Hair Algae?

[drillsar]

I have some hair algae some of it actually looks like plants, lol.

I know I need more of a cleanup crew heres what I have:

9 turbos
5 astrae
4 Nassarius
1 Emerald Crab
1 lawnmower blenny


Whats the best to cleanup the hair? Hermits? Snails?

Also Im thinking of getting a brittle star how many you suggest?

 

[Fluff]

What size tank?

 

[drillsar]

Oops LOL, its a 55gal.

 

[Fluff]

You could get a few more astrea snails but really it would be best to battle the algae at the source. If hair algae is present then chances are you have phosphates in your system. The best way to battle that is to step up water changes. Water changes will help remove the fuel source. You could also introduce some other types of macro to help eat up the nutrients so the hair has less to consume. It usually takes a bit but I did cure my hair algae problems as well as got rid of bubble algae (valonia) by doing nothing but water changes. HTH

 

[melosu58]

Most likely the best clean up crew is your self. Take a tooth brush and rubberband it to your siphon hose and gently scrub rock while you take water out for PWC. Your clean up crew will help also. It is IMO that unless it is a big crew they will need help. The main concern here is what is feeding this stuff. Are you overfeeding or high phosphates from tap or whatever ,it needs to be addressed. When I first had a tank 8 years ago I had hair algea and decided to feed every other day and get a UV for the algea spores and haven`t seen it since. Almost forgot what it looks like.

 

[Brenden]

To add to Fluffs info make sure the SW you use for WC's is phosphate free. I was testing 0 phosphate in my tank and could not figure out what the problem was until I tested my new water. Once I changed the RO filters it went away.