hair algae

[mikevet]

i am having a time with the hair algae. i have posted on here before about and have one just about everything people suggest. i am at the point that i think i need to scrub my rock. will this lead to a larger bloom? and if i do it, should i change my sand bed? i am affraid of sturring up all the detritis.

[GlobaLPimP]

I wouldn't scrub the rock, deffinately "not" in the tank or you will have a massive bloom. I had a green hair bloom on two good size rocks last week. I just put about ten of my snails on each rock and they completely cleaned the rocks off in one day! Good luck!

[Lunchbucket]

have you used phosphate removers?? what skimmer you have? you use RO water? feed what? do you drain the juice from frozen food? how many fish? nitrates?

Lunchbucket

[Anemonebuff]

Originally posted by Lunchbucket
have you used phosphate removers?? what skimmer you have? you use RO water? feed what? do you drain the juice from frozen food? how many fish? nitrates?

Lunchbucket

Ditto.

[Buster4900]

Take the rocks out of the tank for a few weeks and that will kill the algae. Scrub off the dead stuff and put back in.

[affan]

FWIW, I was having a massive outbreak of HA up until last week. Then, I left for NY for 6 days, forgetting to set the timer so the lights have been off since. I come home today, and not a sign of HA in my tank. Don't know if I should contribute this to no lighting for that long or the Tangs not being fed and devouring all that algae.

[bubblethumper]

Originally posted by affan
FWIW, I was having a massive outbreak of HA up until last week. Then, I left for NY for 6 days, forgetting to set the timer so the lights have been off since. I come home today, and not a sign of HA in my tank. Don't know if I should contribute this to no lighting for that long or the Tangs not being fed and devouring all that algae.

I don't have tangs, but 6-days with the lights off cleared all the algae out of my tank. It's a band-aid fix IMO, but it worked

[jmicky41]

I have been fighting hair algae for over a year now. I tried large water changes,added two stream pumps for more current, rock scrubbing,better skimmer, yellow tang, foxface, more hermits, more snail ( most of which died), to no avail. I am now winning the fight since I added a DI to my RO. I always figured that RO must be good enough - it tested zero for nitrates and phosphates. I never had a TDS meter until recently, my tap is like 440 ppm, the RO water is 40 ppm, and the RO/DI is 1 ppm. So my RODI is 40 times purer than the RO by itself. After 4 20% water changes with RODI, the hair algae is clearly subsiding.

[Lunchbucket]

is this common hair algae or the nasty bryopsis..there is a HUGE difference IMO

Lunchbucket

[NewSchool04]

scrubbing rock, turning lights off is not really getting to the problem. The problem is too much nutrients in the water, nutrients that feed problem algae. Only real way to stop it is to starve it. Water changes, changing feeding habits, more water changes, good skimming and more water changes. Large water changes that make a difference, not small ones. If you're not using RO water, then you are not going to win.
If you starve anything, it will die. Algae included.

[outy]

his exact words are the problem [i am affraid of sturring up all the detritis.]

you need to clean my friend. my sandbed gets to a point where i can change all the water i can make and it stil wont fix the problem, i change it out and or clean the junk and then i can get a hold on HA [if everything else is in check, good bulbs, phos media fresh, skimmer working, ro/di 0 tds ect ect]

[mikevet]

i'll try to reply to all. nitrate/trite/phos all 0..maybe due to the bloom. my bulbs are new (2 months) vho x4 <2 50/50 and 2 actinic>. i do 20% water changes every 8-10 days with ro/di water from lfs. i use fresh ro/di water from lfs for top off. my photo period is 7 hours with disuptions of light during that time. i feed mysis shrimp (1/8 cube) once per week. my fish are: 1- lawn mower and 1- yellow watchman. i have a sally light foot and an emerald crab. i have 4 turbos, 10 of the smaller snails that start with a "T". (sorry about that). 15 red hermits. my current corals are 2 leathers, and star burst. i have 45-50 ponds of carib reef rock. i have a 1 inch sand bed started with live sand. the tank is a 29 gal. i have 2 mod maxi jet 400. a sea clown skimmer. and a hang over back filter that run carbon and phosgaurd.

i see someone asked if this was true hair algae? what is the difference than the one started with the "b" in a previous post? the stuff i have is covering everything in the aquarium except sand. the lawn mower blenny does not seem to like it. i have never seen him take a bite yet.

also, i have used chemi-clear twice to get rid of the cyano, and this week i left the lights off for 23.5 hours per day for 5 days. the hair did not seem to die back at all. one interesting thing is that the one side of the aquarium that faces a window from across the room does not have algae growth. the opposite glass panel is covered.

any help appreciated!!! as this is in the living room, my wife is hounding me to get rid of the septic tank in the family room.

[mikevet]

i also have a sand sifting star and 5 sand sifting snails.

[psyrob]

I fought a frustrating and futile battle with hair algae for two years, bought a new skimmer, used phosphate remover, lots of water changes and used only RO water. Have lots of turbo snails, a tuxedo urchin and hermit crabs. Nothing worked. Finally, I added a DI unit and the hair algae has been gone ever since. Using RODI did the trick and was a lot less labor intensive than any other thing. The unit was 45 bucks from corallife

For what its worth

[outy]

how long has the tank been up

[mikevet]

tank has been established for 15 months with a 2 month battle with cyano and hair.

[HowardW]

If you have a lot of built up detrius in the substrate and under the rocks, you will need to gently vacuum all that stuff out while doing a water change. All that detrius keeps on slowly breaking down and just keeps feeding your algae / cyano problem regardless of how many water changes you're doing.

The carbon and phosphate media are both good ideas and should be changed regularly, and I would check that RO/DI water you're getting with a TDS meter to make sure it does read 0 TDS. Also skim wet.

[Lunchbucket]

i agree w/ Howard i would vac your sand bed if it is a bigger grain size

i also would check you TDS from you LFS's Ro/di i'll be you money it isn't 0!! my LFS was over 50 when we checked it. i would get your own system and save some money.

also get rid of the HOT filter and get a HOT skimmer. you never mentioned having a skimmer. a skimmer is essential IMO it will save you a lot of headache.

also add a HOT phosphate chamber. two little fishies makes an inexpensive one. then you can fluidize the po4 media and make the most of it.

i bet if you get 0 TDS water, add a good skimmer, keep doing you water changes w/ 0 TDS water, add a po4 reactor you will see some big improvements

if you want to know if it is bryopsis. do a search for bryopsis and you should find quite a few pics of it

good luck
Lunchbucket

[mikevet]

sorry for the stupid questios, but what does TDS stand for? also, thanks everyone for the suggestions. i will begin them tonight!

[Ciarán]

TDS = Total Dissolved Solids. Basically a measure of potentially contaminant compounds dissolved in your water such as metals, Nitrate, Phosphate etc. The lower the measure of their presence, the purer the water is.

This my friend is hair algae



Derbesia sp. the more "common" type.

Bryopsis

[Lunchbucket]

hair algae = ok, bryopsis = BAD. just because it is so much harder to get rid of and there isn't a lot of things that will eat it.

Lunchbucket

[STEELERFAN747]

Well. When I purchased my tank used, I inherited a huge hair algea problem. Now I dont know what feeding or maintenace habits the previous owner had, but the tangs, snails and crabs that came with the tank would not touch it. I tried large water changes and R.O water to no avail.

I was advised to try a phosphate media and along with ripping all the excess that I could, I have been able to get it under control.

By all means I would try the media.

[Zedar]

I tore down my tank and scrubbed the hair algae off the rocks.

Then I soaked them for three weeks in a 50 gallon drumof saltwater. At which time I used a strong powerhead to blow trapped detrus out of the rock. I'm talking pressure wash. I used a mag9

After a week of this, with no end in site too the detrus that was coming out of the rock, I got frustrated and took the rocks out back on my patio and took my garden hose to it.

Yeah you read that right.

I set the hose on jetspray and pressure washed them. The amount of gunk that came out was amasing.

Some would say my actions were radical And that I now have dead rock. But after a few weeks in the tank I have small feather dusters, mushrooms,worms and pods. The coraline is almost back to its former glory.

But best of all NO ALGAE