Oh oh... Green Hair Algae???

[Alex1524]

Hey guys, I think I may have green hair algae. To give you a brief background of my tank its been running since November 12th. 60lbs of live rock and 60 lbs of sand. My rock was cured so I didn't go through much of a cycle. Last week I had a diatom algae bloom that seems to be gone now. Whats left is practically dust on my sandbed. I have a T5 4 bulb system with 2 actinics and 2 daylights both rated at 39W each. My lighting right now is temporary because I need to get another timer so right now I have the actinics and daylights on from 9-7pm. Once I get a timer I will adjust accordingly. Also at night I keep the fuge light on to balance the pH.

Water Parameters...
Ph-8.0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 0
Ammonia- 0-.25 but looks REALLY close to 0.
Phosphate- Between .5-1
Salinity- 1.023

Do you guys think this is green hair algae?

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Growing on Glass...

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What is this red algae?
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[Alex1524]

Bump

[Sanveann]

I'm a newb, but that looks like GHA to me. Our tank went through a massive stage of it -- seriously, it looked like we were growing it on purpose! -- but it's mostly gone now :) Sk8r has some good stuff in her blogs about dealing with algae outbreaks.

[Alex1524]

How did you get rid of it sanveann?

[porksmash]

Mexican turbo snails will eat it when it's small. I also had a massive outbreak and a Kole tang mercilessly devoured it as well.

[Alex1524]

Yesterday I bought 50 dwarf cerith snails, 19 nassarius, 26 florida ceriths, 10 nerite (small/medium), and 10 nerite (large) snails. They should arrive thursday. Hopefully they'll eat the algae.

[ed102475]

Is that a big piece of drift wood?

[Alex1524]

Drift wood? lol no its all Caribbean Live Rock except for the purple piece.

[Danzig]

Is that a big piece of drift wood?

Lol it does look like a huge piece of driftwood. I like the look though.

[Alex1524]

haha the huge rocks on the left and right are single rocks with lots of hiding places in each one. I just got a nice flat piece to join the two and added that alligator head looking rock on the top left. Then that purple rock I don't know what im going to do with it. I bought it to seed coralline algae.

[jeanietn]

I am sure you will get a reply from an experienced reefer. I just wanted to tell you I had a really bad run with hair algae. I had knee surgery and could not take care of my aquarium like we are supposed to do. Anway I remember turning my lights off for about 3 days. Water changes, get what I could with a turkey baster, raked the sand. Long story short it is gone now. Did I see bubbles on your purple rock? Wonder if that is bubble algae? Good luck to you. I hope you don't have to go through the red slimey stuff. If you do, you are not alone there either. Lots of things to learn!

[Curtis72]

I think your really long light cycle is part of the problem. I would try and shrink that light cycle a few hours.

[bennr]

I see your phosphate is 1ppm....have u ever thought about running rowaphos or similar??? could help with the gha

[zhewitt04]

Get a algae turf scrubber and forget it. It is the best thing ever read into in the advance topic part of the forum. It is a sticky at the top.

[BIG_KAHUNA]

yeah PO4 is way high in your tank. this will feed the hair algae. Your tank is also very young so this is normal as was the diatom bloom. It wouldn't hurt to get a reactor for some phosphate removing media. Check out bulk reef supply, I love my BRS Dual Reactor. What method did you use to add ammonia to the tank? (shrimp, feeding invisible fish, etc...) And I like the way the tank looks! looks just like my Oceanic 57g rimless.

[Alex1524]

I agree, for a new tank my light cycle seems too much. I am going to turn the lights off for a few days and just run it for 6 hours. Also since I have a refugium I need chateo algae which I read removes phosphates. I have been looking everywhere for it and can't find any! Zhewitt, I'll look into the turf scrubber, I've never heard of that. I would love to get a reactor big Kahuna , but I'm on a budget. I wish I could! Lol Thanks for the help guys.

[Alex1524]

That algae scrubber is an AWESOME idea!!! Problem is i dont think i have room nor do i have pvc plumbing. Heres my build...

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2086121&highlight=edge+57