Hair Algae

[Yellow Jobber]

Question - What EATS Hair Algae???

Thank you.

[roka64]

My urchins eat it, but it is best to keep up on your PWCs and water parameters, otherwise you will never completely keep it under control. A lawnmower blenny will eat it, but will quickly starve when it is gone....

[Yellow Jobber]

The tank has only been running for a month or so and has just finished cycling. Phosphates, Amonia, Nitritites are at 0 ppm. The Nitrates are also low.

The hair algae is only growing on pices of base rock which were purchased from an aquariest who took down his tank. There was no hair algae on it when we first bought it, but it had been removed from his tank prior to us purchasing it.

Thank you.

[roka64]

NitrAtes are low, after the cycle, what is the exact number? Have you done a PWC, since the cycle? You can probably just take out the piece of rock and scrub off the hair algae.

[melosu58]

Try this plan of attack. Many people have used it with great success.

http://www.fantasyreef.com/database/...d=11&item_id=5

[Sadielynn]

Originally Posted by roka64

it is best to keep up on your PWCs and water parameters, otherwise you will never completely keep it under control.

Even that is not 100% I am battleing GHA at current and can track it to a couple possibilities that started it ... However even with the good water and extra changes I feel that I have to take it down scrub the LR and then place it back in ... about a 5 hour job . Even tho I traced the reason behind it it will need to be manually extracted since I have been dealing with this for about 3 months and the water changes and tooth brush dont seem to be doing it for us ,so I will tear down the tank in the am place the fish in holding with filters and no lights , move the corals to a bin check and remove GHA scrub rinse and place into holding ... I will be replacing the tank since I chopped up the silicone on the tank with a razor and being haphazzard with it I will change out the sand and seed the new with a bit of old ....Even tho it is only in about 4-5 places I want to nip it before it gets a good foot hold ,then it is off to change my habbits as well as the families on feeding the fish .

[Lepomis]

I understand where you are coming from and it can be an overwhelming experience. I battled algae (bryopsis) after introducing some live rock rubble to my 75 gallon reef tank. Athough not hair algae many of the control methods are the same.

Removing the rock and scrubbing it down is easy and effective if the tank is small enough. Using the methods listed will work if one keeps up with it. I would also include adding additional mechanical filtration to remove fragments of algae and clean it often and something but I cringed when I thought about removing 170 pounds of rock. If you keep on top of it you can get it under control.

I found that snails ate my bryopsis once I got it knocked down to just a few mm high and from what I have read the same goes to hair algae. I don't recommend adding a fish to combat a problem unless you really want the fish. I thought about picking up a fox face lo but couldn't bring myself to getting a fish I don't like. I did pick up a starry blenny but that was on my list to get. The blenny still finds enough algae to feed himself but readily takes prepared foods. I looked into getting some urchins but from most accounts eat about everything else before the offending algae. Also from most accounts can knock over corals and dislodge smaller rock.

A few pictures of my nightmare. It took about two weeks to get it to the second picture and I will continue to keep on top of it. This is one of the rewarding parts of keeping tanks. Figuring out how to combat problems. I thought the blenny was going to explode as much as he ate and he still is a fat guy or gal.

[Yellow Jobber]

Last time I checked my nitrates were below 10 ppm and that was before a pwc. All of the causes of this problem are associated with elevated phosphate levels and the like. However my water parameters are nearly perfect and I cannot figure out what is feeding this algae bloom. The only pieces of LR that have hair algae on them are the ones I purchased from the above said aquariest. Pieces from the LFS do not.

[austinsdad]

How long do ya keep your lights on? Got coral in the tank?

If the first question's answer is more than 10 hours, cut back.
If the second is hardly any, might try cutting waaaaay back on lights for a week or so. 2 hours a day. I've heard some turn'm off for days at a time.

[Lepomis]

If the algae is using up the phosphates and nitrates as they are available the tank parameters can test good. If it is just a few pieces then scrub the rocks with a stiff nylon bristle brush. Rinse in newly made salt water and return to the tank.