Green hair algae HELP!

[MikeL1987]

Just completed the cycle on my first salt water aquarium. A day later I noticed algae forming on just ONE side of the glass. 2 days after that it was 3x longer and had a feathery look to it(still only on the one side). Early on in my set up I removed a large piece of LR from a friend that I threw into my tank (mistake im sure). This piece of rock had on it what looks like whats growing on my tank.

did not use RO/DI water (another mistake)

From what I have read high phosphates could be the culprit, I am picking up a test kit tomorrow.

Is there a reason that this is only growing on one part of the glass? (will not scrape as I did some research that shows that would cause further spread)

Do not have a sump yet, I am using a canister filter for now. I do not have any room for a phosphate reactor. Would it be beneficial to put phosphate sponge in a media tray in my canister?

Lastly, is there any product I could use to lower phosphates in my tank quickly?


any other feedback on stoping the spread of green hair algae quickly would be much appreciated.

[AZBigJohn]

Do you have a natural light source closer to one side of the tank than the other? I know every summer I have an algae explosion on the left side of my tank, as the sun moves through the sky and kits that side of the tank. My explain one side of th etank only getting the rapid algae growth.

[MikeL1987]

Do you have a natural light source closer to one side of the tank than the other? I know every summer I have an algae explosion on the left side of my tank, as the sun moves through the sky and kits that side of the tank. My explain one side of th etank only getting the rapid algae growth.


there are no windows that expose direct sunlight to the tank, and the strange part is that the panel where the algae is growing is against the wall ( tank in the corner)

[HUNTER1]

You can put gfo in your canister media basket, just put little more than recommended amount.

[dkeller_nc]

Assuming this is Bryopsis, there is no harm in carefully removing it with a razor blade (assuming your tank is glass - don't use a razor blade on acylic!). If you don't, then the colony will shed pieces and parts and you will have bryopsis growing throughout the tank.

There are a few things you can do to control its growth and prevent it from coming back:

1) Add a phosphate absorber (could be Phosgaurd or Phosban/GFO). Do this is small amounts if you have coral in the system - nothing good happens quickly in a reef tank.

2) Add a herbivore (or several) to your reef. A good candidate for a small tank is a so-called "lawnmower" blenny. Other possibilities include various invertebrates such as lettuce slugs, emerald crabs, and the like.

3) Stop feeding dry food (if you are). Switch to clean frozen marine preparations such as frozen brine, frozen Mysis and combination products like LRS Reef Frenzy nano. Rinse the food before you place it in the tank, and only add enough so that the fish consume it all in less than 2-5 minutes.

4) Buy and set up a protein skimmer. There are appropriate selections for just about any tank, whether hang-on-the-back, in-sump, or external models.

5) Include a little (about 2 tablespoons per 20 gallons) of very high quality GAC in your system - just carefully rinse it with RODI, put it in a mesh media bag and place it in an area with high flow. Seachem's matrix carbon is an example of a very high quality carbon.

6) If your system contains mechanical filtration (such as a sponge in your canister), get in the habit of cleaning it once every two days or eliminate it all together.

[MikeL1987]

Assuming this is Bryopsis, there is no harm in carefully removing it with a razor blade (assuming your tank is glass - don't use a razor blade on acylic!). If you don't, then the colony will shed pieces and parts and you will have bryopsis growing throughout the tank.

There are a few things you can do to control its growth and prevent it from coming back:

1) Add a phosphate absorber (could be Phosgaurd or Phosban/GFO). Do this is small amounts if you have coral in the system - nothing good happens quickly in a reef tank.

2) Add a herbivore (or several) to your reef. A good candidate for a small tank is a so-called "lawnmower" blenny. Other possibilities include various invertebrates such as lettuce slugs, emerald crabs, and the like.

3) Stop feeding dry food (if you are). Switch to clean frozen marine preparations such as frozen brine, frozen Mysis and combination products like LRS Reef Frenzy nano. Rinse the food before you place it in the tank, and only add enough so that the fish consume it all in less than 2-5 minutes.

4) Buy and set up a protein skimmer. There are appropriate selections for just about any tank, whether hang-on-the-back, in-sump, or external models.

5) Include a little (about 2 tablespoons per 20 gallons) of very high quality GAC in your system - just carefully rinse it with RODI, put it in a mesh media bag and place it in an area with high flow. Seachem's matrix carbon is an example of a very high quality carbon.

6) If your system contains mechanical filtration (such as a sponge in your canister), get in the habit of cleaning it once every two days or eliminate it all together.

If i turn off all power heads/filter/skimmer and use a razor blade to remove it, and some of it got suspended into the water, is that a way for it to spread quickly throughout the tank?
maybe follow the razor with a gravel syphon?

[dkeller_nc]

If i turn off all power heads/filter/skimmer and use a razor blade to remove it, and some of it got suspended into the water, is that a way for it to spread quickly throughout the tank?
maybe follow the razor with a gravel syphon?

Yes, generally speaking most marine alga can spread through asexual propagation (fragments starting new colonies). But I wouldn't worry about that too much - failing to remove the mother colony will result in it taking over your tank anyway.

[Painted skin]

If you are paranoid of spores spreading when pulling and scrapping it off you can siphon at the area where you're scraping to suck it immediately, like what some people do when removing bubble algae. Stop using unprepared tap water use rodi or distill, mistake with tap is people don't prepare it first and remove phosphate and metal first. They just water conditioner and dump into the tank.