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hair algae

I have a 20 long and the hair and macro algae are out of control. I bought a sea hair but he doesn't seem to be doing his job. The macro is easily removed but the hair algae is not so easy. Anyone have any tips or methods of removing this without taking all rock out and scrubbing it.
 
Get another sea hare. I've heard mixed reviews with them. Some eat and some don't. See if you can trade it in or just buy another one. I'm sure you'll find one that will clean the tank.
 
also, as is always the case... in order to get rid of it and keep it away you must figure out why you have it (this from the woman with a small byposis issue right now) but make sure you're keeping up on your water changes, your bulbs aren't to old, you're using RODI water, you have enough flow etc. Otherwise you'll find something to get rid of it but it'll keep coming back.
 
RonnieB1089 said:
I have a 20 long and the hair and macro algae are out of control. I bought a sea hair but he doesn't seem to be doing his job. The macro is easily removed but the hair algae is not so easy. Anyone have any tips or methods of removing this without taking all rock out and scrubbing it.

This seems counter...intuitive to me...the macro should theoretically uptake the nutrients before hair algae were to grow. Maybe I am wrong...(which is common). What kind of flow do you have in the 20 long? Also how often are you feeding and are you using a skimmer? frequency of water changes? using ro/di as top-off? Sorry for all the questions... :p
 
I too have a hair algae problem, a major one. It's so bad right now that if it wasn't for the love of the hobby I would just give up. I had a convo with my wife today, and all she wants is for me to take down my tank. I can't let hair algae break up a love affair between me and my tank, lol.

No seriously, I do have a hair algae problem and I'm working to get it together. I believe my problem is my bulbs and infrequent water changes. I'm about to get out the brushes, and clean my rock. then I plan to just keep the lights off til I can get some new bulbs.

As for advice, there's plenty online and here, some things work and some things don't. You could try a sally lightfoot, mollies and emerald crabs, all of them work great. Also change your water as often as you can. But until you pin point the source, be it water, bulbs or food, you will be fighting a battle.

I hope you all the best in your battle

rev
 
If you're not using RODI water, that maybe the problem right there and if you are you should buy a tds meter or check the RODI water's phosphates.

I know Subliminal had a major problem with hair algae and it was because he was using tap water in his tank.

Alot of the members that have smaller tanks don't see the need to get an RODI for a 10 gallon water change. In this case you should purchase RODI water from your local LFS.
 
Rev didn't you just move your tank not to long ago? Did you use the same sand? I found when I switched out tanks I released some nitrates and phosphates that was buried in the sand and it caused a algae bloom, I skimmed wet and under fed my inhabitants for 3 weeks til it was gone.
 
I do use RO/DI water and have brand new T5 bulbs. Water change is 25% every two weeks. I rarely feed the tank since I only have one fish. I purchased the tank set up already and it had a small amount of macro algae present. Like I said this is easily removed. The hair algae just bloomed about one month ago and is progesively getting worse as time goes by. Now it is choking some of the zoa's and others in the tank. I have an aquaC remora skimming wet too. I am considering taking the sand out and scrubbing the rocks and then putting everything back in and cutting down the length of time the lights are on dialy. DOn't know if this will do it but willing to try.
 
I think that is a reasonable plan you have - it could be that something was disturbed in the sandbed to have caused a slow release of nutrients you didn't anticipate showing up.
 
Bulbs? Very interesting...

I know that it is recommended to change all of them every 12 Mos, (except for t-5?)but I would like to know more about its specific effects in regards to algae.

I'm going on 13 Mos with my 130W PCs. Please expound.

Thanks,

Erik
 

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Just after that point we started getting cyano like crazy in our 65. As soon as we changed our PC bulbs (that only get 6-9mo life before the color shift starts) the cyano went away. Like clockwork.
 
hey guys. I forgot to mention. My nitrates are 0 and my phosphates are 0.1. What else can be the culprit for causing this algae to take off.
 
Hey Sinkingbeach

I just set it back up about 2 months ago, and I didn't use the old sand, I gave that away and wish I didn't because it was full of life. I used play sand from H/D, the white one, maybe that's the problem. I had my water tested at Trop about 2 weeks ago and everything was find, yet I still had h/a. I try and buy water from trop for water changes and top offs and I try to feed every 2-3 days, So the only thing I can think of is the bulbs. They are old and need to be swapped out anyway. I bought some mollies, hoping they would eat the stuff, but they pick but nothing big. I need to get something else to get rid of it, a emerald crab, some more crabs, snails. etc. I'm about to take out the rock and scrub it down to get rid of some of it. Until then, my tank will be sitting in the basement and my wife will be talking trash, any more suggestions?
 
I had a hair algae problem when i first started out. I bought 3 large turbo snails and believe it or not they got rid of it. They mowed it down like grass. Maybe i got lucky.

Harry
 
Cool HarryK

will get more turbos, I also spoke with Austin at trop who said that zebra stripe snails also do a good job, they just didn't have any. I can't wait for the next group buy on critters, definitely helped me the last time I had a outbreak. And believe it or not, the bulbs I had then were old pc's. Could the lights really have something to do with the whole issue?

rev
 
I have been told in the past is also to watch for silicates,I too had problems with hair and cyno,I had 0 nitrates and 0.1 phosphates,changed the flow(added more pumps etc) did reg water changes, went RO,changed lights,bought cleanup crews,changed the lighting schedule, changed chemicals,bought a bigger skimmer,pulled out lotsa hair,kicked the tank stand,then finally the day came when it"went away"what I guess Im trying to say here is,theres many reasons why it might happen,but if you stick it out and try to keep perimiters in check it should "go away" good luck and dont give up ;)
 
Did somebody say "hair algae"? Does yours look THIS bad?
Tank4-25-07.jpg


That's how my tank looked about 4 weeks or so after I started. :-[

---
Wendy
 
Can you take a picture of it now, sorry to say that would have driven me out of the hobby :-X

JerseyWendy said:
Did somebody say "hair algae"? Does yours look THIS bad?
Tank4-25-07.jpg


That's how my tank looked about 4 weeks or so after I started. :-[

---
Wendy
 
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