Best combat against green hair algae?

[Schraufabagel]

I have a 6 month old 25 gallon AIO tank. It is constantly struggling with green hair algae. I usually hold my nitrates between 2 - 8 and my phosphates between 0.05 - 0.15. I have a small refugium with chaeto and an Aquagadget refugium LED. I feed phyto and pods daily. I feed TDO and reef roids several times a week. My cleaning crew is made of astreas, nerites, nassarius, dwarf cerith, florida cerith, peppermint shrimp, and a pincushion urchin. I have 4 fish right now. My AI Nero 3 is set to ~1,500 GPH.

Also, here is my lighting schedule and spectrum settings for my AI prime.


Does anyone have any suggestions for mechanical filtration, herbivore fish, or clean up crew members that are effective against green hair algae?

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

My tuxedo urchin is a beast!! I actually bought a second one it was so awesome.

 

[JoshH]

I have had good luck with Turbo snails myself. I will say don't panic and do something crazy. Your tank is still pretty young and it will take time to mature. I would maybe add some pods and something like Microbacter 7 from Brightwell, start working on getting your microfauna population up in your tank.

 

[Schraufabagel]

I have had good luck with Turbo snails myself. I will say don't panic and do something crazy. Your tank is still pretty young and it will take time to mature. I would maybe add some pods and something like Microbacter 7 from Brightwell, start working on getting your microfauna population up in your tank.

I have some apex pods seeded in my refugium. I'll look at getting some brightwell products for microfauna. Are there any other products that would be good to add for biodiversity?

 

[JoshH]

I have some apex pods seeded in my refugium. I'll look at getting some brightwell products for microfauna. Are there any other products that would be good to add for biodiversity?

Sounds like you are well on your way! Honestly keep doing what you're doing. Maybe, if you have the time, look into culturing phyto. This will help boost your pod popluation and get things rolling.

Overall I'd say keep up with Water changes, maybe get a stiff bristle brush and scrub it off the rocks when doing a WC. And just let your system do it's thing. I had the same issue as you and it took almost a year, but suddenly all my algae issues were gone. Just vanished over a week. Remember, nothing good ever happens fast in this hobby.

 

[Schraufabagel]

Sounds like you are well on your way! Honestly keep doing what you're doing. Maybe, if you have the time, look into culturing phyto. This will help boost your pod popluation and get things rolling.

Overall I'd say keep up with Water changes, maybe get a stiff bristle brush and scrub it off the rocks when doing a WC. And just let your system do it's thing. I had the same issue as you and it took almost a year, but suddenly all my algae issues were gone. Just vanished over a week. Remember, nothing good ever happens fast in this hobby.

Awesome. Yeah, I’ve been doing a water change every 1 or 2 weeks. I usually scrub it off before. I’ll keep following my normal routine and just let it run it’s course

 

[JoshH]

Awesome. Yeah, I’ve been doing a water change every 1 or 2 weeks. I usually scrub it off before. I’ll keep following my normal routine and just let it run it’s course

I am sorry, I missed you were already dosing phyto, is it live phyto?

Also, how much coral do you have?

 

[Schraufabagel]

I am sorry, I missed you were already dosing phyto, is it live phyto?

Also, how much coral do you have?

I does Reef Nutrition’s normal phyto feast (so dead) as well a their live apex pods.

I have 23 frags that are flourishing, 3 frags that are struggling a bit, a Gorgonian, 4 rock flower anemones, and 4 feather dusters

 

[RobbieMaynard]

I’m in a similar situation. I feel like it all started when I began feeding reef roids to corals.

 

[PeterC99]

Do you have a UV light?

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

My tuxedo urchin is a beast!! I actually bought a second one it was so awesome.

What size tank? Over got a Halloween pincushion in a 54g and he can't keep up.

 

[ZoWhat]

IMO IME gha is more about a PO4 issue. Either your readings are wrong or the gha is consuming po4 quickly before the test gets accurate results.

If you attacked po4 and reduce it, I guarantee your gha would starve.

I personally dose vodka for nitrate reduction and LaCl for po4 reduction resulting in no gha reproduction

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

What size tank? Over got a Halloween pincushion in a 54g and he can't keep up.

90 gallon. I’m not saying he can keep up, but he is not the only solution either. Prevention is the number one cure. Outside of prevention is a good CUC for which my urchin is a part of. Sounds like you need to put some cheato in your refugium to pull out some excess nutrients.

 

[Darren in Tacoma]

I have never conquered gha in any tank (due to the fact that I like to feed my critters) without the help of a good algae eater. In a tank your size I think a Lawnmower Blenny would be a good consideration.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Light is the best promoter of algae and I always recommend reducing or turning off at least white lights for 5-7 days. Pull what you can by hand and add aggressive algae eaters such as: Turbo-astrea-nerite-trochus snails, pin cushion urchin and even dollabella sea hare . Sea hare may starve once algae is gone
If your tank is at or near a window- It for sure will be your answer

 

[jaganshi066]

My tuxedo urchin is a beast!! I actually bought a second one it was so awesome.

Do they pick up or hurt corals cause I have a lot of plugs

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Do they pick up or hurt corals cause I have a lot of plugs

Yes they do. They are freaking bulldozers and will dislodge and poorly secured (even well secured) frag plugs. As such, they are not for the feint of heart. The are real PITA's to new reefers. Unfortunately, its a trade off in the battle of Algae. I personally would rather re-secure my plugs than have ugly algae all over the place. Ultimately, I would probably use the urchin to get ahead of the problem then give them away if I wasnt committed to having them in my tank. But they are great consumers and I am happy to have them.

 

[Dkmoo]

Refugium is the best option. Best way to control gha growth isn't to try to limit its growth, bc by limiting the growth conditions you are also limiting the growth condition of your corals. Grazers only work and take you half of the way bc yes they can eat and clean them all. But they also poop and release the nutrient back. So they have to go somewhere and the best way is to just make it grow somewhere else.

I've tried them all, at some point yiur tank will mature and reach an equilibrium where the grazers will keep your dt clean of new growth, and upcycles the nutrient back into the water column where your corals can absorb. Excess nutrient won't have a foothold in DT to sprout new gha bc of the grazers so the refugium will grow them where you can periodically clean out and remove.

Don't have to stick with chaeto. I just let my fuge grow whatever. I find thats the best and most efficient way.

The best competitor of GHA in DT is more GHA in fuge. One strand of gha grow in fuge is one less strand growing in DT.

 

[jaganshi066]

Yes they do. They are freaking bulldozers and will dislodge and poorly secured (even well secured) frag plugs. As such, they are not for the feint of heart. The are real PITA's to new reefers. Unfortunately, its a trade off in the battle of Algae. I personally would rather re-secure my plugs than have ugly algae all over the place. Ultimately, I would probably use the urchin to get ahead of the problem then give them away if I wasnt committed to having them in my tank. But they are great consumers and I am happy to have them.

Do you think they are better than sea hares cause one of my tanks is starting to get hair algae but my hermits and snails aren’t doing much

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Do you think they are better than sea hares cause one of my tanks is starting to get hair algae but my hermits and snails aren’t doing much

No experience with sea hares so I can’t comment.