Newbie Question: Green Hair Algae Problem

[cbayer]

I have it and I am not sure what to do next. I have talked to several pet shops and they say to get a phos ban reactor to control the phosphates. I have read several posts on here as well I have done several water changes and only use RO water. I also got some snails and crabs and they did a great job of removing alot of the algae but not all of it. Would it be worth the money to get phos ban reactor to remove the remaing algae and if I did do that would that remove all the remaing algae from my tank and rock. I also read some posts where people were removing their live rock and cleaning it with a toothbrush but I really dont want to remove my rock from the tank becuase I finally got it setup the way I want it but if I have to I will use that option.

 

[paneubert]

How old is the tank, what is in it, size and quantity? Water parameters? Are phosphates the only issue? Any specifics would help a lot. I don't think scrubbing will do much in the long run. And seems like a lot of work for not a lot of return. I don't have a good answer, but figured I would ask the standard questions for whoever will give you good advice.

 

[cbayer]

Sorry the tank is a 44 gallon pentagon shape, with 60lb of live rock, live sand and has a super skimmer with two powerheads. I only have a damsel and a fire shrimp in there right now and there seems to be no other problems that I know of. The tank is about a month old and I started to notice the algae about two weeks ago.

 

[JKDMan]

i had the same problem when setting up my tank .....what i did was went out and bought a lawnmower blennie ..about a 20 dollar fish he took care of the lage amounts of hair alge i had and he keeps it in check because thats what he eats

 

[Anonymous]

Green hair algae (GHA) is caused by excessive nutrients of some sort. I could be cause by over feeding, over stocking, or you water source.

First, you have to determine what is cause it and eliminate that. Then the algae usually does have to be removed manually to completely eliminate it.

When I had it in my old 75 (which was over stocked, overfeed, and used tap water) I removed the upper rocks and scrubbed them with a toothbrush and washed them off with old tank water before I returned them. I scrubbed the base rock in the tank and siphoned off the GHA while doing a WC.

I removed some fish, quit over feeding and started using RO and the GHA never came back.

Louey