Green Hair Algae

[Chucky]

I'm suddenly getting wigs of algae growing all over my live rock.

My 10 gal has been running without a hitch since Nov.

What can I use/do to control the problem?

 

[Jolieve]

Skimming, aggressive water changes to outpace nutrient uptake. Addition of beneficial macroalgaes such as cheato in a refugium, manual removal and you can introduce a hermit crab (zebras and redlegs seem to work best, but be warned, zebra hermits get huge) to eat whatever's left over after you manually remove the wigs

Good luck!
J.

 

[Tarasco]

Supposedly emerald crabs can help as well, but they are sort of unreliable if you have other food items for them around.

 

[WRASSER]

sally-lightfoots will help, and do some research on the blenny family. They eat algea too.

 

[dodo99]

Emeralds worked great for me, just make sure you don't get a male. They get big and can knock over your LR and eat the odd snail or two... (IME)

G'luck
DoDo

 

[tgrindle]

I have been fighting this green monter for months, have two skimmers running, weekly changes, and 1800gph water current not counting the return line from the sump.

2-175 mh 15k lights for 10 hours
nitrates are all most 0
nitrites are almost 0
only 4 fish and the rest corals
100 lbs live rock

 

[Jolieve]

tgrindle, I assume you're using RO/DI water with a fairly low tds?

Failing that, hermit crabs and mexican turbos can be of use to you, and if you like conchs, tonga conchs eat hair algae, cyanobacteria and diatoms.

J.

 

[ricky1414]

Make sure you use quality water. I had the same problem in my tank until I checked out the type of water I had been using.

 

[Jolieve]

One more thing everyone, my hair algae bloom lasted for nine months. It set me back on stocking my tank, so my tank doesn't look anywhere near like it's two years old.

Sometimes, hair algae needs to just run it's course and it will take anywhere from six to nine months to defeat it. Be diligent in keeping up those water changes, but keep faith that sooner or later, the hair algae will deplete all of the nutrients that feed it in the system, as long as you aren't adding the nutrients that feed it back to the water column every time you do a water change.

Good luck!

J.

 

[tgrindle]

using r/o water, have 30-40 hermits, snails, redlegs,conchs, col sea slugs, you name it i have it in there but they can't keep up, I am about to dump it and sale the whole mess

 

[Chucky]

I tried a novel approach that seems to be working - I used the marina algae scraper, fitted with a razor, to cut the wigs as best I could - it removed a good 1/4 of the algae, which I pushed into the filter. I dunped in about 4 scarlet hermits, and they have grazed one of the rocks clean - the problem is that 3 other rocks have vertical surfaces. I'm aware that I have to then get the algae out of the filter so that the nutrients get out of the tank. I also added phosphate remover to the filter, and it seems to be doing the trick.

My next plan is to go out and get a 'reach' toothbrush - that ought to remove the algae. Lucky it's only a 10 gallon tank. I can imagine what it would be like if this stuff was all over a 150 gallon!!!

 

[sediener]

Chucky,

I feel your pain, i am hopefully at the end of a long battle with hair algae. I tried the critters, refugium, feeding 1x a week but it had gotten such a foothold that the only thing that seemed to work was hand picking it out of my 120G combined with wet skimming, weekly (or biweekly) waterchanges and increasing the flow to prevent reattachment. Over the last few months I have pulled probably 2-3 gallons of algae out of my tank. It is almost to the point where I am not ashamed of it anymore.

One thing, when picking, do not toss it in the filter, throw it in the trash. You will just be feeding the next generation if you don't remove it from the system completely. [edit: nevermind... just reread your post] Also try to figure out why you got the excess nutrients in the tank in the first place and remedy that. I believe that mine came from a combination of 6 yr old rock improperly cared for and not washing the food I placed in the tank before feeding. I'll be adding a phosphate reactor and cleaning the rock in the near future as I plan on re-aquascaping the tank.

Good luck,
- Steve

 

[romunov]

According to studies done on a reef, the best herbivores are fishes and sea urchins.

 

[Anonymous]

I noticed once i removed my urchin my coralline came back but then hair algae is now growing.

 

[ChrisRD]

As others have mentioned - decrease nutrient import - ie. make sure you're not overfeeding, use purified source water, don't dose unnecessary additives/liquid foods, etc., thaw/rinse frozen foods before adding to the tank (the juices are loaded with phosphates), limit use of phosphate rich foods like flake, golden pearls, etc.

Also, as mentioned, increase nutrient export - ie. better skimming, water changes, activated carbon use, etc. Make sure you have a few grazers in there that will eat the stuff (but don't go crazy adding a ton of animals that will later starve once the problem is under control).

Another helpful thing - blast the rockwork periodically with a turkey baster or powerhead. Syphon out the resulting crap when you do a water change. If you're doing all of this stuff, it's just a matter of time before you overcome it. :wink:

HTH

 

[Chucky]

PROBLEM SOLVED -

using methods mentioned above - scarlet hermits, slicing algae mats with razor and sucking it the hell out of the tank, phosphate remover...

Also, I left the lights off for a weekend out of town, and when I came back, all types of algae was almost all gone. Guess the fish/crabs got hungry enough.

Now that I know how to stay ahead of it, that is the name of the game.