hair algae advice what else can i do ?

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brad3314

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Nov 22, 2006
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Location
Tasmania, Australia
sorry i know there is already heaps of threads about this but i have tried doing what i've already read and haven't had much improvement

i have hair algae so far i've cut my lights down to around 8 hours and have been feeding less every other day or 3rd day and have been trying to squeeze the liquid out of the frozen food as this stuff makes it worse yes ?

so i've been doing this for a few weeks now i used to scrub it all off the rocks but i read that it's bad to do that so i left it and it still hasn't gone does it usually take longer than this to kill it off is there anything else i should be doing ?

and also does adding a calcium sup promote the growth of this stuff ? i didn't think it would but i thought i'd ask anyway because i usually add this every week but i haven't been the last few just incase

also water tests are just as they should be all levels at 0 ph is 8.1
and i do weekly pwc's
 
But you do FW top off for the water that is evaporated right? What kind of water is that.
 
Top off water is FW for when the water in your tank evaporates. This is usually tap or distilled water (remember, water evaporates but the salt doesn't, or at least not nearly as quickly as the water).
I agree with mel, you can probably reduce the lighting to 4 hours.
Can you update "my info" with your tank size/equipment and critters?
How old are your light bulbs?
 
i don't add any extra water it doesn't evaporate at all i do them weekly
just do the pwc and that's it until next week

i will try and do my tank details when i get a chance sorry i have been meaning to just haven't got there yet
also i probably couldn't say how old the tubes are exactly i guess that's why i should have a log book

and would turning my lights down to four hours hurt corals and the anenome at all ?
 
You mentioned that you had "cut your lights down to 8 hrs". That was probably one reason it was a little out of control. I normally have mine on for about 8 hrs. Try cutting back one hour at turn on time and one hour at turn off time. This probably won't really shock anything but will help cut back on the hair algae until you can get it under control.

I'd check your source water for phosphates.

How old are your lights? If they are over a year old, this will fuel hair algae, too.

It'll take some time, but if you do what the people on this thread say, you will have less algae after a few months. It took me 4 months to get rid of a hair algae spread I had one year.
 
I would double check your salinity. If you are only replenishing with sea water, the little bit of FW that does evaporate will effect the salinity. This may take some time, but I would watch it.

PS, this doesn't have anything to do with yor algae, but I would check for nitrAtes/phosphates from your sea water...
 
i will test the water but i'm pretty sure that at the lfs he tests it every now and again anyway when he collects it
i'll check anyway
also lights are old i know that but i'm not buying new tubes as i'm going to get a MH soon hopefully
 
Older light tend to shift or fade, the spectrum changes and that can definitely result in an algae outbreak.
 
roka64 said:
I would double check your salinity. If you are only replenishing with sea water, the little bit of FW that does evaporate will effect the salinity. This may take some time, but I would watch it.

PS, this doesn't have anything to do with yor algae, but I would check for nitrAtes/phosphates from your sea water...


test results from water i use for pwc ( natural sea water ) :

nitrate - 0
nitrite - 0
ammonia -0
phosphate - 0.1

also checked tank salinity and is sitting at 1.025

so all is good there isn't it
 
phosphate - 0.1
This is a source where your hair algae could be coming from.
I was asking about the salinity in your tank. If the water evasporates and not the salt, if you are adding more SW, the salinity will rise.
 
roka64 said:
phosphate - 0.1
This is a source where your hair algae could be coming from.
I was asking about the salinity in your tank. If the water evasporates and not the salt, if you are adding more SW, the salinity will rise.

But 0.1 is the lowest possible reading i have on the card that came with the test kit :?

and if the salinity were rising it would show on my hydrometer and like i said it's reading 1.025 which is exactly where the level indicator is on it
i have a glass one and it's all the one colour apart from where it shows a green section which is the reccomended salinity and the water sits right in the middle of the green section which is where the lfs told me it's suppose to be.

and as i said before my tank water has never evaporated at all so therefore salt levels wouldn't increase as the freshwater doesn't decrease right ?
 
brad3314 said:
and as i said before my tank water has never evaporated at all so therefore salt levels wouldn't increase as the freshwater doesn't decrease right ?
Hmmm, I have a 20G with en Eclipse12 hood and even the water evaporates out of that, even though it is totally covered. My main concern was if you are adding only SW for top offs, eventually, even your hydrometer, will show higher readings. Hydrometers are not as accurate as Refractometer http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=9957&N=2004+113761 and you may not notice the change, for a long while.
 
unless where your aquarium lies there is 100% humidity, it evaporates--I promise. It may just not be enough to notice with a hydrometer, whereas a with a refractometer you would definately be able to tell.

And when I got hair algae I changed my bulbs and never had another problem with it. Apparently factory bulbs will go bad before a year's time--at least mine did. So just in case I try to change my bulbs every 6 to 8 months to be safe.
 
yeah i guess i'll have to invest in one then but i just meant there's no visible evaporation and yep will be getting a MH soon so hopefully that'll end the problems
 
brad3314 said:
roka64 said:
phosphate - 0.1
This is a source where your hair algae could be coming from.
I was asking about the salinity in your tank. If the water evasporates and not the salt, if you are adding more SW, the salinity will rise.

But 0.1 is the lowest possible reading i have on the card that came with the test kit :?

0.1 is the same thing as .10 Normally, tests show as low as .05 or less so I bet having phosphates at .10 is your problem.
 
card looks like this and where the black lines are is where my lfs told it me it was safe mine is the very first one if not lighter

img_746878_0_01b987f9f0a1585055d7af2bf5fccff7.jpg


is this right or is that showing me there is a phosphate problem i can't see where it's coming from if i only feed a very small amount every second night and only have 3 fish it's now down to 2 now i lost the chromis
 
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