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Need help getting rid of green hair algae (1 Viewer)

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Armand5000

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So I've been having this problem with green hair algae for almost 6 months now. I've tried everything as far as natural remedies (cut back on lighting times, lowered intensity, even did a black out) to get rid of it but I've had no luck. I'm mixing my own water and I have a 6 stage RO system. I donwater changes of 30% every other Monday and even tried doing 15-30 gallon change ever 3 days but this algae doesn't want to go away....any suggestions on what I can do?? Thanks in advance for help, it's been really frustrating trying to get it under control.
 

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webster1234

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I have a "natural" solution for you but I first want to know what your PO4 and NO3 is and what you do for nutrient control.

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xichlongthai

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Have you tried Yellow Tang , Foxface and Tomini Tang? I have all 3 and they keep my reef clean of hair algae.
 
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Armand5000

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I have a "natural" solution for you but I first want to know what your PO4 and NO3 is and what you do for nutrient control.
I need to test my my PO4 but my NO3 I just tested and looks like 0. When you say nutrient control do you mean clean up crew?
 

Matyas

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Try fluconazole. If your lucky it will destroy your algae in 3 weeks. I used it on my old tank and worked wonders on a gha invasion. If you prefer natural methods go for urchins and grazing fish. I dont recommend many turbo snails because many have a poor life expectancy and can pollute your tank.
 
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Armand5000

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Try fluconazole. If your lucky it will destroy your algae in 3 weeks. I used it on my old tank and worked wonders on a gha invasion. If you prefer natural methods go for urchins and grazing fish. I dont recommend many turbo snails because many have a poor life expectancy and can pollute your tank.
Thanks for the advice. I'll look more into fluconzole if I cAnt control it naturally.
 

Matyas

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Thanks for the advice. I'll look more into fluconzole if I cAnt control it naturally.

If you cant controll it naturally then fluco is your best shot. Big thread on Reef2Reef about it. Used against bryopsis and hair algae. I used Reef Flux about 13$
 

reeftopia

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Actually there is an extremely easy way to get rid of hair algae. All it involves is buying a parrot fish. Got my first 1, 2 yrs ago and how have one
in every tank. Think they are princes parrots. I was nervous about the first one worried about corals but none have touched anything but algae.
Have not had algae in a year. A friend with a 900 gal system was getting really frustrated because he was getting killed by hair algae. Talked him
into getting one now he is algae free. Not to mention how beautiful they are. Ok my secret is out good luck finding one.
 

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I had a hair algae outbreak in my nano tank and I got a sea hare and in two days all the HA was gone. Then to keep it from returning I got a 3 Astraea snails and 2 Margarita snails and already had cerith snails. I also got my phosphate under control. Never had the HA return.
 
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Armand5000

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After reading all of y'all's comments, which is greatly appreciated btw, I have added a yellow Tang, tomini Tang, sea hare, foxface, and a big clean up crew. Hopefully this will take care of it naturally otherwise will have to shift to plan b.
 

webster1234

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I need to test my my PO4 but my NO3 I just tested and looks like 0. When you say nutrient control do you mean clean up crew?

That's a lot of PO4. Nutrient control means reducing the amount of "fertilizer" in your water. Clean up crew (regardless of what kind...snail, nudi's, fish, urchin, etc) treats the symptoms of elevated nutrients, not the cause. High phosphates and nitrates fuel the algae growth, no different than fertilizing your grass. Look on a bag of Scotts and see what's in it....nitrates and phosphates.

The first step of algae reduction is reducing the nutrient level. The second is clean up crew. Look into implementing some form of nutrient reduction through macro algae, carbon dosing, etc. along with your clean up crew.
 

steveb

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I would add trying to mechanically remove as much of the gha as possible. It actually creates a detritus trap that create a source of no3/po4 to feed the algae (or has been when I have dealt with it in the past).
 
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Armand5000

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For him, gfo might be a good choice assuming nitrates are actually zero. Carbon dosing will be ineffective without adding nitrates to bring the nitrate/phosphate/carbon ratio up. Good call.
I would add trying to mechanically remove as much of the gha as possible. It actually creates a detritus trap that create a source of no3/po4 to feed the algae (or has been when I have dealt with it in the past).
I went in the other night and pulled out as much of it as I could and did a 30% water change, changed out all my filter pads and cleaned out my skimmer. I'm going to try to do another 10-15% water change for the next three days. Hopefully this will help get rid of it. I'll be looking into gfo and some of the other suggestions in the post as well.
 

webster1234

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I would implement the GFO first (along with multiple water changes). Live rock will store up PO4 and leach it back out as the levels in the water drop. So there will probably be a lot of PO4 for a while. Just be patient and keep at it as well as checking your PO4 levels every few days to monitor progress. I would recommend a Hanna checker (high level) because it will give you a digital readout to more accurately monitor progress. The color ones liek you showed in the picture are too subjective when it comes to PO4.
 

Bigfishy

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Nutrients under control and each day remove as much GHA as possible- that is the two main things that will get it under control


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Reefy

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After reading all of y'all's comments, which is greatly appreciated btw, I have added a yellow Tang, tomini Tang, sea hare, foxface, and a big clean up crew. Hopefully this will take care of it naturally otherwise will have to shift to plan b.
I was wondering how your sea hare did in removing the green hair algae? As what others have said getting your PO4 under control would be the best way to keep the GHA from coming back.
 
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