Hair Algae

[Rob150]

Does anybody have an idea on how I can get rid of hair algae. I have tested my water over and over with all known tests and all is fine. I use phosguard in my sump. I have 4 green crabs, 4 pepermint shrimp, over a hundred snails, over 150 hermits, worms ect. in a 150 Reef. I don't want to break down the tank. Any help? :roll:

 

[yellowfiji]

Cerith Snails can help.

 

[Lazyreefer1]

Trust me.

Break down the tank. Scrub every rock. Make sure you have 0 phosphates. Make sure you use RO water.

Good Luck

I have tried everything ELSE!!!!
lettuce slugs 4
4 types snails
Hermits 2 types
Blennies
Emerald Crabs
Phosgaurd $50 worth
other chemicals
etc.

 

[4angel]

Getting the hair out would probably have to be physical. I think I heard of someone using phosphosorb to get rid of it as well. Believe it or not I had a Bi colored blenie that went to town on a tank of mine. No garentee youll find one so efficiant. However finding out why you have an algea bloom should be the next important thing to figure out. What are the PO levels in your tank are you useing tap distilled or RO water.? are you over feeding and not doing enough water changes, whats the skimming sittuation like.
_________________
government grants

 

[rhinox99]

My personal experience was that DI was VERY important. I had a regular RO for about 6 months and every week or so I was pulling out tons of hair algae. I bought a DI add-on and after 2 weeks, I haven't had to pull out any hair algae. I still had to remove the algae that grew before the DI but I noticed that the algae didn't reappear after I removed it

 

[Anonymous]

Rob,

Tell us more about your tank.

What is your photoperiod and type of lights?
What is your water source?
Any other animals in there besides the ones in your original post?
How much do you feed?
How old is you tank?
Have you cleaned you filters lately?

Don't break it down. That would be an absolute last resort, and way too much work. You can defeat hair algea. I'm sure just about every reefer has had to tackle it at one point.

Typical causes are overfeeding, overstocking, poor water quality, and not enough nutrient export, to name a few.

YOU have to find the right balance for YOUR system.

 

[Lurshy]

A Lawnmower Blenny and Purple Tang rid my tank of hair algae in a few days. They were among the 1st fish added to a 75 fowlr. The initial bloom may have been caused by high phosphates. The phosphates source was elminated by switching to ro/di. Performed several partial changes and ran phosguard for 3 days.

 

[oimate84]

Keeping water quality up is key. Keep doing water changes regularly and have good skimming. It is fairly common for every reefer to go through this at some point...A lawnmower blenny is a good idea, but then again some dont eat it and just die...you could try your luck though

 

[beerbaron]

I would try using a different type of phosphate remover. some work better than others. dont leave it in to long either.
HTH
BB

 

[ChrisRD]

What Louey said...

What are you doing for filtration - live rock, skimmer, live sand, all of the above?

Do you have a refugium?

Are you running any mechanical filtration?

What have you tested for and what are your numbers?

Are you using 0 TDS water for top-off and water changes?

BTW, Poly-filter will remove phosphates well - among other things.

Also Clibinarius digueti is a great hair algae eating crab, although is sounds like you've got more than enough hermits already.

You can check out the FAQs at the top of this forum for information too. There's a section on hair algae.

 

[Flukegills]

I have the same problem, ALGAE, never had it before then all at once there it is all over my nice purple live rock, i just started using SALIFERT PHOSPHATE ELIMINATOR, it binds up phosphate and is removed by skimming, it works inside your live rock, it does reduce undesirable algae growth, its working for me, i was going nuts pulling this crap off my live rock every couple of days, i find my algae is just dying off, good luck, i hope it works for you like its working for me.