hair algae?

[badassapd]

i have been trying to get rid of hair algae and it is starting to bother me and suggestions. I am using a rodi unit doing 5 gallon water changes every week slowed down feeding got a protein skimmer cut hours of lights to be on trying it all now i am going to get new bulbs..
I need 2 65 watt 10k straight pin cf and 2 65 w attinic straight pin and ideas and advice??

 

[NYreefNoob]

algea

wgat type of food do you feed and how often ? also i would suggest getting a seahare and some large mexican turbo's, is the tank close to a window in the house ? or under a light in the room ?

 

[Bob 1000]

How long have you been running the bulbs you have now??

 

[badassapd]

i feed frozen shrimp and mycs every other day the bulbs run about 8 hours a day. no windows no lights nothing

 

[NYreefNoob]

algea

do you rinse the food ? i put my frozen food on a napkin and let it thawl it also absorbs the water which usually is high in phos. i had a hair algea out break and pulled most of the rock and brushed it clean, as well as bought about 30 mexican tubo's the large one's and a seahare, took about a month to get it under control, turn lights off for a few days as long as you dont have sps and dont feed for a few days

 

[nanoreefer22]

How big is the tank?

 

[badassapd]

72 GALLON bow with 150 pounds live rock. i took 2 pieces out and scrubbed with steel wire brush and no good i rinse and dry hen feed.. i am going to try to get sea hare and mex snails thank you i

 

[Bob 1000]

The brushing process takes a while but it's one of the only true methods to get it off, if turning the light off for 5 days is not an option...And watch out for cycling if you scrub all the rocks in one day....You shold probably scrub the rocks off over the course of a week...

 

[nanoreefer22]

Maybe you could try slightly larger, 15gallon water changes weekly. 5 gallons is a really small percentage or your tank. If you have a sump/fuge then it's even less.

 

[fluidimagery]

Adding the protein skimmer was a great move. Next look into a phosban reactor if you can swing it.

See if any local reefers have a Hanna PO4 Meter to test your top off water as well as the salt water.

Manually remove any hair algea you can. Buy 5 or so mexican turbo snails - larger the better. Nothing is going to eat the long stuff. Pick up a sea hare if you can find one. Ask the LFS to see if you can bring them back to the store when they've done their job. A sea hare wont survive without a continual supply of the hair algea... same goes for the turbos. Keep 1 or 2 of the 5.

Rinse the food in a brine shrimp net before you feed as there's a lot of PO4 in the liquid they're frozen in.

Key is to find the source of the algea food and limit it as much as you can. Maybe turn up the percentage of water changes if the PO4 in the makeup water comes out good.

I always assumed Tropic Marin (said to be the best) was phosphate free (as advertised) 3 weeks ago I tested my RODI water at .02 and the Makeup water .16... Every time I was doing a water change I was adding Po4 to my tank.

 

[kenske]

When my nanocube was cycling, it had bad hair algae problem. I would pluck'em, change water, manually put snails directly on problem areas. Yet the algae keeps coming back. I then added a emerald crab to the tank. In less than a week all hair and bubble algae is gone. It never came back till this day. Not sure if the crab is still alive, although i did see it a few weeks ago.

 

[badassapd]

thanks for all the good post..

 

[CaptainAndy]

Raise your Mg to above 1500 and the hair algae will disappear within a couple of weeks. No deleterious effect on reef. Only thing that works for me. No luck with nudis, foxface, mega cleanup crew, even 48 hours dark periods

 

[duke62]

is it me, my hermits eat that like crazy.i bought a piece of rock from a reefer that had hair algae on it and they feasted till it was no more.:eat:

 

[Elfili]

Where is the tank located? My 72 bow is in the dining room wall and our condo faces east, so the tank gets additional light in the mornings. Didnt think much of it at first, but there was a period when I'd come home and notice how fast the algae would build up. After realizing this, I made sure the curtains covered the unwanted light exposure. I suppose this took care of my skewed photoperiod. Also, do at least a 15 gal. water change (like some of the other people had mentioned) and while you're at it, see if you can siphon some of the hair algae.
I know its frustrating and I nearly picked up a 6 inch seahare at a local LFS just to take care of it, but since I made those changes, its turned around.

Hope that helps. Good luck!

 

[Paul B]

You can buy sea hares, urchins, tangs, foxfaces and grenades :irked: but they will only clear up algae temporarilly. The algae goes into a sea hare on one end and you can watch it come out the other end as nice squashed up fertilizer. Whenever there is nitrate, phosphate, iron and a couple of other things, there will be algae. If there is no algae what so ever, than your reef may not be as healthy as you think it is.
Algae grows on all healthy reefs. In the sea the animals eat it and the wastes get dispersed in the unlimited volume of the sea. In your tank, it just stays there. You can change water which "may" help (depending on whats in your make up water) or you can try a lighted refugium or you can wait it out and keep manually removing it. It comes in cycles and it will most likely all die off soon. That is the reason why there are all these algae "cures". Because after a cycle, it dies no matter what you do.
I have been getting these cycles of algae since the sixtees. Sometimes they last for a couple of months and I am algae free for a year or two. I don't add snails or anything else and it disappears whenever it exhausts whatever it needs to grow.
I do however have a lighted refugium of sorts.
Don't get crazy, you can buy sea hares and all of those other animals if you like them but if you read all of the hundreds of posts of the various methods to eliminate algae you will be amazed.
Paul
PS now all of you guys can beat me up

 

[2Sunny]

Controversial fight picking . . .

Nothing like a good ole' fashioned brawl, heh?:Starwars:

Anyways, I am VERY opiniated, and since I'm always right I think my opinion should count for more than all these other duds . . . oops did I say duds . . . I meant dudes . . . no really. :sgrin:

Seriously though I believe whole heartedly there is a simple process to follow as demonstrated time and time again for an algae free environment:

1) Make sure your tank is cycled.
2) Don't overstock the tank.
3) Buy an appropriately sized skimmer.
4) Change 10 to 20% of your water monthly at a minimum. (RO/DI water only)
5) Don't overfeed.
6) Keep a cleanup crew.
7) Run a small amount of carbon and/or Rowaphos.

For the tank that has gone beyond "normal" algae levels I believe you have little choice accept to overwhelm the problem with an oversized cleanup crew. My personal suggestion for a 72 gallon tank would be two Reeftopia packages one number 204 and one number 207 and a Kole Tang. Keep half and sell the rest. If you try this and it doesn't work I will personally eat my words and your algae.

Legal disclaimer: Any opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not represent true knowledge in any shape or form, and should someone take offense at any or all stupid attempts at humor or seriously disagree with the manner in which said opinions are expressed then :tongue1:


Joe

 

[Tito]

How about just letting nature take its course:letitallo

 

[Arrg]

I don't know if anybody has posted it yet but I had a 72 that had like 5 pounds of hair algae on it when I got it, :p I could not keep it down I tried everything until I picked up some lettus nudis dude they did the trick in like a month or two it was amazing.

 

[Paul B]

Sunny, you are correct. All of the things you mention are what normal aquarium practice is. Most people do these things and many of them still get hair algae.
As for "Lettuce Nudi's" there is no such thing. There are lettuce "slugs" and they do not eat hair algae. I raise them and recently published an article about them
http://www.breedersregistry.org/Articles/baldassano2004/SolarPoweredSlug.htm

As a matter of fact, they don't "eat" anything. They suck the chloroplasts out of bryopsis and use the cells in their own skin to manufacture food from light. They are called Solar powered slugs.
I had over 100 of them in my 100 gallon reef and I still had plenty of hair algae.
Your algae would have disappeared without your "nudi's)

As was said, you can also let nature take it's course which may work eventually but it is much faster if you manually remove as much algae as you can. You only need to eliminate one essential nutrient to eliminate algae. If you use a clean up crew, you need to change a lot of water to get the nutrients out after they go into the animal. No matter what you do , you will not be able to eliminate all of the nutrients. If you did you would also kill your corals which harbor symbiotic algae.
I just love these discussions.
Have a great day.
Paul