Green Hair Algae battle

[clownfish14]

Ok so i have had my nano cube 28 HQI for 6 months and three weeks and i have never seemed to be able to get rid of my green hair algae. here is what ive tried:

changing the lighting

adding some chaeto to the back chambers

adding some chem-pure elite

adding more flow (korlia 2)

adding DI to my ro water

getting a top off so that my salinity is stable

doing more water changes ( 5 gallons a week ) using tropic marin salt ( not pro )

getting my temp as stable as possable (still working on this)

i have also recently added 2 turbo snails to help but they dont seem to be doing much

i try to manually pull it out but it just grows right back

 

as far as my prameters here they are

PH- 8.2

Ammonia- 0

Nitrite- 0

nitrate- 20

Calcium- 400

Alkalinity- 8 dkh

Phosphate- 0.5

i use API saltwater master test kit and reef master test kit to test these

my salinity is 1.024 i check this by using a floating hydrometer

 

lets see what else....

 

oh,

im also only feeding 2 times a week i feed on sunday and wednesday. i am using a diy reef food that i made myself it has a bunch of stuff in it so im not going to list it all but if you need to see whats in it its on my tank thread. (link in my sig)

as for live stock i have:

2 occ. clownfish

1 firefish goby

1 black cap jawfish

1 green chromis damselfish

 

as for CUC i have:

about 50 dwarf cerith snails

5 florida cerith snails

4 nass. snails

15-20 Nerite Snails

2 turbo nails (i think they are the Mexican turbo snails)

 

i also have a cleaner shrimp.

and a peppermint shrimp (added to help with getting rid of aptasia)

 

as for coral i have:

Red Acan

Kenya Leather

Yellow Polyp

Pulsing Xenia

Lunar Eclipse Zoa

 

i have my lights on from noon till 9 pm so 9 hours the refugium light ( jbj nano-glo) is on when the lights in the display are not

 

i am using the original media basket although i am planning on upgrading to urbaneks media basket in the near future.

in my media basket right now i have filter floss in the top and chem pure in the next one down ( i cut off the bottom one in order to give the chaeto more room to grow.

oh that reminds me i also trim the chaeto about once every 2-3 weeks

 

that is about all i can think about

please help me with this problem i would much appriticiate it

 

thanks,

clownfish14

[rubadakis]

Ok so i have had my nano cube 28 HQI for 6 months and three weeks and i have never seemed to be able to get rid of my green hair algae. here is what ive tried:

changing the lighting

adding some chaeto to the back chambers

adding some chem-pure elite

adding more flow (korlia 2)

adding DI to my ro water

getting a top off so that my salinity is stable

doing more water changes ( 5 gallons a week ) using tropic marin salt ( not pro )

getting my temp as stable as possable (still working on this)

i have also recently added 2 turbo snails to help but they dont seem to be doing much

i try to manually pull it out but it just grows right back

 

as far as my prameters here they are

PH- 8.2

Ammonia- 0

Nitrite- 0

nitrate- 20

Calcium- 400

Alkalinity- 8 dkh

Phosphate- 0.5

i use API saltwater master test kit and reef master test kit to test these

my salinity is 1.024 i check this by using a floating hydrometer

 

lets see what else....

 

oh,

im also only feeding 2 times a week i feed on sunday and wednesday. i am using a diy reef food that i made myself it has a bunch of stuff in it so im not going to list it all but if you need to see whats in it its on my tank thread. (link in my sig)

as for live stock i have:

2 occ. clownfish

1 firefish goby

1 black cap jawfish

1 green chromis damselfish

 

as for CUC i have:

about 50 dwarf cerith snails

5 florida cerith snails

4 nass. snails

15-20 Nerite Snails

2 turbo nails (i think they are the Mexican turbo snails)

 

i also have a cleaner shrimp.

and a peppermint shrimp (added to help with getting rid of aptasia)

 

as for coral i have:

Red Acan

Kenya Leather

Yellow Polyp

Pulsing Xenia

Lunar Eclipse Zoa

 

i have my lights on from noon till 9 pm so 9 hours the refugium light ( jbj nano-glo) is on when the lights in the display are not

 

i am using the original media basket although i am planning on upgrading to urbaneks media basket in the near future.

in my media basket right now i have filter floss in the top and chem pure in the next one down ( i cut off the bottom one in order to give the chaeto more room to grow.

oh that reminds me i also trim the chaeto about once every 2-3 weeks

 

that is about all i can think about

please help me with this problem i would much appriticiate it

 

thanks,

clownfish14

 

Raise your magnesium levels. Theres a thread on reefcentral explaining the method. It works like a charm. Your ALK is on the low side. Do you have a skimmer? You are probably over feeding.

 

Check your magnesium levels and read that thread on reefcentral. It works!!!!!!

[clownfish14]

i have read about the magnisium but i thought it would just work on brysposis not GHA? i was over feeding but now ive cut back to only two times a week. is that still to much? as for the skimmer i just have the stock skimmer which sucks but it does get a little bit of dark brown gunk every now and then. i have been thinking of getting a warner marine hob skimmer for the tank its just that is alot of money for me to spend right now.

 

edit:

also i dont have a magnesium test kit yet but im planning on getting one in the near future.

[rubadakis]

i have read about the magnisium but i thought it would just work on brysposis not GHA? i was over feeding but now ive cut back to only two times a week. is that still to much? as for the skimmer i just have the stock skimmer which sucks but it does get a little bit of dark brown gunk every now and then. i have been thinking of getting a warner marine hob skimmer for the tank its just that is alot of money for me to spend right now.

 

The magnesium method worked for one of my friends on GHA. I run my tank on the high side of alk and magnesium and theres no algae!!! In my opinion GHA and other kinds of "bad algae" come from over feeding, to many fish, lack of adequate water flow, lack of water changes, not using ro/di water, using old bulbs, having low alk and magnesium levels, and sometimes lack of adequate biological filtration.

[basser1]

Clownfish..... Do you have a LFS nearby that will test your water for you? Mine does it for free, of course I also buy my water pre-mixed from him. I to had a battle with GHA and sure enough, low magnesium. Once I got it where it needed to be, the GHA started to die off. You also may want to have phosphates checked as well. Good Luck!

 

BTW, my tank gets fed every day.

[clownfish14]

ok i will look into the magnisium method. i will aslo raise my alkalinity i am going to do a water change right now then i will test the water later tonight. i wonder do you think i have to many fish i guess that could be it. as for water flow i think i have enough the stock pumps are like 266 gph each so that is like 500gph there then i have the k2 which is 600gph i think so all together i have 1100 gph worth i would think that is enough.

 

Clownfish..... Do you have a LFS nearby that will test your water for you? Mine does it for free, of course I also buy my water pre-mixed from him. I to had a battle with GHA and sure enough, low magnesium. Once I got it where it needed to be, the GHA started to die off. You also may want to have phosphates checked as well. Good Luck!

 

BTW, my tank gets fed every day.

 

ok i will go and have them test it. i will also get a maginisum test kit to test the mag.

 

wait you feed every day what do you feed and how much? i thought it was bad to feed every day.

[rubadakis]

ok i will look into the magnisium method. i will aslo raise my alkalinity i am going to do a water change right now then i will test the water later tonight. i wonder do you think i have to many fish i guess that could be it. as for water flow i think i have enough the stock pumps are like 266 gph each so that is like 500gph there then i have the k2 which is 600gph i think so all together i have 1100 gph worth i would think that is enough.

 

 

 

ok i will go and have them test it. i will also get a maginisum test kit to test the mag.

 

I think you have enough flow. Test your magnesium and alkalinity. You can raise your magnesium levels above normal without causing any harm to corals. Be patient, you will win the fight!!!! Get the kent or brightwell magnesium supplement and keep those levels up!!!! I only have one small fish in my 26 gallon tank (with a 14 gallon sump). I wont add another fish because I like to run my tank super low in nutrients. Good luck!!!!

[nick1912]

+1 on the crab.

 

Also I suggest you buy pura phos lock online or at your lfs. Run this with chemipure for double the protection.

 

This is how you can work on having a LNS. Low nutrient system.

 

Feed once a week. Trust me they will survive.

 

Pull out as much as you can. If the rock is easy to remove scrub the algae with a toothbrush.

 

Goodluck!

[clownfish14]

ok guys thanks for all the help i was already planning on getting rid of the chromis so i will do that soon. i will see if i can get my hands on the stuff you recomended for the phosphate and magnesium. i have already benn pulling it out with my hands but i will try to stay on the top of it and not let it grow. just wondering you guys said that i might want to add a crab wouldent that just cover the problem like a bandage over a cut? also wouldent the crab add more nutrients to the tank and in effect just make matters worse?

[Lawnman]

I have a feeling your Phos reading is not correct. Also you will see a big difference once you get a few waterchanges done with RODI and not just RO.

[LiveBrock]

Ok so i have had my nano cube 28 HQI for 6 months and three weeks and i have never seemed to be able to get rid of my green hair algae. here is what ive tried:

changing the lighting

adding some chaeto to the back chambers

adding some chem-pure elite

adding more flow (korlia 2)

adding DI to my ro water

getting a top off so that my salinity is stable

doing more water changes ( 5 gallons a week ) using tropic marin salt ( not pro )

getting my temp as stable as possable (still working on this)

i have also recently added 2 turbo snails to help but they dont seem to be doing much

i try to manually pull it out but it just grows right back

 

as far as my prameters here they are

PH- 8.2

Ammonia- 0

Nitrite- 0

nitrate- 20

Calcium- 400

Alkalinity- 8 dkh

Phosphate- 0.5

i use API saltwater master test kit and reef master test kit to test these

my salinity is 1.024 i check this by using a floating hydrometer

 

lets see what else....

 

oh,

im also only feeding 2 times a week i feed on sunday and wednesday. i am using a diy reef food that i made myself it has a bunch of stuff in it so im not going to list it all but if you need to see whats in it its on my tank thread. (link in my sig)

as for live stock i have:

2 occ. clownfish

1 firefish goby

1 black cap jawfish

1 green chromis damselfish

 

as for CUC i have:

about 50 dwarf cerith snails

5 florida cerith snails

4 nass. snails

15-20 Nerite Snails

2 turbo nails (i think they are the Mexican turbo snails)

 

i also have a cleaner shrimp.

and a peppermint shrimp (added to help with getting rid of aptasia)

 

as for coral i have:

Red Acan

Kenya Leather

Yellow Polyp

Pulsing Xenia

Lunar Eclipse Zoa

 

i have my lights on from noon till 9 pm so 9 hours the refugium light ( jbj nano-glo) is on when the lights in the display are not

 

i am using the original media basket although i am planning on upgrading to urbaneks media basket in the near future.

in my media basket right now i have filter floss in the top and chem pure in the next one down ( i cut off the bottom one in order to give the chaeto more room to grow.

oh that reminds me i also trim the chaeto about once every 2-3 weeks

 

that is about all i can think about

please help me with this problem i would much appriticiate it

 

thanks,

clownfish14

i had the same problem i had to take out all the rock i know it sucks...scrub them with a denture brush in some ro water i then added carbon and got some astrea snails and hermit crabs they made short work of any green hair that i missed./ i read somewhere that when u pull it off in the tank it helps it spread.

[nick1912]

The reason for the emerald is not for a bandaid but he's there to help you control it. Believe it or not clown but GHA will always be in our system. What we do is keep our system in balance. Hermits eat leftovers and small amounts of algae on rocks and sand. We have our fishes produce ammonia and in turn give nutrients back to the water for our corals.

 

So in reality we don't have all the critters to do what they are ment to do, so we substitute with chemical filtration. The emerald will keep check on your small amounts of gha. He's doing a wonderful job on my culerpa and small patches of gha.

 

The algae is sitting dormant and waiting for us to slip on a water change, filter pads, excess feedings etc. BOOM! Algae is back! Lol

[clownfish14]

lawnman: i have ben using ro/di for about three months now and before that i was using ro water. i also have the felling my phos is not right. im going in tommrow to have it checked by my lfs then i will compare our tests. im also going to have them check my mag. level

 

livebrock: i have heard the same thing so what i have been trying to do is take it out with the syphin from my waterchange.

 

nick1912- i will look into getting one is he ok with all of my other tank inhabintants?

[nick1912]

nick1912- i will look into getting one is he ok with all of my other tank inhabintants?

 

He eats algae so he is harmless.

 

I would also add 4 hermits.

[clownfish14]

He eats algae so he is harmless.

 

I would also add 4 hermits.

 

ok i agree with you on the the emerald crab but im positive people dont like hermits because the nibble at corals. right?

[basser1]

Clownfish.... Yes I feed everyday, fish as well as corals. I have some dendro colonies and they like to be fed their mysis, keeps 'em fat & happy!

 

I run a skimmer, use chemi-pure elite, run rowa-phos ( for phosphates), and I do 10 gallon water changes weekly. Plus I also have a good CUC. I have no algae problems and my SPS corals are growing and have great colors!

 

BTW, I also tried emearld crabs with no success, so your results may vary. That's when I raised the mag up to eliminate the gha. The crab just turned his "nose" up at the stuff!

[meganistkrieg]

Though I have an emerald who is fabulously helpful and well-behaved, if you're crab-resistant you might look into getting a tuxedo urchin. I bought one early in my tank when I had a nasty GHA bloom (my tank thread has evidence!) and he tore through it like a lawnmower.

 

They will munch on coralline as well but they're slow, and by the time they move along to a new patch the old coralline is starting to grow back. Definitely prefers GHA though! And red graciliaria...

 

Just a non-crab possibility! They also like to wear bits of things as "camoflouge" which is really funny to watch.

[clownfish14]

ok so thanks to meganistkrieg im thinking the urchin is a better way to go because they always eat the GHA and the crab is like a 50/50 chance. sounds like i am going to get a urchin yay! i will see if i can pick one up later today.

[meganistkrieg]

ok so thanks to meganistkrieg im thinking the urchin is a better way to go because they always eat the GHA and the crab is like a 50/50 chance. sounds like i am going to get a urchin yay! i will see if i can pick one up later today.

 

Fabulous! Again, the two things to be wary of are that they carry things around that you might have to rescue (I had to pull a GSP frag off him last night, and a few snails, haha) and that they will eat coralline, but if you don't mind it, they're very entertaining and super-helpful members of any clean-up-crew. At some point (assuming you cure the algae outbreak!) you'll have to feed them supplementary nori, but that's about it.

 

I would also recommend acclimating very slowly, and before you get one, make sure your nitrates are <15 because urchins are very nitrate sensitive. They're also susceptible to pH/salinity shock, hence the slow acclimation. If you have any other questions let me know - I love mine to bits so I've done lots of reading on them

[clownfish14]

ok so i called my LFS to see if they had any in stock and they said they were 25 dollars is that a good price? as far as my nitrates go they are at 20 right now i have been running chem-pure for the past week though so i will test them again. is 20ppm of nitrate to high for them?

 

 

edit: also there is a back wall it is a false wall seperating the back chambers and and the desplay but it is like a plastic should i be worried about him scratching it?

[meganistkrieg]

ok so i called my LFS to see if they had any in stock and they said they were 25 dollars is that a good price? as far as my nitrates go they are at 20 right now i have been running chem-pure for the past week though so i will test them again. is 20ppm of nitrate to high for them?

 

 

edit: also there is a back wall it is a false wall seperating the back chambers and and the desplay but it is like a plastic should i be worried about him scratching it?

 

Price isn't bad - about what I paid for mine. As long as your nitrates don't go higher than that you SHOULD be fine, but obviously work on getting them down as that's a bit on the high end of acceptable - everything will be happier for it in the long run!

 

I have a BC14 with a plastic false wall in the back and I've never seen any marks on it from the urchin, so no, I don't think so.

[clownfish14]

cool thanks im planning on testing my nitrates and phosphates right now so i will let you know what they are.

[clownfish14]

ok so i just tested my nitrates and phosphates here they are:

 

nitrates- 5.0 ppm

phosphates- about .2 ppm( its in between 0 and .5)

 

do these sound ok?

[nick1912]

I got min for $7, but that depends on the knowledge of the LFS.

 

Also please add 4 hermits. They will not hurt your corals. They will walk on them if algae is around them, but they dont harm them.

[clownfish14]

wait you got your urchin for 7 or your crab im lost lol. i am planning on adding like 5 blue legged hermits.

so i was reading more on the urchin and crab and i cant decide which one i know whits the urchin you have more of a chance of him eating the algae but he is like 3 times the price and more delacate.