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IS this green hair algae?


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Alright so you guys have seen my thread if not check it out, it’s still running strong.

that said, I’m new to the hobby, the tank is less than 3 months old, and no way I’m having what I believe to be a green hair algae bloom.

every rock has some sort of gha? However it’s not that bad..yet.

my cuc is 7 blue leg hermits,4 nassarius snails, 4 astrea snails. Can’t find any Trochus but want 4 or 5.

theres a couple limpet snails.

the tank also has 1 small maroon clown, 1 coral banded,a sexy shrimp, a very small diamond goby (will move to a bigger tank Christmas once it cycles)

the issue is over feeding, I feed flakes and was feeding every day, and now I feed 2-3 times a week,  but drop im 3 pellets as well, once for bubble tip, one for carpet and a half split to the coral banded and the snails/hermits fight over the rest plus flake scraps. 

0 amm.

nitrates .2-.3 or so

35ppt salinity 

420 cal.

.02 phos

Ph 8.4

Alk 150ppm

temps 78.8 always

I have a waterbottle ato that works great so salinity is stable.

the tank is an innovative marine Nuvo fusion peninsula 20.

have a green slimmer acro, a bubble tip, some zoas, a couple mystery tube fan things (any ideas pic attached?) a bunch of hammer and gsp, plus a mini carpet nem.

lights come on at 10 and run until 9pm with 2 hour Ramp each way. 100blue 60white14red and 8green (orbit ic pro dual fixture) 

only one power head and I think more flow might help.

wanted to give all the Params since asking questions sorry for the lengthy post 

 

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IMO macro algae is the only way to keep away pest algae. If you have a sump or HOB you could get some chaetomorpha (my macro of choice), but if you’re limited to your display you could get something attractive like dragons breath. 

 There’s nutrients in your water that algae loves. That’s just the way it is. It’s best to find something non-invasive and beneficial to use up those nutrients before something less wanted can get them. 

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Reefrelatedusername
5 hours ago, RedCrow said:

IMO macro algae is the only way to keep away pest algae. If you have a sump or HOB you could get some chaetomorpha (my macro of choice), but if you’re limited to your display you could get something attractive like dragons breath. 

 There’s nutrients in your water that algae loves. That’s just the way it is. It’s best to find something non-invasive and beneficial to use up those nutrients before something less wanted can get them. 

Is this something a skimmer would solve? I can either make the back middle section of my overflow area a refugium or a skimmer. Don’t really want a hob setup, and thought a skimmer would be more useful 

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1 hour ago, RedCrow said:

I would personally chose a fuge over a skimmer, but others would disagree with me. Both are good choices. 

Ok well I’ll go fuge so I can keep some pods in that section I guess.

in the meantime how can I figure this gha out cause I don’t have the scratch for a fuge light until next week or so 

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Just trim it back manually to keep it away from your corals. Once your macros take off in the fuge the green hair will be outcompete and will disappear on its own. 

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41 minutes ago, icatchsnook said:

Just throwing out another lighting option in the same price range.

That looks like a good one too. Mine is in a chamber that’s completely black on all sides, so I was forced to go with a submersible 

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Reefrelatedusername

I can take the backing off to allow one sided light, so I’ll check both options out. Looking at fuge trays for my tank apparently that’s a thing so makes t easier to figure out m.

rodi system first tho tired of going to the local store for water every week lol 

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Your set up looks fine I'm not sure if you really need to change anything.  (Nutrient levels are not the problem.  If anything they are low.)

 

My impression was that the question was about algae. You have too few herbivorous snails (four) and too many scavengers (twelve).  Whether they be Trochus, Turbo, Cerith or other –add more herbivores.  (You will have to hand pull any algae that has grown too big for the snails.)

 

Consider switching as much of your feeding over to frozen or even live foods.  It tends to be harder to overfeed with these things and "less-worse" when you do.

 

Since your corals are all doing fairly well from the sound of it, I would not consider adding an algae filter to the tank.

 

Remember that the goal is to grow coralline algae, not to grow macro algae or to eliminate algae growth.  Coralline = success.

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You are not overfeeding. I feed 2-4 times a day but use frozen only. 

 

I would probably get a tuxedo urchin in there to help trim the longer stuff down. 

 

Be sure to blast debris off your rocks and keep your sand clean. 

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18 hours ago, Tamberav said:

You are not overfeeding. I feed 2-4 times a day but use frozen only. 

 

I would probably get a tuxedo urchin in there to help trim the longer stuff down. 

 

Be sure to blast debris off your rocks and keep your sand clean. 

I’m not blasting my rocks, like with a turkey Baster? 

Ill give that a try, I usually stir stuff up doing water changes weekly.

 

On 11/22/2019 at 10:03 PM, mcarroll said:

Your set up looks fine I'm not sure if you really need to change anything.  (Nutrient levels are not the problem.  If anything they are low.)

 

My impression was that the question was about algae. You have too few herbivorous snails (four) and too many scavengers (twelve).  Whether they be Trochus, Turbo, Cerith or other –add more herbivores.  (You will have to hand pull any algae that has grown too big for the snails.)

 

Consider switching as much of your feeding over to frozen or even live foods.  It tends to be harder to overfeed with these things and "less-worse" when you do.

 

Since your corals are all doing fairly well from the sound of it, I would not consider adding an algae filter to the tank.

 

Remember that the goal is to grow coralline algae, not to grow macro algae or to eliminate algae growth.  Coralline = success.

I have a little bit of coraline showing up, will it help out compete this hair algae? That was the main focus for my tank was how to keep it gone. I feel like the lower flow areas have more so maybe a second Wavemaker. If I don’t need a fuge I’d rather get a skimmer honestly, but I’m pretty new to all of this, it’s my first saltwater.

nutes are low cause I’m playing it safe, I’m less than 3 months into this tank, but my corals are all doing fantastic honestly,

everyone has growth so that’s good

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3 hours ago, Reefrelatedusername said:

I feel like the lower flow areas have more so maybe a second Wavemaker.

Without respect to the algae situation, you're probably correct on the pump....it's almost always better to run two.  Often it's even best to alternate them every several hours as in tidal flows.

 

3 hours ago, Reefrelatedusername said:

I have a little bit of coraline showing up, will it help out compete this hair algae?

It will help...and it does tend to naturally follow hair algae once the herbivores (and you) have the hair algae under control.

 

3 hours ago, Reefrelatedusername said:

If I don’t need a fuge I’d rather get a skimmer honestly, but I’m pretty new to all of this, it’s my first saltwater.

Neither is "required" but I'd opt for skimmer before refugium, personally.  Take it slow and don't add anything until the picture seems more clear for your tank on which to add and when.

 

3 hours ago, Reefrelatedusername said:

nutes are low cause I’m playing it safe, I’m less than 3 months into this tank, but my corals are all doing fantastic honestly,

everyone has growth so that’s good

Definitely.  Just don't do anything major to reduce the supply of nutrients at this stage of the tank when everything is still maturing.  That's especially so since things seem to be progressing nicely.  There should be no harm in feeding your fish well, so don't withhold on them.  (Don't over feed either.)

 

Just make sure you and the cleanup crew stay on top of the algae as it grows in.   Add more snails just a few at a time if the ones you have don't seem able to keep up with the growth.

 

If you keep the other water parameters stable, you should be able to grow a nice crop of coraline to fill in the gaps between corals pretty quickly.

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On 11/22/2019 at 1:03 AM, Reefrelatedusername said:

Is this something a skimmer would solve? I can either make the back middle section of my overflow area a refugium or a skimmer. Don’t really want a hob setup, and thought a skimmer would be more useful 

People with skimmers get hair algae too. 

 

Finding a cause, correcting, and prevention is best.

 

Get some cuc in there, start pulling it out manually, Turkey baste your rocks during waterchanges, vacuum sand.

 

The tank is young and will go through various algae stages.

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On 11/24/2019 at 2:08 AM, mcarroll said:

Without respect to the algae situation, you're probably correct on the pump....it's almost always better to run two.  Often it's even best to alternate them every several hours as in tidal flows.

 

It will help...and it does tend to naturally follow hair algae once the herbivores (and you) have the hair algae under control.

 

Neither is "required" but I'd opt for skimmer before refugium, personally.  Take it slow and don't add anything until the picture seems more clear for your tank on which to add and when.

 

Definitely.  Just don't do anything major to reduce the supply of nutrients at this stage of the tank when everything is still maturing.  That's especially so since things seem to be progressing nicely.  There should be no harm in feeding your fish well, so don't withhold on them.  (Don't over feed either.)

 

Just make sure you and the cleanup crew stay on top of the algae as it grows in.   Add more snails just a few at a time if the ones you have don't seem able to keep up with the growth.

 

If you keep the other water parameters stable, you should be able to grow a nice crop of coraline to fill in the gaps between corals pretty quickly.

My current snails don’t touch the hair algae at all it seems. Looking for Trochus locally but can’t seem to find any 

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If you never see them on it, try moving one or more snails to the algae manually a few times.  

 

They are highly memory oriented in where they "hunt" for algae, apparently.  So they may not know about the other algae.  

 

It's also possible there just aren't enough snails to cover all the ground you have.  (You have almost none right now.  Might need up to 2 big snails per gallon or equivalent if your growth ends up really heavy.  Only add a few snails at once though so you don't end up with too many, as too many will starve eventually.)

 

What do stores have locally?  

 

Off the top of my head, here are the snails you DON'T need:  nassarius, bumble bee, conch, cowries.  

 

Others should be more or less good algae eaters:  maragarita, turbo, trochus, astrea, cerith, nerite, ...? 

 

I'd consider trading about half or three-quarters of your hermits 1 for 1 for snails, BTW, before you add more snails on top of the current crew.  

 

Less hermits (scavengers that "will" eat algae) would be good, and that might be just the right amount of herbivorous snails.

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I had an outbreak of GHA, Bryopsis and then I believe cotton candy hair algae, only thing that consumed it, inhaled more like it, was a mexican turbo.

Try out one for a couple weeks, if you need another then add accordingly.

There might be some bryopsis mixed in with your GHA too, that's how mine was anyway.

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3 hours ago, PizzaCruss said:

I had an outbreak of GHA, Bryopsis and then I believe cotton candy hair algae, only thing that consumed it, inhaled more like it, was a mexican turbo.

Try out one for a couple weeks, if you need another then add accordingly.

There might be some bryopsis mixed in with your GHA too, that's how mine was anyway.

I found a patch of gha and I placed my turbo right on it- completely gone. Very good idea. 

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Reefrelatedusername

My

only concern is with the Mexican turbos knocking everything over. 

Mill add a few more snails but haven’t tried setting on the spots yet.

as far as stores a couple overpriced private lfs and Petco.

neither are the best options but Petco hasn’t been the best for cuc and supplies.

live rock and fish/most everything else coming from local keepers not lfs lol.

 

havent been on recently and my tank is lookin a bit worse, super sick and haven’t even been to work for 2 days (first

time calling out in 3 years) 

hoping I kick this fever and get back to work/dosing my tank.

i

 

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7 hours ago, Reefrelatedusername said:

My

only concern is with the Mexican turbos knocking everything over. 

Mill add a few more snails but haven’t tried setting on the spots yet.

as far as stores a couple overpriced private lfs and Petco.

neither are the best options but Petco hasn’t been the best for cuc and supplies.

live rock and fish/most everything else coming from local keepers not lfs lol.

 

havent been on recently and my tank is lookin a bit worse, super sick and haven’t even been to work for 2 days (first

time calling out in 3 years) 

hoping I kick this fever and get back to work/dosing my tank.

i

 

Hope you feel better soon. It sucks being sick but try not to stress about the tank, you'll be better soon.

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Reefrelatedusername

Still feel sick, tank looks worse somehow.

im dosing nano 2part chems but maybe should stop and see if the algea stops. Tiny bit of Cyano but I’m getting a second Wavemaker once I can leave the house, I think more flow will help.

image.jpg

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