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Hair algae on live rock
- Thread starter cafebritt
- Start date
Short term approach is cleanup crews, I like Emerald Crabs.
Long term approach is to limit the nutrients feeding it.
Tell us about your tank and maintenance routine.
How big is the tank, how long has it been running? Sandbed or no? How many fish, what do you feed? Do you use RO/DI water when you topoff and mix saltwater? How much and how often do you feed.
Nitrates and phosphates fuel algae growth. What are your parameters? What type of saltmix do you use.
Long term approach is to limit the nutrients feeding it.
Tell us about your tank and maintenance routine.
How big is the tank, how long has it been running? Sandbed or no? How many fish, what do you feed? Do you use RO/DI water when you topoff and mix saltwater? How much and how often do you feed.
Nitrates and phosphates fuel algae growth. What are your parameters? What type of saltmix do you use.
Here's how I got rid of my hair algae- I upped my water changes from 10% to 20% weekly (but make sure your water is RO/DI otherwise it may be pointless). I shortened my lighting period by 2 hours and ran a Phosban reactor until the algae disappeared. I basically tried to starve it to death. Thankfully it worked.
Eric
Eric
Not sure about that - I had an algae-eating blenny that wouldn't touch hair algae ???. As Carlo has suggested, Tangs are very efficient and IMHO the best. Of course, at the same time you have to reduce the nutrients which will prevent the future growth.Rehype said:
None of my blennies would touch the stuff while I know others had good luck with them. I think it's a hit or miss with them and a couple of other types of fish.
I'm sure there are probably a few tangs out there too that wouldn't eat the hair algae but in general they are known to be good with hair algea. With that said I wouldn't add one to solve the problem unless you happen to want one anyway. I'm not a fan of adding a fish/invert to solve a problem since they need to eat after the problem is solved.
Hair algae doesn't suck phosphates out of the water as fast as many other types of algaes do. If you test for phosphates you will probably register some (above zero) unless you have some other algae or bacteria like cyano using it up which isn't likely or you wouldn't have hair algae. I wouldn't worry about reducing nitrates (from the perspective of this problem) but concentrate on reducing the phosphates which will become the limiting factor in it's growth.
Products like Phosban & RowaPhos are good but take a while to do there thing. If the phosphate levels are high they can cost a lot to use also. I like them for "maintenance" but not for reducing levels. To get the levels down quickly (but safely) I'd use a lanthanum chloride based product assuming you have a skimmer like Blue Life Phosphate Control, Korallin PO4 Minus or PhosBuster Pro. I personally buy this stuff in bulk and can sell you a bottle at cost which is easily less then 1/2 the cost if you decide to go this route.
Carlo
I'm sure there are probably a few tangs out there too that wouldn't eat the hair algae but in general they are known to be good with hair algea. With that said I wouldn't add one to solve the problem unless you happen to want one anyway. I'm not a fan of adding a fish/invert to solve a problem since they need to eat after the problem is solved.
Hair algae doesn't suck phosphates out of the water as fast as many other types of algaes do. If you test for phosphates you will probably register some (above zero) unless you have some other algae or bacteria like cyano using it up which isn't likely or you wouldn't have hair algae. I wouldn't worry about reducing nitrates (from the perspective of this problem) but concentrate on reducing the phosphates which will become the limiting factor in it's growth.
Products like Phosban & RowaPhos are good but take a while to do there thing. If the phosphate levels are high they can cost a lot to use also. I like them for "maintenance" but not for reducing levels. To get the levels down quickly (but safely) I'd use a lanthanum chloride based product assuming you have a skimmer like Blue Life Phosphate Control, Korallin PO4 Minus or PhosBuster Pro. I personally buy this stuff in bulk and can sell you a bottle at cost which is easily less then 1/2 the cost if you decide to go this route.
Carlo