hair algae problem

[tripleup05]

Ok so I have done a search on eradicating hair algae, and pretty much everything I find says to bring down nutrient levels and phosphates. Well, nitrates are almost zero and phosphates are zero. And I KNOW I haven't been overfeeding my fish because I havent hardly touched my tank in the last two months due to a broken leg. Nevertheless, the sand bed is pretty well carpeted and even the walls of the walls of the tank are blanketed by thick strings on the stuff. I never had a problem with hair algae until I put on more powerful lights back in March or so, and then when it appeared on the sand bed i would just siphon it out. But since I havent been able to do much in the last two months, it has taken over. WHAT CAN I DO?!? I have already siphoned most off of the sand bed, but it is on rocks covered in Xenia so it wouldnt be that easy to just take the rocks out and scrub them. I tried picking it off the rocks with my fingers, but that pretty much just released it into the water column and it just went around and around the tank. Needless to say, between the coralline that covered the front wall and the hair algae covering everything else, i have a mess. Any advice???? Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

Its fun isn't it.

A reason you are reading 0 for Nitrate adn PO4 is because its locked up in the algae. I went through this for 2 years before tearing my tank down to recure the rock and start over.

You can try phosphate remove. I tried it with no luck though.

I would do frequent water changes and turn up the skimmer so that it skims wet. You should keep trying to remove as much as you can manually.

 

[Anonymous]

I had a lot of success with hermit crabs and caulerpa, the caulerpa to pull the phosphates and nitrates out the water and the hermits to flatten the hair algae. When the caulerpa fills up my fuge, I cut it out and throw it away or give it to someone else.By-By phosphates! The hermits have been fantastic, despite other people having mixed feelings about them, they crawl around on my LR and have stripped any algae they can reach.

 

[bjoiner]

I'm running into the same sort of issue in my new tank. There is hair algae that grows like a weed and red algae bacteria that is taking over the rock.

I found it helps to scrub the rocks (when possible) in the tank - releasing it into the water column and then do a fairly large water change. You won't get everything, but it does seem to help in the long run.

I've had a smaller tank going for about 2 years now and the algae seems to be keeping itself in check. Maybe it just takes time??

 

[tripleup05]

Would getting a yellow tang help the problem? I know they are herbivores, but would they eat hair algae?

 

[Blue Tang]

Hi , i had the same prob with that hair algae, i got a scopas tang and a foxface and they are keeping it at bay , also i only have my lights on the tank on when im home ,Hope this helps!
Blue Tang. :idea:

 

[Anonymous]

IME - buying creatures that eat the algae do help but are only masking the problem. The best way is to remove the source of the algae.

 

[fishaddict]

Get some phoslock and put it in a bag and drop it in your return. remember frozen foods usually have phosphates in the "ice" they're frozen in too.