Hair Algae Problems

[Vinny73]

I recently aquired a small sea hair, magnificent foxface and some turbo snails. I have 100gs, 80lbs live rock. Cooking is not an option. I do not have enough equipment for that. I do have it next to a window. Should I cut off all light coming in from the window? This hair algae problem is not a small one. I have seen pictures of these problems and they look like a joke compared to mine. I am trying to pull it off daily and have bought half a dozen snails. Should I buy another 2 dozen? PLEase help!

[Vinny73]

Should I shut off my moon lights?

[FiShTaCo]

Do you ever run PhosBan? I have seen a 135 SPS with a PhosBan reactor and it has been continued for almost two years now. Perfectly free from any hair algae. Then on the tank without a reactor, just a media bag full in sumpt doesn't suffice.

[fppf]

I think the control of Hair Algae and any algae for that matter is not fully understud. I had HUGE hair problems. I now have a total of 175 lbs of LR in the tank and no hair to be found.

Now don't ask me what changed, my nitrates are still sky high and the phos is the same, still reads zero. So don't ask me what the rock is doing.

[Vinny73]

Last night my wife went through with a little nylon bristle bottle brush and scrubbed most of the rock free of the algae. I just did a 25 gallon partial and changed out my prefilter sock. I do run rowaphos, but have only been running it for about a week and a half. I do have 80lbs of live rock in a 100g tank. I am also running a 9w uv sterilizer. Allthough I am not sure that 9w is enough. My fish seem to allways be doing well. I imagine it is working just fine. I went and bought 12 more turbo snails and picked the ginormous ones. I put all of them on this one really infested rock and this morning it looks bare. I wonder if they will even eat again for another month.

[turbodiesel01]

sailfin tang worked for me

[Hobster]

Most Algae problems are a" more import than export problem"
What do your tests show? A good article by Randy:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...t2002/chem.htm

[jscan1]

I battled Aggresive Hair Algae for a long time and finally Won.....Removed all Live Rock and Scrubbed Clean, Immediately Followed by 50 gallon Water Change (System is 300 Ga.). Make Sure SKimmer is Adequately Sized and SKim Wet....Add Trochus Snails. Remove Filter Socks, Or Change Every Day. Also I added a Ozonater, Which i don't think is absolutely neccasary but I attribute it to cutting my cleaning by 75%, and making water Crystal CLear, Run Phosban, and Carbon in Sump, Cut DOwn on feeding. Also test Alkalinity, and Raise it to around 6-8 dkh, And Keep Calcium in proper ranges.

[jnc914]

Vinny- I am assuming that you use Ro/Di water. I have a friend with a 90 gallon going through the same thing. His nitrates are off the charts also, and hair algae has taken over. He only has three fish in the system. My past experience in controlling algae is weekly water changes of 10%, in addition to running carbon, adding a fuge, and running a U.V. I have recently heard that you should switch out you live rock, only a couple of pieces every several months. I had also shortened the light cycle during the day.

Jason

[stugray]

You mention adding snails.... how about hermits?

With a 100 G, I would go with 50 snails ( assorted ), and 50 hermits ( mixed red & blue leg ).

I have never had an algae problem, and the very first critters added were hermits.

Stu

[jscan1]

Personally, I think snails do more work than hermits, and I have found the hermits to be more trouble than their worth, Eat all the Snails! LOL......I actually like watching the hermits, but so far for me Trochus Snails seem to be the one cleaner that really help

[Phillips]

I just went through a phase where I had hair algae ALL Over my tank.
Hair algae lasted 6-8 months.
Now it's gone.
What did I do?
I waited, it went away.
Didn't feed my fish less.
Did my water changes, kept the skimmer maintained, added ozone to the skimmer, topped off w/ kalkwasser, blew the rocks off regularly w/ a powerhead.

The algae appeared to use up nutrients in the LR, then die back when a spot had no more nutrients. It persisted in some places longer than others, but then disappeared completely. Strangely, I now have a lot more coralline algae and some really cool macro algae appearing from my LR, so I don't think I have fewer nutrients in the water than I used to have. Of course I could be wrong about nutrients in the LR, but this is what I observed.

I would recommend good tank husbandry, and patience.

Of course if your tank sits in your livingroom, you might have others w/ less patience giving you a bad time.

[jscan1]

I think "added Ozone" might be the key in your paragraph, It was after I added it that the Algae quickly fleeted

[Phillips]

Adding ozone to my skimmer didn't make my hair algae go away any faster, but did make my skimmer run more efficiently.

One problem with sharing experience is that we aren't dealing with the same LR, each tank is different.

[Gools]

When I had my outbreak a few years back, it lasted for about a year. My opinion is you have to let it run it's course. Of course, skimming, RO, cleanup crew, ozone, nutrient export, etc... may help speed up the process, but I believe it to be a maturing process. Even when I added all the toys, I still had the problem. But then one day, overnight it dissapeared. Since then I have not experienced any algae problems in my tank. Even though it sucked, and was ugly, and I lost a few corals. I would recommend you not waste money if you don't have to, and if you have money, then enjoy, making a great system.

[Vinny73]

I am not familiar with "ozone" What exactly is the process andwhat equipment is needed. How much is equipment? I heard someone say put into your skimmer. What does that do? Why? I have a euroreef cs6-2 skimmer and thought that this was the shiznit for skimming. One thing in my vocabulary that my wife calls dangerous is the word " Modify" I love that word!!! I think that my whole aquarium is stock. I hate stock. Come on guys, tell me more! All your answers have been fabulous! And greatly appreciated!

[Boat Racer]

1.Run your lights at least by half the time per day you are running them now
2.Use a phosphate remover sponge in your filter for one week.
3.Use a new product called (phos buster) its a liquid that you run for 72 hrs and then do a water change and remove the phos sponge.
4.Get 5 green emerald crabs,They eat a lot of the alge from rocks.
5.Cutt back your feeding in half.
6.Lawn mower blennys are great as well.
7.GOOD LUCK

[shoman89]

I tried everything for the last year to beat hair algea in my 300 gallon with 500 lbs of rock. I have scrubbed it 2 times and bought snails multiple times. I finanlly pledged to do everything I could to beat this. I started cleaning my skimmer more often and blowing the rocks off with a turkey baster 2-3 times a week. I also use a large net to catch all the algea that I blow off. This has seemed to do the trick. I am down to very little algea and what is left looks to be dying off.
I had tried every type of phosban and remedy in the past except just staying on top of it and putting the work in. The work seems to be doing the trick. Scrub your rocks in a tub with various brushes and then do a complete water change at the same time. Then make sure to clean the rocks with a something like a turkey baster a lot for the first few weeks. If the algea starts to come back, use a brush to clean it off in the tank and either syphon it or catch it with a net. Just stay on top of it for as long as it take and it may go away. I am finally starting to enjoy my tank again.

Good luck,
JeffP

[jscan1]

Ozone is actually a system that uses an electrical charge (Corona Discharge) to create o3 from air a system will run you from about 150 to $400.. depending on size orp controller etc.... Ozone actually competes for the same "Stuff" as your protien skimmer....You use Ozone with an Orp controller to keep Orp level in a specific range...Basically a range that breaks down bacteria in your system, but not so much as to cause harm to your inhabitants....The ozone is fed through the Air intake on your skimmer..........The results for me at least is a much lighter colored skimmate, but no less, also water is crystal clear it removes the "Yellow", and has practically eliminated free floating algae........THis definition is pretty basic there is a really good right up on the board somewhere that is a lot more technical than this.

[shoman89]

I run an enaly ozone generator I got from ebay for something like $60 shipped. It is suppose to be a 300mg unit and it seems to help. It has worked for the 18 months without an issue.

-JeffP

[shawn1965]

Get some Marine S.A.T. and about a half dozen emerald crabs. The S.A.T. works great.

[Vinny73]

What is marine SAT?

[seamay]

I too had a serious algea problem for some time. I almost gave up. I turned the lights to half the photo period
fed much less
hand picked the long algea Whenever I could
scrape detritus to cloud the water then immediate water change
run carbon
(hint;When doing a water change, use an elastic to hold a new toothbrush to the end of your siphon tube. Use that tooth brush to scrub areas of major concerne and you will catch most of the algea in the tube rather than letting it fly free in your water column.)
the last thing I did was I set up a cooler with a pump for circulation and I removed certain rocks(the worst) a few at a time and let them sit in the dark until the algea was gone.(shouldve done this first).
You said you were near a window. I would seriously consider blocking the xtra light since it could be increasing your photo period and/or giving you the wrong spectrum depending on the angle ect. which either one will be benificial to nasty algea.
everyone has thier way...try them all if you need to, dont give up...good luck

[Greg manton]

i would check bulbs, storm rocks with power head, check tds on r/o unit ,and mabey shut off the sterilizer it only kills things in your water column not h/a you may find that what u kill may feed the hair algie, and you will also be killing things like pods that compete for the nutrients the h/a lives on. Try to be patient every time i try too many things at once i ruin what balance i do have in my tank HTH

[quack]

OZONE for me too. Hair a. and cyano . . . gone!