[Todd L]

Hey gang!
Recently I started having an issue with green hair algae. (I think?) I've had my tank for 4 years now, and have always maintained the parameters pretty well so I've never run into this before.

A month or so ago I noticed some of my coraline bleaching white, and read here that bleaching can be a normal thing so I never really gave it too much thought...I still have LOTS of it growing in new places on the glass, etc., and it's a vibrant purple.

I noticed today after coming home from work that I now have a lot of green (what looks like hair) algae all over a LOT of my LR. It's started a few weeks ago, and I have cut down on my lighting cycle most days, from about 8 to maybe 4-5). My nitrates are at 0ppm, and my phosphates are somewhere between .1ppm and 0. Calcium, ph and alk are all in line as well. Now I have been slightly lax on my water changes, but am still doing about 20-25% a month which should be ok, no??

I only have 1 clown and 1 damsel in the tank, as well as maybe 16 or so snails and maybe 8 hermies. I only feed once a day..sometimes every other day, and not a lot when I do. So there shouldn't be too heavy a bio load right?

I have a small HOB fuge that I have a decent amount of chaeto in, as well as having a rather large amount of it tucked between the LR and back of the main tank. I try to prune it out every so often as lots of junk seems to come out of it when I move it around that clouds the water for a bit. I've not wanted to outright get rid of all the chaeto cause it's loaded with pods, a number of tiny brittle stars and a good number of bristle worm colonies.
I also have a good amount of PhosBan in one of those flow-through tubes, which is actually feeding my HOB fuge. I've had it running for about a week now.

My questions are these.....
Is having that much chaeto in the tank not good? It seems to be thriving and everything I've read here says that's good, but it also seems full of fuzzy-ness that clouds up when I move it around...is that detritus?? I've not seen pics of chaeto that look like this...kind of fuzzy.

Also...the clown and damsel have pushed up a good amount of my sand bed on one side of the tank to a depth of about 6 or so inches, as compared to the 2 inches throughout the rest of the tank....can this be a factor?

I'm just wondering what I can do here....nothins much has really changed in my maintenance of the tank, but now I've got all this green growth! Should I take each rock out one by one and scrub the stuff off?? Is that a reasonable option?

Sorry for the long post here...you all have been great in the past here when I've had issues....hope someone can offer some suggestions!

Thanks!
Todd

[Todd L]

I saw somehow the heading for my post changed to *red slime algae*...not quite sure how that came about, but it's not red slime I have. My original heading made reference to hair algae.
thanks for the input tho! This board has been very helpful in the past, so not quite sure why the silence this go around.
I've decided to keep my lights off the majority of the day and see how that goes for a week. If not much of a change I'll do the individual rock scrub thing. I'm assuming that should be done in salt water?

thanks all

[N9CQB]

I've battled the same for the better part of the past 2 months.
IMO change 20% water now. How old are the lights? Is the tank near a window?
I'm not sure about the cheato b/c I have no experience using it.
Scrubbing the LR can be done a few at a time in the 20% water that you are changing out. I've used a plastic storage bin or large garbage container for that.
My problem was also helped along by inadequate DO in the tank. Had no surface agitation & the tank was covered all the time. Put egg crate in place of the glass cover & directed the PH upward to agitate the water surface. Algae went away after a few weeks.
Hope some of this helps

[Todd L]

Thanks Doug,
The lights are only a month or so old, and the tank gets no sun at all. I'm doing water changes, and as well have always had some level of surface agitation...so we'll see! My cover is also a single piece of acrylic that was leftover when I built my HOB fuge...it doesn't cover the entire tank.
I'm going to wait another week or so and see how it is, then try some of the scrubbing.

[Mr_X]

all algae is the result of excess nutrients.
the junk that is coming off of your macros is detrius. the large bristleworm population along with the visible detrius is proof that you are putting in more nutrients than you are taking out.

water changes with good source water is the best defense. i'd shake the macros around before you do your waterchange, to get as much of that crap out of the tank as possible.


btw- "red slime algae" is not even algae. it's cyanobacteria.

the month or so ago when you noticed the coralline bleaching white- did this happen just after you got the new lights?
changes in light intensity can kill off coralline.

you can't have too much chaeto in the tank, unless the lack of light from it being so thick, is killing the chaeto at the bottom.


taking the rock out and scrubbing it off won't solve this problem.