What else to do to battle Green hair algae

[Falcon789]

I have a 22 gal cad light aquarium. I am battling green hair algae. I seem to be able to rip it off easily but it always comes back. I am hoping a protein skimmer, media reactor, or refugium could solve this problem. I just don't know which will work better. I don't want to hurt my pocket too much. For protein skimmer I am leaning towards the Eshopps protein skimmer and for Media reactor, the mini max. Id much rather do the refugium but what should I stock it with. I know chaeto but how about any other macros? I just don't want any of the macros to accidentally get into my display. ( the refugium will be in the back middle chamber)

Here's the back story

I've had my tank for about 3 years. I severely neglected it and now I am trying to turn it around. I battled all sorts of algae and everything was cured with simple water changes and media bags (activated carbon, and chemi pure elite.) The green hair doesn't seem to go away. I run my LED's which are brand new for 8 hours a day. I do 5 gal water change every week on point. Change the media bags once a month. All params are prefect (nitrates and phosphates are 0 probably due to green hair agae consuming it) I don't overfeed at all. I feed my fish once a week. I only have 2 and feed them each about 10 pellets. I even make sure they eat everything. Could it be my sand be? My sand bed is about 2 inches? Ive heard in the past that old sand beds could be leaking nitrates and phosphates.

Not sure what the problem is but I am hoping you guys can help me out. Thanks.

[brandon429]

Is there a sandbed full of waste contributing here, that we should fully replace before the GHA battle is began

[ReefSafeSolutions]

My dad's old tank had a ton of green hair algae at one point. He bought a handful of turbo snails and they cleaned up his rocks in about 2 days. It was amazing. So, I'd try turbo snails!

[Falcon789]

Will try the turbo snails.

How do you replace a sand bed? And how can I know for sure if it is the sand bed?

[Elizabeth94]

Just siphon it out during your water changes little by little. I guess you could do it in one shot but you need a bin with tank water for your live rock while you do it. I am actually doing this right now in my 10gal. Due to time constraints, I have only been able to do a little at a time with each water change.

 

I guess there is no true way to know that it is your sand, but I know if you do not siphon the sand on a regular basis, there is probably a ton of fish waste and nasties in there.

 

My tank is only 5 or 6mths old, and the sand is NASTY when you siphon it.

 

Will try the turbo snails.

How do you replace a sand bed? And how can I know for sure if it is the sand bed?

[Clown79]

I believe in vacuuming sand beds that aren't deep. I think light vacuuming at every waterchange prevents a lot of future issues.

 

If you haven't been vacuuming the sand, there is most likely stuff in it.

 

At this point if you do vacuum it, only do little sections at a time so you don't disturb too much at once.

 

As for replacing all the sand at once, its work. I think You would have to remove everything, keep stored in buckets of sw. Remove the sand, vacuum any detritus left, then rinse new sand multiple times to remove the dust. Then replace all in the tank.

 

I have never done it myself but its the only way I can think of doing it.

[Falcon789]

im ignorant when you say "vaccum". I have a siphon and it I touch the sand bed it will just suck the sand out. Is this what vaccuming is?

[Astinus]

im ignorant when you say "vaccum". I have a siphon and it I touch the sand bed it will just suck the sand out. Is this what vaccuming is?

Yes..I do a light "Vacuum" or "Siphoning" of my sand bed. I have been staying on top of Cyano, which is a different matter.

But, yes...just lightly suck off some sand, not deep.

[brandon429]

You will have to clean or deal with the sand using any approach that makes it not have waste in it. If you can stir up a sandbed and get clouding, it's not clean and is fueling algae. Many people have unclean beds that are not disturbed, and don't have algae... but when algae comes, every action taken is a bandaid if the system has unexported waste. The far more commoner choice is to not clean and simply work around the cause and the fuel for the algae in question

 

If fuel is left in any level of the bed, expect algae to hold strongly.

[Nano sapiens]

im ignorant when you say "vaccum". I have a siphon and it I touch the sand bed it will just suck the sand out. Is this what vaccuming is?

 

There are a number of different methods for vacuuming that remove very little (if any) of the sand bed. One of the most common is to use a 'Gravel Vac' which is essentially just a long length of vinyl tubing with a clear rigid plastic cyclinder on one end. Another is to tie a plastic fork onto the end of a long length of vinyl tubing and 'rake' the gravel while suking out the stirred up detritus. Or, simply hold one end of the vinyl tubing in your hand and stir the sand with a finger while squeezing the tubing with the other hand to control flow.

 

I use the Gravel Vac method with a plastic valve spliced into the tubing to be able to finely control the flow.

[AdriftQuasar]

You can physically remove it with ya fengas.

 

Then, you might want to try getting more aggressive with water changes (larger and more often). Look up algal turf scrubbers. You can rig up and upflow algal scrubber stupid cheap. Check youtube and do a bit of googling. Lots of good information on it.

 

What sorts of filter media are you currently running? Carbon and GFO can do wonders as well. I'm also a fan of turbo snails, just make sure you corals and such are secure because they're soulless algae-eating bulldozers.

 

Keep us updated on how things are panning out. I took recently recovered a neglected tank with some help from mah wiiiiffe.

[Falcon789]

Thanks for the advice guys. Im gonna start stirring up that sand and do a large water change. Hoping to get al the gunk out.

[tarunteam]

Physically remove

 

Run GFO reactor

 

Run Carbon

 

Grow Chateo

 

Regular water changes.

 

Key is not to remove it all of it instantly but to do small gradual changes that remove it over time. It didn't pop up over night. It won't go away in one night.

[SaltwaterShoup]

I've had success with Emerald Crabs, they go after GHA like crazy

[moy71]

i second the turbo snail. check out my little fella. you can see his track marks