Mad Green Hair Algae Problem Solved

Well, since my tank overheated last summer I have had the worst freekin green hair algae (GHA) problem I have ever seen.. It basically took over the entire reef and sand bed… Engulfed my corals and clam.. I lost my green star polyps and yellow polyps and xenia.. I had to occasionally get in and remove the GHA by the handful just so the fish could swim around.. Discovered I had an allergy to GHA and started into a mad sneezing fit every time I handled it.. Anyways… in May, I decided to really attack it and the following is what I did..

Had LFS check my water.. which tested great..

Cut back time the lights ran to 6 hours… No change..

Replaced 15 month old PC bulbs.. Noticed GHA stopped growing. Also noticed a bit of browning on the GHA that looked like some may have been dieing off.. Great some progress…

LFS recommended I try using Coralife Marine Tank Clarifier… apparently this bonds to free floating particles and helps them get trapped in the filter… Perhaps it helps remove food the algae consumes.. Ok.. I’m desperate.. I’ll try it… After a couple days I noticed algae dieing off… Cool… I kept dosing a little every couple days…

Noticed my snail population had pretty much died off.. I had mostly astrea snails… I don’t think they were ever much value in controlling algae.. Got some large Mexican Turbo snails… holy cow… they are like lawnmowers!!! The actually cleaned the thick hair algae off the rock and left a clean spot… Bought some more and let them go to town.. I love them!

Installed a Rio 12HF return pump which puts out almost 700 GPH or so which dramatically increased the flow inside the display tank… also puts all that water through my filter media.. Immediately noticed it stirred up a lot of detritus and kept it from settling back down.. eventually putting it all through the filter media… Awesome…

Changed my filter floss weekly and cleaned my skimmer every 1-2 days..

This week, I added a JBJ 1/10th HP chiller and have gradually reduced the temp to 77* from 81.5*… Hopefully the fish and corals will be happier and I wont have to worry about over heating this summer…

Today, my tank is pristine.. The rock is clean and coralline is growing.. the sand is bright white and algae free.. The zoos are open again and seem to be recovering nicely.. The green metallic mushrooms are looking great and gaining some of the green shimmer they seemed to have lost… my Torch is looking great and growing… My clam is… well, .. happy as a clam..

Hopefully I will be able to keep this going.. I’m totally stoked I got it cleared up as I was about to give up…

I will try to post pictures soon…

Disclaimer: I don’t know what I am doing but the above is what worked for me… Use info at own risk..

Cheers,
Jerid

 

Great job. Thanks for sharing!

 

Wheres the pics? Congrats!

 

Thanks guys.. I will grab a pic tonight or this weekend at the latest..

 

Ok... Here are the pics folks.. I got a little crazy with the camera so had to put them in a photo album.. Link below... First pic in the album shows the hair algae after I starting agressively attacking it... I think the pics turned out great so go take a look... I'll probably post a picture thread too..

Click Here >>>>>>>>> Jerid's Reef

Enjoy... I know I am..

Jerid

 

I should also mention that I have quit using the Coralife tank clarifiyer on a regular basis.. I only drop a little in when I stir up the tank moving rocks or doing maintenance now..

 

looking nice!!! Thanks for the info!! I think it's time for a bulb change myself for my prop tank.... The light doesn't seem a blue and I'm getting some GHA

 

Yea, i think my lights being old (and running them too long) were the biggest contributor to my algae problem.. second was probably poor circulation.

 

What a pretty tank! Nice job!

 

Outstanding info! Love success stories. Especially with algae--'cause then it's personal!!