green hair algae

[flounder]

I am having a terrible time getting rid of some green hair algae in my tank. The tank is well established and I can't figure out what has set off the spread of the algae or how to get rid of it. I have replaced bulbs and changed water. I have a Seaclone protein skimmer, an Eheim canister filter, and a biowheel running 24/7. I can't figure out what is going on. Any suggestions on how to get rid of this stuff or at least stop it from spreading? Thanks fo rthe input.

[clown-t]

welcome, do you use ro/di water, if you over feed your fish it will put nutrients into the water which could be a problem, macro algae will reduce nutrients(refugium), add a clean up crew snails and crabs,i have emerald crabs because they help with bubble algae which will be next, do you run a skimmer. i am sure there is more but this will be a good start. good luck

[asmith]

Please give us more information about your tank (Age, size, water parameters, substrate, amount of Live rock, inhabitants, etc) With this information we will be able to get a better idea of the source of the problem.

Andrew

[flounder]

The tank has been set up for a little over three years now. It is a 62 gallon show tank with 100 pounds of live rock. I've got a Singapore Angel, Scissortail goby, mandrian, lawnmower blenny, six line wrasse, and a maroon and gold clown. I've also got two peppermint shrimp, a coral banded shrimp, and several astria and turbo snails. I have four bumble bee snails and a few snails that I am not sure what they are. I've also got some green star polyps and brown button polyps. The water params are fine and everything seems to be thriving. I'm not sure what is going on. The LFS told me that I caused an algae bloom from changing the water too much, but this is the first time this has happened since the tank has been set up. I have been removing as much as I can by hand, but this is about impossible. Any ideas?

[David]

Flounder, you are obviously not new at this game so I imagine you have already thought of everthing, but I am going to paste in (if I can) a response I sent to another fellow with algae problems a few weeks ago....

Ideas? Sure. Let me preface by saying this is all my opinion, others may dissagree. I think you have an outrageously high level of ecxess nutrients in your tank. Anytime there are excess nutrients in your aquarium something will pop up to consume them, commonly this will be unwanted algae. The following suggestions will reduce or eliminate excess nutrients and/or control unwanted algaes: 1) It's the water- use only the best RO/DI water you can get. 2) Don't overfeed. 3) Add snails to OR's list of critters above, turbo's or astrea's or both. 4) Add poly-filter or phosphate pad to sump 5) Add competing (desireable) algae like caulerpa. 6) Major water change. 7) Get copy of Bob Goems book "Algae Controll Secrets".
8) Encourage coraline growth to limit space available to slime or hair algaes. 9) Use dsb or plenum. 10) ... gee, that's all I can think of right now. Good luck.

In posts above you have addressed two of these ideas, (I don't consider 20 or 30% "major water change"), what about the other seven? Something is wrong, there is no excuse for unwanted algae, it's too easy to prevent. I assume you have propper lighting spectrum? A reasonable photo period? What about circulation? Try making a "storm" in tank each day to stir up detritus so filters can do their job. Weeds don't grow on the sidewalk, just in the cracks where dirt collects. This is a real mystery to me, I've never experienced it. Good luck.

[flounder]

I use RO/DI water and only feed the tank once a day. I usually feed one cube of Formula1 or 2 or angel formula. I have started to stir the sandbed but I have been told that this can cause more problems rather than helping. I am having a tough time finding caulerpa around here and I really don't like MO. I'm stumped.

[afishybusiness]

Too much biological filtration in my opinion. You have substrate for bacteria, they grow, not enough ammonia to keep them alive, they die, make ammonia, turns into nitrite, and then turns into nitrate. Hair algae loves nitrates!! You may not show nitrates because the algae is consuming it as it is being produced. Just a thought.

[flounder]

Duh! You have a very good point! I didn't start having the problem until after I added the Eheim. Never had an algae problem before that and the tank has been up for a while. The little things slip past sometimes I guess. Thank you so much! I'm going to take off the biowheel and see what happens. Did I say thank you!

[afishybusiness]

No Problem... Good luck!