Attack of the hair algae

[mtlion]

Hello everyone!! I recently had a VERY bad outbreak of hair algae in my tank, but by cutting down on the timing of lights and adding Phos-Ban to take my Phosphates to 0 I have dramatically reduced the amount. Now I do use RO/DI water and I rinse my frozen food before feeding (1 frozen cube every other day for tang, 2 clowns, goby, and 2 cleaner shrimp...1/4 sheet of sea veggies every day for the tang). I do 10G water changes every 2 weeks. My water parameters are good (PH 8.4, Alk within limits, Nitrate/Nitrites 0, Ammonia 0, and phosphates are now at 0, salinity at 1.023) I still have small patches here and there but what troubles me most are the small patches on the sand. They seem to have lessened but not gone away. Should I use a sifter and try to get the patches out manually or just give it time to go away on it's own?

[ogden10]

If you can scoop it out easily go for it. Also I would think about adding some more "clean up crew". Snails will go a long way towards keeping the algae at bay.

[melosu58]

Remember that it didnt happen over nite and it`s not going to go away over nite. Remove as much as you can manually. It sounds like you`ve made some good strides.

[mtlion]

Cool, thanks for the advice everyone!

[mtlion]

I currently have 5 turbos, several margaritas, and some cerith snails. Think I should buy more turbos and cerith on my next pilgrimage to That Fish Place in August.

[ogden10]

Are they pretty big sized? I have 4 large zebra stripped turbos in my 72 and they do a really good job staying on top of the algae. I personally find that the little guys are good for gravel and such, but the bigger ones are really effective on glass, overflow, and LR.

Short answer is yes, I think you could def have more. Also you could look into something like a lawnmower blenny if you want to add another fish, or have room. They are champs at algae, and I think pretty cool looking fish to boot.

[mtlion]

I was thinking of a bi-color blennie on the next fish buying trip, I have read that they eat hair algae.

[panza]

turbos should plow right through it just trim it short with ur hands then the turbos will FEAST!

[juice28]

I have 2 turbos..i mean really large! and like 10 smaller snails that do pretty good about algae, hiar algae does like high flow also

[Tank2379]

I have 2 Mexican Turbo's in My 72 Bow. and about 25 Astera Snails... Also if you can try adding a Yellow Eyed Kole Tang He'll Polish off all your Hair Algae at least for me he does... JMO...

[melosu58]

Originally Posted by Tank2379

Also if you can try adding a Yellow Eyed Kole Tang He'll Polish off all your Hair Algae at least for me he does... JMO...

He does for me also but remember you really want to find the fuel factor for this algea. Just adding livestock for algea is only a bandaid solution. Read this and see if you can find the fuel source.

FantasyReef Databases-Viewing item "10 Step Plan for Nuisance Algae Control"

[mtlion]

I have checked out the article and am at a loss as to what is causing the problem. The weird part is the left part of my tank is basically free of hair algae but the right side is still going strong. I have no sunlight in my room due to light blocking curtains and still have the lights on a short cycle, this is pretty frustrating!!

[mtlion]

Also have a yellow tang, so a kole tang is out