green hair algea

[10gnano]

hey guys
sorry to beat a dead horse, but will completely covering my rock in live sand kill green hair algea??
The local pet store guy told me that if I bury my rock it will choke out the algea.
what do you guys think?
what about a UV sterilizer. will that get rid of my green hair algea

[jon1985]

all you are doing by covering your rock in sand is keeping light off the algea which in turn kills it.  The same thing can be acheived by putting a blanket over your tank.

But you really should look to get rid of the extra nutrients that are feeding the algea.  I had some in my last tank, I setup a phosban reactor and with in 2 days the algea started turning brown and dying.  Just make sure your skimmer can keep up with the die off.

[Bob P]

^ agreed
Nevermind the coverup, get to the source for sure.
Lower nutrients, and I could lend you my pincoushion
urchin.

[10gnano]

i have no skimmer in my sump. I havent added anything to my tank in weeks and i only use ro culligan, i have been changing 5 gallons every few days

[Bob P]

You have MH lights on that tank?
How long they on? 2 or 3 hours is all you
need, maybe too strong. Supplement with t5s

[10gnano]

i have turned off the mh bulb, i  am going to look into this reactor thing

[lost_at_sea]

Do you feed frozen foods? if you do rinse the food under cold water in a strainer prior to feeding... the liquids in those frozen foods have TONS of excess nutrients that can lead to massive algae growth.

[Bob P]

You have a couple tanks running, right?
Is this problem in one? Or all of them.

[Rudy00]

how old is the tank?

[10gnano]

i closed the nano, i thought i had all the hair algea off the live rock, as it was not visible anymore or growing in the nano, then i brought the live rock from the nano into my new tank, thats when it showed up again, i havent fed this tank anything in over a week, not even calcium.

[FocusFin]

i closed the nano, i thought i had all the hair algea off the live rock, as it was not visible anymore or growing in the nano, then i brought the live rock from the nano into my new tank, thats when it showed up again, i havent fed this tank anything in over a week, not even calcium.

The rock might be leaching phosphates. I bought a full set up last year and merged it with my own not realizing that all of the algae on the rock was actually as a result of the rock leaching phosphates. The good news is that eventually the rock will rid itself of the phosphates, the bad news is it could take over a year.

If you can, remove the rock and "cook" it. Below is a description I copied from another site.

The purpose of "cooking" your rocks is to have the bacteria consume all (or as much) organic material and PO4 stored on, and in, the rock as possible.

The new environment you are creating for your rock is to take it from an algal driven to a bacterial driven system.
In order to this, the rock needs to be in total darkness to retard and eventually kill the algae's on the rock and to give the bacteria time to do the job.

Barring this method, the alternative may be to live with it. Run a phosban reactor and get yourself a sea Hare to help keep it under control.

Good Luck.

[Darth]

yes I agree it totally a phosphate problem that was the reason I closed my tank because of frustration now its a year later and wiser feed much less than you do ( or I used to) phosban reactors are great and I believe redbelly is selling a used one at a good price. I am now getting ready to start a new build and will def remember to feed less, as that can be a major pain

[reefdava16]

There is no quick fix to this problem. You need to identify why you have excess nutrients in your tank, thats what the algae is feeding off. What are you nutrient export methods? Tank size? Stock list? Additives? Parameters?

[FocusFin]

yes I agree it totally a phosphate problem that was the reason I closed my tank because of frustration now its a year later and wiser feed much less than you do ( or I used to) phosban reactors are great and I believe redbelly is selling a used one at a good price. I am now getting ready to start a new build and will def remember to feed less, as that can be a major pain

Hey Steven,

Glad to see you're back in the hobby.

[Darth]

Not yet Mike, but soon moving to a townhouse soon, and gonna start another build. Just trying to get equipment stockpiled first, but hopefully should up and running in about 3 months

[Bob P]

Well?
Results?

[NjOyRiD]

thats for you

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=44473

[lost_at_sea]

With BFS HP GFO, new lights and rinsing my wet food prior to putting it in the tank... I removed all Hair Algae in about 2 months... (along with manually removing the large chunks) but it hasn't grown back at all.

he's not joking about GFO Reactor vs Chaeto in the fuge... my Chaeto doesn't grow all that much anymore, that's a good sign for me

[10gnano]

okay so I have bought and installed a UV Sterilizer. i will let you know how this goes. i scrubbed all the rocks, got as much off as i could. i have not added a single element to my reef in over 6 weeks. I am using charcoal, phosban and doing frequent water changes. Stats are all within range. removed m Mh light weeks ago. I will let you guys know if this works

[Bob P]

Silly question maybe, but does the sun hit the tank through
a window at all during the day?