Green hair Algea

[luwaynecrous]

Will using a uv filter reduce the amount of green hair algea in my tank?

 

[jacquesb]

Hi LuwayneCrous - no, mate. It won't. Only finding the main cause of the green algae, would help with getting rid of it.

This is what I have done in my 2 meter tank when I was in my old house still:
- upgraded my skimmers from a Red Sea down-draft air-stone skimmer, and a Red Sea Prizm Deluxe skimmer, to 2 x ReefOctopus TS2 skimmers
- I reduced feeding (of my fish) to once every 2 days (my fish was not less healthy)
- I also manually scrubbed my live rock, outside of my tank, to get rid of the GHA
- I used a power-head every day to blow detritus off from my live rock
- I started using a phosphate remover media (SeaChem PhosGuard in my case)
- I "cooked" (not with boiling water ) my live rock, my placing them in a clean new container with only sea water in, with a power head to move the water - I then left the live rock in there for 6 weeks - this was all in the dark. Once this have been done, the live rock was rid of GHA.....

I also "stirred" the top +-1cm of my deep sand bed in my tank, to release any / all hidden detritus - this also acted as food for my corals.....

 

[brentv]

Hey Guys has anyone tried this????
I went away for 4 days and my tank was still hectic full of green hair and a few other algeas! Hectic I promise you all over the sand everything!!!! I did a 70% water change before I left and turned off the Atinic blue T5's only left my MH250w 14000k running! True's BOB!!! when I got back about 2 days I do not have a stich of algea besides some desirable cabbage weed growing!!! Wicked cool how do you explain this???

 

[Boegie]

Great advice Jacquesb.

 

[christiaan]

Why do you think this happened brent? The light or the waterchange?

 

[viper357]

turned off the Atinic blue T5's

Strangely enough I've heard this a couple of times before, that actinics fuel algae growth, no idea if it's true or not.

 

[butcherman]

i read somewhere that algae likes blue light

 

[brentv]

Are atinics really good for any form of Coral/invert growth or just our viewing pleasure?? I honestly think it was the lighting that was fuelling the growth!!??
especially if you are running lights like mine? (250w MH 14000k globes)

 

[viper357]

Are atinics really good for any form of Coral/invert growth or just our viewing pleasure??

Yes, apparently they are almost an 'essential item', corals do need actinic light for growth, somebody posted a link to an excellent article about true actinic lighting, but I can't find it.

 

[brentv]

I thought so,
I've turned mine back on after all my algea died and it hasn't grown back....
maybe the new little 'local' gem tang is helping