Hair in tank bad?

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RYANLAWRENCE

Aquarium Advice Freak
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Jun 2, 2010
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The Lone Star State
I just recently set up my quarantine tank and today I turned on the light for the first time and the water has a lot of hair (I'm guessing cat hair from my cat) in it. Do I need to just discard all the water? I tried netting it out but it didn't work well. Would hair harm a fish?
 
I'm not sure, but if a quarantine tank has any inhabitants, the water should be changed every other day I think
 
We have 3 dogs and 2 cats.. We occasionally get hair in the tank and it doesn't seem to cause too much trouble. The tang will sometimes bite at it but it usually just ends up in the skimmer. I wouldn't want to run a bunch of it through my pumps though.
 
As long as your cat's hair hasn't been treated with anything (shampoo, conditioner, flea meds, etc...) You should be fine. As Maya said, the only real issue is that it could clog up your pumps or wrap itself around the impellar shaft causing it to bcome stuck. Just check on the impellars of all pumps every now and then and you will be OK.
 
It's just a quarantine tank so there's not any pumps, just a small powerhead and a sponge filter. The tank is currently empty too. I was just worried that the hair could irritate the fish's gills or something. I don't know how it got in the tank I have a lid completely covering the top
 
Lol. Pet hair is insidious, it can get anywhere. As the Powerhead runs it will collect around the intake. Just manually clean it off occasionally and you should be good to go.
 
Ya I agree hair does get everywhere, I would just take a few cups of water out by skimming the top of water and clean all pumps. can u not get a lid with a flap very handy as it's just natural for cats to hunt and catch easy prey, I just recently had to make a top lid for my pond because of cats.
Good luck anyway.
 
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