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Green hair algae during the uglies: non tang solutions?

rdriggett

rdriggett

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Hi all, I've been doing light manual removal of GHA. Little tuffs have popped up all over my sand and rocks. I thought I the uglies was just going to be diatoms and green film algae but the hair algae has started.
My CUC includes a mix of cerith, dwarf cerith, Astraea, vibex snails and a lot of copepods. They helped sort of clean up my rocks for a week but they're turning brown and green again.
Root of my question: What eta GHA on rocks and sand that fits in a 40 breeder, preferable not a fish. My bicolor blenny doesn't seem to touch GHA.
 
Mexican turbo snails (the big golf ball sized ones) are the best snails for GHA as far as I know. Sea Hare will demolish it but likely will run out of algae to eat in a 40g. Urchins are good but also eat coralline algae, which I see you are also trying to jump start. There are other options but those are ones that come to mind.
 
JVU said:
Mexican turbo snails (the big golf ball sized ones) are the best snails for GHA as far as I know. Sea Hare will demolish it but likely will run out of algae to eat in a 40g. Urchins are good but also eat coralline algae, which I see you are also trying to jump start. There are other options but those are ones that come to mind.
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How many turbo snails? My reefing buddies tank has much more GHA than me and his 2 turbos in a 25 gallon dont seem to do much. I will consider the urchin because I think a seahare will starve in my tank.
 
jhuynh said:
whats your no3? po4? are you using rodi for your mixes (tds levels)? how are you doing nutrient exports? are you runinng a skimmer? refugium? whats your lighting like? how much whites are on?
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No3: 10-15ppm, po4: untested, yes: Neptune rodi water @ 1-2tds, 30% weekly WCs for export, no skimmer or fuge, k7 v3 set to 100% blues 10% whites. 100-150 par at the sandbed.
 
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im not familiar with the k7.. do they have red and/or green leds? those colors will promote algae. youre gonna deal with it until the tank matures more. go natural with cuc and pluck them once in awhile. stay away from chemicals. i would get po4 tested as a peace of mind. from there, look into a more nutrient export than just 30% water changes. diluting isnt the key, its having preventive solutions for the long run.

edit: also how long are white lights are on? there are no quick fixes in this hobby. go slow and have patience.
 
So this what I think. TDS at 1-2 will grow algae. Dead rock in your first year and the half will go thru stages of algae. Lights on a new aquarium will grow algae
If you have no corals turn the lights off. Or turn the light cycle down.
Watch thane or Marc levenson on YouTube. They have some good videos on hair algae and new aquarium start up.
Oh. Animals will only eat short algae. If it gets longer than a 1/4”. They won’t touch it. So you are the best clean up crew.
 
jhuynh said:
im not familiar with the k7.. do they have red and/or green leds? those colors will promote algae. youre gonna deal with it until the tank matures more. go natural with cuc and pluck them once in awhile. stay away from chemicals. i would get po4 tested as a peace of mind. from there, look into a more nutrient export than just 30% water changes. diluting isnt the key, its having preventive solutions for the long run.
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I will look into a nano skimmer that fits in my empty AIO chamber! It has a red and green channel I run at 10% so I can see my fish colors better. I understand I have to go through the ugliest. I’m just trying to fight them. I keep forgetting to order a po4 test so I’ll pick one up.
 
phc567 said:
So this what I think. TDS at 1-2 will grow algae. Dead rock in your first year and the half will go thru stages of algae. Lights on a new aquarium will grow algae
If you have no corals turn the lights off. Or turn the light cycle down.
Watch thane or Marc levenson on YouTube. They have some good videos on hair algae and new aquarium start up.
Oh. Animals will only eat short algae. If it gets longer than a 1/4”. They won’t touch it. So you are the best clean up crew.
Click to expand...
I was told neptunes 1-2tds was safe when I first joined BAR. I split a BRS 7 stage with my reefing buddy and will switch to 0TDS water over the next month via normal WCs. I have a mix of lps and sps so I unfortunately have to turn my lights up more.
 
rdriggett said:
I will look into a nano skimmer that fits in my empty AIO chamber! It has a red and green channel I run at 10% so I can see my fish colors better. I understand I have to go through the ugliest. I’m just trying to fight them. I keep forgetting to order a po4 test so I’ll pick one up.
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I have an Aquamaxx 1.5 hob if you want to borrow or buy.. works great in my IM50g AIO that I'm shutting down to upgrade.
 
These guys:

www.reefcleaners.org

Mexican Turbo Snail

Resides : Rocks and glass Consumes : Hair Algae, Film Algae, Some species of Complex and Turf Algae Max Size : 2.5 or 60mm Origin : Eastern Pacific Ocean Availability:...
www.reefcleaners.org www.reefcleaners.org

(You can buy them from multiple places)
 
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