Green Hair Algae

[brayden]

What is a good clean up crew for a lot of green hair algae in a 135 gallon FOWLR tank?

[bsclarinet]

Emerald crabs do wonders

[n8rad]

you shouldnt have a clean up crew for green hair algae because you shouldnt have it in the 1st place. IMO you need to find the cause whether its old lights, phosphates/nitrates.

[Michael]

yep i agree, its best to try to improve water quality after removing the ha to avoid getting it, and you need to identify why you actualy got it, tbh most of us do, im unsure as to any clean up crew that will eat it until its gone, but good luck trying to beat it and keep us informed

[cartouche]

Is it a new set up? If so its inevitable!, if not then as the guys have suggested... water quality!

[JLAURIA751]

It probally just a normal cycle but U should get a emerald crab. Have you tested your water for phosphate?

[cviacona]

i had the hair attack and bad just a few months back but my reason was lack of blowing of rock letting alot of crap build up on them then comes the algea. got it under control by pulling it out by hand, blowing rocks clean on normal basis, hundreds and hundreds of critters, plus some algea fix for a few weaks. 150 gallon tall tank.

[cameron91806]

get a turkey baster then take some RO and boil it then suck it up in the baster stick then baster in the tank and blast it with the boil RO water .... i did it i havent had green hair algae for about a month now 2 of my buddys told me to try that and its been working

[BurntOutReefer]

how old are your light bulbs

[alaska clowns]

Originally posted by cameron91806
get a turkey baster then take some RO and boil it then suck it up in the baster stick then baster in the tank and blast it with the boil RO water .... i did it i havent had green hair algae for about a month now 2 of my buddys told me to try that and its been working

Wow... what did that do to the livestock in your tank?

[corbett_n]

has anybody else heard of blowing boiling water at GHA

[Overgreen]

I'm going through the same issue. I've got a new tank and its BAD! lol (75 Gallon). I've got about 45 baby snails that was a freebie that came with the rock I bought and I just got 25 blue something hermit crabs and they are going to town cleaning. I also treated it with some kind of algae fix and pulled it out by hand.

[Acronic]

emerald crabs are great for gha. 1 or 2 will take care of it in a couple weeks.
overgreen, 25 blue leg hermits in a 75 is too much. they will cause problems in that proportion

[Overgreen]

Originally posted by Acronic
emerald crabs are great for gha. 1 or 2 will take care of it in a couple weeks.
overgreen, 25 blue leg hermits in a 75 is too much. they will cause problems in that proportion

Well I sent my girlfriend to the store to get the stuff to kill the algae and she came back with them. They actually said we should have 1 for every gallon. How many should I have?

[golby]

If your tank is new but your params are inline (including lighting above 5000K) and you have a GHA outbreak--it may just be part of the cycling process. I had a lot for months 3 and 4 of a new setup and it has gone away on its own. I wouldn't panic and throw too much at it--you could wind up with too many snails, hermits and crabs (and then hungry snails, hermits and crabs). I had it for a good 6-8 weeks before it cleared up.

I did add four (which isn't many for a 90g) of those BIG mexican turbos and bought a Kole Tang near the end of my GHA--unclear if they had any effect or if it was just natural cycling and disappearing anyway. I have seen the Kole nipping at the last stragglers over the past few weeks though.

[Overgreen]

I dont know if it matters but the hermits aren't but an inch and smaller in length. I thought about getting an emerald crab just because but if thats too many i'm not going to. I only have one small like 5 dollar fish in there and the rest snails. I do try to give them some of the green fish type food when I feed the fish I have and they all go crazy over it.

[Swoop]

Originally posted by bsclarinet
Emerald crabs do wonders

+1

Oh and 25 Hermits in a 75 gallon tank is not too much. You should be fine on that front.

[cameron91806]

what i did is move the livestock be4 i blast the green hair and nothing happen to them ...

[Overgreen]

I'm thinking about getting an emerald crab. Might start with one but would 2 be too many?

[KarlBob]

Originally posted by Overgreen
Well I sent my girlfriend to the store to get the stuff to kill the algae and she came back with them. They actually said we should have 1 for every gallon. How many should I have?

I'm afraid that 1 per gallon is better for the store's bottom line than for your tank. I've heard some people suggest one per 2-3 gallons, and others say one per 5 gallons. Heck, some reefers boycott hermit crabs altogether, saying they do more damage than good. It's definitely true that many hermits will happily assist a snail in its journey to the next world in order to occupy the newly-empty shell.

[reefergeorge]

Hair algae just comes and goes in my tank. I just look at it as tang food until it goes away.

[Overgreen]

Well I figured I would be ok. Only time will tell......... lol

[ocean17]

I took two days out of my life and read every single thread on Reef Central and other forums and quickly acted and summarily defeated GHA in a matter of two months. First off I have a 7 month old 339 gallon tank and am new to the hobby. I got smart and decided to run my MH lights 12 hours per day, big mistake. I was also overfeeding. My tank is 60" by 30" by 44" high and has at least 300 pounds of LR in it that is over head high. My rock structure looked like cousin "IT", totally covered, there wasn't a single piece of rock that "DIDN'T" have GHA on it. Here is what I did:

Started by going three whole days with NO lights, closed the blinds, kept my overhead room lights off, etc.

Cut my MH to 5 hours and Actinics to 8 hours per day

Added a phosphate reactor

Kept my skimmer cup clean plus my return prefilters were cleaned more often than needed.

Doubled my water change schedule

Controlled my feeding and basically cut it back to about 1/2 of what I thought was normal.

And lastly but probably most important, I vacuumed my tank with a 1/2 inch hose with a hard tube on the business end, which ran to the return part of the sump with a piece of womans hose over the end to catch the big stuff. I did this two to three times per week. I guess GHA spreads by growing so long it detaches and floats to another part of the water body. By vacuuming these loose fibers up I basically exported these nutrients. Anyway, once it started to leave, it left on a hyperbolic curve and I now have about enough GHA that could fit on something the size of a quarter. Thanks to all the Reef Central threads and also thanks to the guys at the new online coral store, www.gcreef.com for helping as well.