Green hair algae battle

[Shilpan]

Got a nice little collection of diatoms and green hair algae growing in my new (added fish like a week ago) tank. 400L tank, 2 clowns, one leather coral, one random astrea, not gonna add anything till algae is controlled.

So the diatoms should just disappear, and the green hair algae will need some work. I'll pull out any big clumps if I get those later, andleave everything else. Now my question is, are nitrates 20ppm sufficient to eventually beat this algae?

Now I've gotten phosphates down with Seachem Phosnet. The nitrates are being reduced by macroalgae, skimmer and purigen. The refugium is growing like mad haha. Feeding is well, I'm syringing or dropping food peacewise to make sure everything is eaten. And even then I feed 6-8 mini pellets max a day. Oh and tank light skin (4x54W T5's are on for 8 hours a day).

I haven't actually done any water changes, because it still hasn't been 2 weeks since I added my fish (I'll be doing 10% biweekly). When I water change I'll siphon and scrape off algae off walls, not rocks.

So yeah that's what I'm doing. Nitrates at 20ppm, is this ok? Or to beat algae do you have to go even lower?

 

[lmforbis]

I have found that when tanks are new the hair algae comes and goes then come and go again over and over until things stablize. Diatoms come then go and don't come back. My nitrates are pretty high, between 25 and 50, haven't checked in a couple weeks. I run gfo which keeps phosphate good chaeto in the fuge grows well. As my tank matured the hair algae went away and stopped coming back despite issues with nitrates. While it was there I did pull some of it off when it got long.

 

[Shilpan]

I see, so patience is key.

Actually I'm a little concerned, the long wavy strands look like little ferns up close. When I google pictures, it doesn't look like bryopsis or GHA, like something in between. I'll chuck a picture up tomorrow sometime...

Ahh maybe I'll have a bryopsis battle on hand ...
Or im just misidentifying it. It's growing in little clumps from a central points. Lots of thin wavy long strands, each like a tiny fern if they're long. Strange though these first popped up BEFORE I added in my macroalgae or coral or fish. So it would've come in on the 500g of live rock that I added? Darn I inspected that too..

 

[Shilpan]

Ok ignore my panic. I found a few posts online, it's not bryopsis. What I have is fern like, but not fern like enough to be bryopsis. Lol someone described it as "new tank weirdness".

Lol sorry noob panicking. Anyway yes, stick to regular maintance and ill keep doing what I'm doing.

Thank you

 

[2quills]

That's why I make it a priority to leave the lights off in the display until nitrate, phosphate and silica are under control.

What is your light schedule for the refugium?

 

[lmforbis]

Briopsis and hair algae will both come and go early on. Briopsis is stiffer than regular hair algae when you touch it.

 

[Shilpan]

Here it is
Sorry that's the best my camera can do. Refugium lights are 18 hours a day to give the chaeto 'rest time'.

Ahh ok this is not stuff at all, very soft and wavy. Pulls off very easily from the attached structure.

And if it says green hair then that's fine. I'm sure slowly with the schedule above it'll go away. If it's bryopsis then maybe not.

 

[2quills]

Looks like common hair algae but there are dozens of so called hair algae and briopsis is one of them.

In my experiences I've set up and re set up tanks multiple times over the last 6 years or so and hair algae doesn't typically just go away on its own without some help from either livestock or manual removal. But if you set your system up right you can prevent it from coming back.

I would however reduce the light cycle in the display. I didn't think you'd be adding coral this soon. if that stuff starts growing out of control it will probably out compete the chaeto.

 

[Shilpan]

Oh yup, my friend just gave me a leather coral and it says growing so damn well. Opened up within a day of adding it and started growing in size. But yeah if I have to cut the lights back and it dies no worries. Would rather get algae controlled first.

Sweet I'll reduce to 6 hours and manually remove off the rocks every 2 weeks with water change, and off the glass every day with scrubbing.

 

[Shilpan]

Oh actually how much would you reduce lights to? I do get ambient sunlight on the tank during the day. But very little direct sunlight.

 

[Lapang]

...or maybe u wanna get a nice foxface later on....

 

[Shilpan]

I would love one!!

But yeah can't at the moment. I will get nitrates down to say 10-15ppm. Easy, since I only have 2 clowns and they eat 1/4 a cube and 15-20 pellets a week max. So should get on top of the algae eventually

 

[Lapang]

just realized frm your first post you got leather coral...ime, my foxface harassed my leather till it won't open, in the end had to take out the leather....

 

[Shilpan]

Thanks for the advice! Yeah no worries, to be honest at this stage I probably shouldn't be keeping any corals. I just got it for free so I put it in (after dipping and inspecting ofc). It's doing well though, opens up and jiggles from time to time.

I'm probably 6-8 months off a fox face anyway. Over the next 6 months I want to add one lawnmower blenny, one bicolour blenny, and a firefish. Maybe a goby too. So like one a month.

P.s algae update, been keeping nitrates at 10-20ppm, algae growth has slowed a lot, new ones not popping up much now and 95% of what's left has turned brown.