Green Hair Algae

[HugillSam]

Hi all

yeah im having a little problem with some green hair algae, i cant seam to stop it coming back! i scrub it off the rocks about once a month and have recently added a deep sand bed in my sump and some phosphate removal media to try and cut out its food source, but it still appears to be growing,

has anyone had an experience like mine and got rid of this beast some how?

help me!!!

thanks!

[nbelohlav]

Search the forum for ATS or algae turf scrubber... thats how i took care of mine and still use one and over feed all the time

Sent from the bottom of the ocean...

[sponger0]

If your going to use phosphate media, how are you using it? With a reactor or just in a bag?

Also have you had your phosphates tested with an accurate test?

How old is the tank?

How often are you changing the media?

[HugillSam]

hi

yeah i am using it in a reactor at the moment and i did test for it however as i understand that the green hair will be eating it so the test came pretty low, i have also recently added a plant to my sump to try and eat any remaining phosphates before the green hair does, (the name of said plant has slipped my mind) and my take is 1 year old :)

[sponger0]

What do you consider low? What you consider low, I may consider high

And how often are you changing the media?

[HugillSam]

as in 0 - 0.2 and yeah i change it weekly, i'm trying to find a media that i don't need to change as often and that might do a better job than this "reef" stuff i'
m using any pointers?

[sponger0]

What are media are you using?

And 0.2 ppm for phosphates are not low.

[HugillSam]

my mistake 0.02

and im using at the moment "Kent" Sponge
here it is

http://www.joesaquaticworld.co.uk/kent-phosphate-sponge.html

[Paris_Wiley]

Agreed that 0.2 ppm phosphate is fairly high and can lead to algae growth. If you are using GFO for phosphate/silicate removal, then I would recommend recharging it or adding more of it. Also, do you have any clean up crew critters in your tank that may eat the algae. If not I would also go this route also.

[HugillSam]

hi, and yeah agreed that is very high, but it was a typo sorry! I do i have a few (see below) but they just dont seem to do much snails are the best for keeping the glass clean but the crabs dont seem to be much help, im thinking going down the road of getting a nitrate drip reactor as well as well as a calcium one this may stabilise things up...

what do you think?

[sponger0]

I dont like kent products. They never work well for me. Try some other type of phos media. And changing it frequently is good if your system has high levels, and which it should cause you are getting an abundance of HA growth. So changing it weekly is not unfeasible.

[HugillSam]

sounds good, can you recommend any good GFO brands to use?

[sponger0]

I used XtraPhosX multiple times and had very good results. Changed it weekly.

[HugillSam]

sounds good, ill give that a blast

[Tankjunkie0481]

Might be a good idea to give the tank a more thorough than normal cleaning critter poo will contain phosphates and may be building up somewhere in the tank. Just a thought. After a couple good tank cleanings and a little rearranging to eliminate low flow areas i've got mine under control without having to increase my export methods. I'm even back down to doing 15% water changes instead of 25% like I was when I was trying to get ahead of the GHA. Its a long process so good luck.

[HugillSam]

thanks for the advice, i do have a few dead spots in the tank, and yeah i just took everything out the other week and gave it all a good scrub, its just annoying as i want to get some more advanced corals in there but i cant do that until i get this GHA problem sorted! *sigh*