Removing green hair algae!

[herpencounter]

Well thanks to you guys all my brown diatoms are gone tyvm.

Now I have some green hair algae .

I have 2 Mexican turbo snails (might get 1 or 2 more).
Have a Phosphate & Silicate remover (PhosGuard).
4 or 5 Astrea snails.
6 red hermit crabs.
29 galls.

I know the Mexican turbo snails eat this stuff like there is no tomorrow and the red hermits do very little to this.

15% water change every week.

Any info you got will help much.
Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

Keep removing it and doing water changes. Keep the nutrient inport low and the export high.

You need to find the source of the algae before you can get rid of it.

What do you feed?
Skimmer?
Other husbandry?

 

[herpencounter]

What do you feed?- nothing to feed
Skimmer?- No skimmer (im thinking of getting 1)
Other husbandry? Ask me a question and ill tell you.

 

[Anonymous]

OK - How old is the tank? No fish at all to feed?

No chemicals?

What are your water parameters?

Do you blast the rocks to get the detritus suspended for water changes?

I recommend a good skimmer.

 

[bubblepuffer]

I think Algae or Lawnmover goby will love those .. but after few years they might give up eating it.

 

[herpencounter]

OK - How old is the tank? No fish at all to feed?- no fish 7 to 8 months.
No chemicals?- Prime and AquaSafe when I put water in or water changes.
Do you blast the rocks to get the detritus suspended for water changes?-
What do you mean by blast?

 

[Anonymous]

Use a powerhead of turkey baster to get the detritus out of the rock.

What is Prime and AquaSafe?

Do you use RO/DI?

 

[Anonymous]

I looked up those chemicals. IMO do not use them and get a RO/DI system instead.

 

[herpencounter]

I use RO/DI.

I have used Prime and AquaSafe for idk long time.
AquaSafe removes heavy metals (such as copper).
Prime I use if I have Ammonia, Nitrite & nitrates (along with a water change).

 

[herpencounter]

Specific Gravity- 1.023
Temperature- 79.3 to 80.1
PH- 8.3
KH- 9
N02- <0.3 mg/l
Ammonia- 0 mg/l

 

[herpencounter]

What hermit crabs will eat this off the sand (the red hermit crabs wont).

 

[bleedingthought]

Hair algae on sand?! :?

 

[herpencounter]

Yes! Why?

 

[bleedingthought]

Never heard of that.

 

[herpencounter]

hmm. I had it in my 20g (green hair on sand) when it was cycling but went away really quick.

 

[pcardone]

If you think about your situation logically. your doing things right. parameters are ok? you have a pocket or dirty area thats producing more nutrients than you can counter attack. you need to clean your tank. Your sand is suspect. I agree with Rob the reefkeeper.use a powerhead or something to clean all the rocks. you will know when you find a dirty one. alot of times they are in areas that don't have good water flow and stuff builds up. When I clean my tank,I float a piece of filter mesh in my intake for a week to catch the garbage.

 

[bleedingthought]

hmm. I had it in my 20g (green hair on sand) when it was cycling but went away really quick.

It sounds like cyanobacteria.

 

[herpencounter]

you need to clean your tank- I do 5g water change every Saturday (yesterday I did the blast thing on the rock)

Your sand is suspect- If your saying its not clean I always sift thru the sand in water change.

use a powerhead or something to clean all the rocks- ill do this every water change now (turkey baster).

you will know when you find a dirty one- well nothing much came off but the hole tank as of now has water flow every where.

 

[herpencounter]

I have 2 picture one is of the sand with some hair (most is gone from water change yesterday).

And my only turbo snail (one dead RIP).

 

[herpencounter]

OK im having a really hard time with this nothing is going away the sand is bad today yesterday was fine... errrrr need something to clean sand other ideas.

Im going to see if I can get a small skimmer in the next few days.