flow recommended and then making your own adjustments is the way to go IMO. Happy reefing!

Maybe one of the sponsors here carries sea hares. Reefgardeners.net sometimes has them

 

With Phosphates 0, Nitrites 0 and Nitrates 0 with a 78.4 degree temp and no sunlight on the tank, what could be causing the hair algae growth? It has been about 11 days now since I switched media which dropped my nitrates from 20ppg to 0ppg, but I have not really seen a die off..

 

The 0's could be a false reading, the algae is using up all the nutrients to grow. Just do the usual, reduce feeding, make sure your using RO water, add a phosphate reactor. I'm not sure how long it takes to starve GH algae off.

 

climberchris what part of new jersey are you from?

 

I live in Roxbury around Lake Hopatcong. my closest LFS is 40 min away

 

One of the best additions to an aquarium is a phosphate reactor. Stop flake food if you are using it and restrict the amount of food by half for a month after employing the reactor.

 

I have about 700 gph in my 16 gallon. You could use more flow if you'd like! But there is something else at play here.. not just flow