Green Hair Algae Info

Joined
28 Dec 2007
Posts
12,781
Reaction score
31
Location
JHB
Now this is a great GHA elimination article, written in layman's terms.

If you not interested in reading the whole article, how are some points that are very interesting: "

A quick recap of what went wrong:
  • Failed to cook base rock before adding to large tank
  • Inadequate flow to keep detritus in suspension
  • Inadequate flow to move detritus through the system to the skimmer
  • Rocks placed directly on sand bed
  • Failure to blow detritus off rocks and properly remove from sand bed
  • Rocks placed in a tank on auto pilot for too long
  • Failing to cook rocks before adding them to a new tank
  • Lack of consistent skimming"
"I feel that changing feeding habits was likely one of the three most important changes I made."

"I really believe that time, attention to detail in the tank, typical husbandry and algae eradication measures aided in the success with hair algae. But, I feel that learning about the tank in particular, rather than a blanket method of husbandry, led to the success of beating hair algae. I still do three large water changes a month, blow the rocks off with a powerhead twice a week, siphon detritus at each water change and continually change things, but progress is always found right after a little failure."

Source: Green Hair Algae by Stephen Hopple - Reefkeeping.com


Includes nice info on cooking Live Rock
 
Great article Warr :) im sure many of our members will benefit from it
 
Great article Warr,i learned a quit new thinks about the shitty problem which can be algae problem...think,how many people had stop it the wonderfull hobby cause of algae and i really do belive there where some divorcing stories causing by algae growth...i remember now,someone on a different forum tryed to tell us ,that there is not such a thing like measuring the phosphate level if we not owning a labolatory...maybe it's time to find a wife which is labolatory worker...not for me of course,im not so egoist...hehe...for the futur of reef keeping...one think is sure ,the right skimmer its very usefull toy...see ya...Raphael...
 
OK - here's my input:
Nearly ALL newbie reefers don't know nothing about reefkeeping..... Especially not about cooking live rock....

I have found that 90% of either GHA, bryopsis or BOTH, are caused by spores settling on live rock, where there is hidden detritus, leaching PO4 (phosphates) directly in the vicinity of the live rock, fueling the GHA/bryopsis to grow.... This mostly contained then, to THOSE rocks that have the "hiddedb detritus".....

Live rock should be "cooked" (in short, left in solitary confinement in a small'ish, container, with sea / salt water, with only a power-head for at least 3 weeks to 6 weeks.... the longer the better. You will see the "detritus" being consumed by the bacteria, and just being "dropped" outside the live rock on the bottom of the glass tank.....

It seems that nearly 90% of "GHA" problems are being caused by this....
 
thanks for the article warr.glad that I discovered MASA before i spent all my money and effort on algea.:whistling: i've been following your advice on reefkeeping for 5 months now and must admit that I've learnt so much!my live rock has been cooking for 4 weeks now and I'm starting my tank at the end of the month:yeahdude: :slayer:
 
Andreas, great to hear you almost up and running. Have you got a thread of your tank build ?
 
Excellent, thanks Warr. Learned a lot on that thread.
 
Hey All Out There. Im New To This Site. Is There Anyone Who Has A Cure Or Remedy For Algae Both Green And Black In A Tropical Tank??
 
Algae

Thanks Warr,

Will Try But This Algae Is Really Stubborn. We Do Water Changes Weekly Or At Least Fortnightly. Approx 25%. We Have A 2.5m Tank With Mostly Carnivorous Ciclids In. Have Plenty Cats. Have Seen That Phosphate Remover Could Work. Where Would I Get This? Also That Chaetomorpha Grown In A Sump Will Control Tha Algae, Phosphates And Nitrates. But Dont Know Where To Find It..
 
Haven't heard of Chaetomorpha growing in freshwater, I think it is a seawater algae.
 
Warr i hope you dont me commenting on your find...
Awesome Artical
Great Information if you stick to it
Very easy to follow for us newbies...
 
Yoh for a moment there i thought that the LR had to really be cooked. (pot, boiling water, stove)
So is curing the same thing as cooking?
 
Back
Top Bottom