very fast spreading green hairy algae

[dsgearhart]

my mom had this tank for years so we used about 90% original water so the bacteria was already there. when i set up the 55gal salt tank i had this green hairy algae growing in under a week. any ideas on how to stop or slow this cause i don't leave lights on except maybe 2hrs a day.

 

[jstdv8]

FWIW using water from an established tank does nothing. its the live rock, live sand and mechanical filters that hold almsot all of the bacteria needed to breakdown ammonia/waste
The GHA comes from phospahtes, either introduced by feeding or simply leaching from the rocks that were allready in a high phosphate system for an extended period of time.
Cut down your feeding to every other day or every third day, and keep the rations small so that the fish eat all or msot of what is given to them immediately.
you can also add things to your tank to reduce the Phosphate like a sump with macro algae, a GFO reactor, turf scrubber, ect.
also keeping your magnesium high will also help reduce the GHA.
However, finding the source and removing it is the key far more than bandaging the problem with add ons

 

[gill again68]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jstdv8 http:///forum/thread/382032/very-fast-spreading-green-hairy-algae#post_3331501
FWIW using water from an established tank does nothing. its the live rock, live sand and mechanical filters that hold almsot all of the bacteria needed to breakdown ammonia/waste
The GHA comes from phospahtes, either introduced by feeding or simply leaching from the rocks that were allready in a high phosphate system for an extended period of time.
Cut down your feeding to every other day or every third day, and keep the rations small so that the fish eat all or msot of what is given to them immediately.
you can also add things to your tank to reduce the Phosphate like a sump with macro algae, a GFO reactor, turf scrubber, ect.
also keeping your magnesium high will also help reduce the GHA.
However, finding the source and removing it is the key far more than bandaging the problem with add ons

 

[deejeff442]

if thats alot of hair algae i'm in big trouble.
thats just the new tank bloom.

 

[florida joe]

can you post a pic of you entire tank

 

[dsgearhart]

on a full tank pic it doesn't show up cause the light does to much damage to the color quality

 

[sqwat]

starve it out .get a phsphate remover and nitrate remover or sponge.uv sterilizer 20% water change ever other day three of them.start dosing calcium and get youre alk up.kaukkweiser or "one"by polyp lab are good additivesyou probably are testing posative cause the algea is eating and absorbing it.if you have green hair algea you have phosphates.get a good clean up crew of with lots of turbo snails and blue leggers and a lawnmower blennie yellow eye tang sea hair of lettuce nudabranch.in a couple of days after last water change you will see the agea form bubbles in it .now it is dying .as it dies vaccumme up all you can till it goes.do not feed much or at all during this time.after you stop it .find out what started it in the first place.use only good ro water and salt keep youre alk and cacium steady,try to get as much coraline algea growth as possable green algea wont grow on coraline.slow feedings down.check light bulbs replace if old.lower amount of daylight a hour or two slowly.allways use a phsphate sponge of somesort once a month in youre chemi filter everything in the tank leaches phosphate and lower youre nitrates with a nitrate sponge and 15% to 20% properly aged and mixed water change a week this does no harm only helps out.get a low range phosphate tester .good luck