Green hair algea

[Partsman41953]

Hi everyone,

I have a 29 gallon bow tank with live rock and fish. I would like to put soft coral in there but since I have had this tank running I have had a problem with green hair algae. I have been doing my water changes as I am suppose to, I have a fairly new T-5 Nova Extreme light which is on a timer and is only on for 6 hours a day, I feed them only granuals once a day, and use only salt water purchased from a local fish store. My water parameters are where they are suppose to be and have no idea what else to do.

I moved the tank last week into my kitchen because I thought that the sunlight might be effecting the tank and I tore the tank down, without cleaning the sand, cleaned the rock, filled the tank with new salt water and the tank was fine for about a week and now not only do I have green hair algae but now I see red slime starting as well.

I am up for any suggestions that you might have. I would love to put some soft coral in there as the clown fish I have are using the algae to hide in instead on coral right now.

[brackeeper75]

Give us more information to go on!
What fish and how many
what clean up crew
salinity
Ammonia
nitrite
nitrate
ph
phosphates
equipment? skimmer, filters, powerheads
what is your total flow
where does your lfs get its water and what brand of salt do they use to mix it
has the store tested its ro/di output lately
what are you feeding
live rock/live sand
how do you top off the tank
by answering these questions for us, we should be able to tell what is happening
do you have pictures of the tank. and or the algea
and btw
i think your photo period is too short 6 hours is probably not good
think about the light the ocean recieves everyday. I run my actinics for 10 hours 12:00pm-10:00pm and my daylights for 8 hours from 1pm- 9pm. Sometimes not enough light actually helps algae to spread.

[hultman]

Hi everyone,

I have a 29 gallon bow tank with live rock and fish. .....since I have had this tank running I have had a problem with green hair algae.

I just set up a new 40, and was seeing significant hair algae within the first three weeks. Bought a cleanup crew of about 15 hermits, 15 snails and three emerald crabs. Now, about two weeks later the only hair algae is where the cleanup crew can't get to it, up on one of the power heads. Otherwise, it's ALL gone. I love those cleaner guys!

[brackeeper75]

I just set up a new 40, and was seeing significant hair algae within the first three weeks. Bought a cleanup crew of about 15 hermits, 15 snails and three emerald crabs. Now, about two weeks later the only hair algae is where the cleanup crew can't get to it, up on one of the power heads. Otherwise, it's ALL gone. I love those cleaner guys!

The problem here is that you have taken care of the symptoms, however you have not taken care of the problem itself. Phosphates and nitrates are the leading cause of algea outbreaks. You need to get the water parameters better and you wont have the algae problems. Do you use ro/di water or tap water? This could be the source, as well as overfeeding, overstocked tank, low flow, not enough filtration, or not enough water changes.

[hultman]

The problem here is that you have taken care of the symptoms, however you have not taken care of the problem itself. Phosphates and nitrates are the leading cause of algea outbreaks. Do you use ro/di water or tap water? This could be the source, as well as overfeeding, overstocked tank, low flow, not enough filtration, or not enough water changes.

I guess I don't see it as a problem. I use RO water. The cleaning crew is feeding nicely and seems happy. Yes, the tank is starting to have a heavy fish load, and once I've settled on a good fish mix, I'll decide on the corals. So, for now, I expect I'll have higher Nitrate readings. Right now they're still in the single digits, but the tank is still young.

My flow is good, about 1500gph, and filtration is an AquaC on the sump with a simple prefilter on the drip plate. I admit that, along with some extra live rock, I still have some bio media in the sump, but I think I will be removing that soon.

Who knows, maybe this will be a fish tank, not a reef. Time will tell.

[brackeeper75]

Check your phosphates... Just out of curiosity.
Single digit nitrate readings are no reason not to do a reef tank.
I am just trying to help out with the algae problem.
With single digit nitrate, your phosphates might be outta whack.


I guess I don't see it as a problem. I use RO water. The cleaning crew is feeding nicely and seems happy. Yes, the tank is starting to have a heavy fish load, and once I've settled on a good fish mix, I'll decide on the corals. So, for now, I expect I'll have higher Nitrate readings. Right now they're still in the single digits, but the tank is still young.

My flow is good, about 1500gph, and filtration is an AquaC on the sump with a simple prefilter on the drip plate. I admit that, along with some extra live rock, I still have some bio media in the sump, but I think I will be removing that soon.

Who knows, maybe this will be a fish tank, not a reef. Time will tell.

[hultman]

Check your phosphates... Just out of curiosity.

:eek:Wow, phosphates are at .6. I put in a Poly Pad. We'll see what that does. I was assuming that I didn't need to worry about phosphate because for the first time I'm actually using RO water. Thanks for pointing this out!

[brackeeper75]

:eek:Wow, phosphates are at .6. I put in a Poly Pad. We'll see what that does. I was assuming that I didn't need to worry about phosphate because for the first time I'm actually using RO water. Thanks for pointing this out!

Phosphate are definately the source of your algae problems!

What we need to understand here, and what is a very important lesson, that i learned the same way, is that we should have started using ro/di water from the beginning, BUT I didnt either, a couple of weeks ago I went out and bought a ro/di unit.

As far as the phosphates go The rock and sand will absorb phosphate over time, and then the phosphate will continue to leach out back into the water column. So this is where our problem was.

Regular and larger water changes will help to bring this down, however it will take time and diligence. I did 2 large 40% water changes (100 gallons in my system) one on one friday and the other on the next friday. This brought my nitrates and phosphates down to more managable levels, and now I will continue to do weekly 10%. I also set up a fuge, got some chaeto. So you see I had the same thing happen to me!

[masterkaw]

Phosphate are definately the source of your algae problems!

What we need to understand here, and what is a very important lesson, that i learned the same way, is that we should have started using ro/di water from the beginning, BUT I didnt either, a couple of weeks ago I went out and bought a ro/di unit.

As far as the phosphates go The rock and sand will absorb phosphate over time, and then the phosphate will continue to leach out back into the water column. So this is where our problem was.

Regular and larger water changes will help to bring this down, however it will take time and diligence. I did 2 large 40% water changes (100 gallons in my system) one on one friday and the other on the next friday. This brought my nitrates and phosphates down to more managable levels, and now I will continue to do weekly 10%. I also set up a fuge, got some chaeto. So you see I had the same thing happen to me!
Could nitrates be at 0 and phospate be high? Could there be an algae breakout with nitrates being at 0 and phospates being high? If RO/DI water is being used with 0ppm, how does the phospate show up?

[masterkaw]

anyone?

[brackeeper75]

Could nitrates be at 0 and phospate be high? Could there be an algae breakout with nitrates being at 0 and phospates being high? If RO/DI water is being used with 0ppm, how does the phospate show up?

I do not see why not...
Plants thrive off of nitrates and phosphates. This is why we add macro algae into our fuges to pull this stuff out of the water, they soak it up and use it to grow. If you are using ro/di your phosphates in that water should be zero, however sometimes there are phosphates in the salt. I would do a series of test. Test the tap water, test the ro water, test the salt mixed with the ro water. See what the results are, if everything is still at zero, then we move on to food and feeding. Almost all food contains phosphates, and the frozen food is even worse. What do you feed and how often fdo you feed? What additives are you dosing in your tank. All of these things can contribute.

If you have not been using ro water since the beginning, then you have to remember what i stated in my earlier post.

As far as the phosphates go The rock and sand will absorb phosphate over time, and then the phosphate will continue to leach out back into the water column.

[masterkaw]

I do not see why not...
Plants thrive off of nitrates and phosphates. This is why we add macro algae into our fuges to pull this stuff out of the water, they soak it up and use it to grow. If you are using ro/di your phosphates in that water should be zero, however sometimes there are phosphates in the salt. I would do a series of test. Test the tap water, test the ro water, test the salt mixed with the ro water. See what the results are, if everything is still at zero, then we move on to food and feeding. Almost all food contains phosphates, and the frozen food is even worse. What do you feed and how often fdo you feed? What additives are you dosing in your tank. All of these things can contribute.

If you have not been using ro water since the beginning, then you have to remember what i stated in my earlier post.

As far as the phosphates go The rock and sand will absorb phosphate over time, and then the phosphate will continue to leach out back into the water column.

Thank you Brackeeper for your response. I have a 75 gallon with about 125 lbs. of live rock. Have an AquaC Remora skimmer, no sump, only three fish(no bigger than 2 inches), some corals (mushrooms & polyps) a SpectraPure RO/DI, a Koralia 3, koralia4, and feed once a day. I feed very little. I feed flake food and sometimes a small piece of dried shrimp. I only do about 10% water change every three weeks. There is one hermit crab, one turbo snail, a lot of the small snails, and there is a bristle worm about 6 or 7 inches long.

On the glass of the tank there is green algae growing and some cyano also.

I don't have a test kit for phospate yet, so I don't know this parameter. My other parameters are;

Ammonia 0
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Ph 8.1

So, if I do have phosphate in the water, how do I take care of it? Just doing water changes?

Is there a certain type of brand suggested for the Phosphate test? I will go today and buy it. Also, what other tests do I need to buy? For example, magnesium, calcium, alkalinity, etc.

One last question, is the bristle worm bad to have in the display tank?

[brackeeper75]

Thank you Brackeeper for your response. I have a 75 gallon with about 125 lbs. of live rock. Have an AquaC Remora skimmer, no sump, only three fish(no bigger than 2 inches), some corals (mushrooms & polyps) a SpectraPure RO/DI, a Koralia 3, koralia4, and feed once a day. I feed very little. I feed flake food and sometimes a small piece of dried shrimp. I only do about 10% water change every three weeks. There is one hermit crab, one turbo snail, a lot of the small snails, and there is a bristle worm about 6 or 7 inches long.

On the glass of the tank there is green algae growing and some cyano also.

I don't have a test kit for phospate yet, so I don't know this parameter. My other parameters are;

Ammonia 0
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Ph 8.1

So, if I do have phosphate in the water, how do I take care of it? Just doing water changes?

Is there a certain type of brand suggested for the Phosphate test? I will go today and buy it. Also, what other tests do I need to buy? For example, magnesium, calcium, alkalinity, etc.

One last question, is the bristle worm bad to have in the display tank?


Some people will say that the bristle worm is bad...
However I am a firm believer that a few are good as long as they don't get out of control. If you are worried get a trap.

I use the API test kit for phosphate.
IMO the tests you should have are ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, calcium, alkalinity, and ph. These are must haves!

Do you dose your tank?

I am having the exact opposite problem that you are having. My phosphates are at 0 my nitrates are at 20, and I can't get them any lower. When I first started I made a lot of mistakes. I used a wet dry with bio balls, was using tap water to fill my tank/wc. I did not have enough flow. I have since corrected all of those problems except the nitrates. I recently built my own sump, added a fuge and got them to go from 40 down to 20 but that seems to be where I am stuck. I feed a 2x a day very little and always have algae on the clip. I do not have algae outbreaks of bad algae, but ever since I started dosing my tank the coraline has taken off in my tank. To get the good algae to grow, you need to get your calcium levels right.

So we need to know what your algae is..
You said cyano... the red slimy stuff on the sand that is bad...or are you mistaking it for red coraline which is good?

The green stuff..is it hair algae bad, or green coraline good?

If it is in fact the bad versions of the algae, one of two things is going on, either your phosphates are outta control or your nitrate test is not working, and they are outta control. Take a sample of your water to the lfs and have them test it just to make sure. Most lfs will test ammonia nitrite nitrate alkalinity and ph for free! Even if they use a strip test you can get a ball park of weather or not you have any problems. If phos or nitrates are outta whack, i would start doing more frequent water changes until you get them back under control. I was doing 40 gallons every other week and 20 gallons in between. I am still doing 20 weekly to keep my nitrates under control.

If you don't dose and your alk and calc are off this is not promoting good algae growth, so you may want to get a 2 part to dose.