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Green Hair Algae
Last updated on November 17th, 2023
About Green Hair Algae
Green hair algae, also known as GHA, is a long strand of fuzzy algae that grows on the glass or rocks of the aquarium. GHA can grow quickly and starve out corals.
If left untreated, green hair algae can quickly grow everywhere in the reef tank. This can cause it to grow on or near coral, blocking them from light and killing them.
What Causes Green Hair Algae
Green hair algae is caused by excess nitrates and phosphates. When nutrients get too high, GHA will consume these nutrients and grow anywhere it can take hold.
How to Get Rid of Green Hair Algae
The majority of the long strands can be removed by hand. For the small pieces that cannot be pulled off, you can scrub them off with a cheap toothbrush. Ideally, after manual removal, a fish like a tang or rabbitfish, or large turbo snails, are used to maintain the algae while to fix the source of the problem.
There are chemical treatments, such as Flux Rx that can help kill green hair algae. Be careful using chemical treatments though. When GHA dies and breaks down, the nitrates and phosphates used to grow are released back into the water. Making these chemical treatments a very temporary solution and should only be used in severe cases after hand removal.
You can slow or even stop the growth of green hair algae by keeping a good refugium with cheato macroalgae and a strong refugium light. The macro algae will grow, and consume both nitrates and phosphates from the reef tank. The idea is that the refugium will starve the green hair algae of nitrates and phosphates, preventing it from growing as quickly.
What Eats Green Hair Algae
Thankfully, there are a lot of fish and invertebrates that eat green hair algae. Tangs, rabbitfish, lawnmower blennies, and most other algae eating fish will eat GHA. As for invertebrates, hermit crabs, cerith snails, sea hares, emerald crabs, urchins, and conchs will all eat green hair algae. The best invertebrate for hair algae though have been large turbo snails!
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