Anyone had any luck getting rid of hair algae?

[Doug]

Originally Posted by freezetyle

to add to the list of opinions here:
Vinegar dosing along with feeding your fish once every two-three days, scrubbing it with a tooth brush, then siphoning out.

With rocks they you can take out, you can scrub them with a tooth brush and then pour a diluted solution of hydrogen peroxide over the HA (there is a large thread on Reef central about that), just keep up on the gap/carbon changes.

As many have said, thats all that worked for me. Good ole toothbrush and water changes.

If I fed my fish every third day, they would stage a revolt

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by Doug

As many have said, thats all that worked for me. Good ole toothbrush and water changes.

If I fed my fish every third day, they would stage a revolt

OMG if I fed my fish every third day they'd all have bite marks on each other. That won't be happening. I can turn a blind eye enough to the HA to have happy fish. Who needs pretty corals anyways.

Hmm, what to cover in this.

Filter sock, check. I've been using them for about 5 years now, mostly to keep the microbubbles from returning to the tank but also to be clearing the water (for whatever little bit that does, its still a snowglobe in the tank sometimes).

GFO, yeah I know most of the nutrients are tied up in the algae and manual removal is best but ya know, we're always looking for that silver bullet that will make things easier. Changing out GFO more often might help, currently I'm only changing it every 4 weeks or so because I have to use so much for my tank (I still think the BRS directions are effed up but whatever) and I go through it like crazy it seems.

The pH meter only crapped out about 2 months ago. I haven't bought anything new for the tank in well over 6 months and haven't changed anything in my routine for the most part. But as everyone knows in this hobby, that often has nothing to do with it.

Nutrients I suspect came from "overdosing" or at least carelessly dosing Foz Down. I'm sure its a great product and it was working really well for me to reduce phosphate but at some point the phosphates were holding steady and I broke my routine of measure PO4 first, then add product. I added product for about 3 days before I realized my skimmer wasn't functioning properly to export the Foz Down in whatever form it takes when it binds the phosphate. It was then that I started seeing problems. I lost a few corals and didn't get on waterchanges quick enough. About 2 weeks after that I saw my first tuft of hair algae and large cyano patches (I've had small bits of cyano for far too long). Yarded it out and got on the waterchanges. I did about 160 gallons over 4 days or so and life got busy (and I was getting depressed over losing some of my oldest and most prized corals). By the time I looked at the tank again it was green fields everywhere and rampant STN. I've been handpicking a lot of the HA lately, I think I'm getting a handle on it but there are a lot of patches in the back forty that I just can't reach and taking rocks out is absolutely out of the question. I just don't have the time to be painstakingly scrubbing rocks with a toothbrush not to mention the re-aquascaping nightmare with corals all over the rocks (and just aquascaping in general, which can make itself a 6 hour process with Murphy working his magic).


Anyways, thanks for all the ideas and information! You guys are awesome

[Doug]

I would not panic over the crapped ph meter Christy. I have mine on my RK2 but never read it. I dont think Brad even owns one. Cant see it having any effect one way or the other on hair algae.

Still think just following normal routine, scrubbing out the long stuff as best one can and when time permits. And perhaps the seahare idea. {is that whats its called}.

With my own version of the Asmodeus Red Turf Plague,, is seems to be a never ending battle keeping up with it. No matter how much water changes or GFO or whatever. I also had serious bubble algae, {wont say where from, }. Besides regular cleaning of both........the best solution seems for me to be the critters to control it, whatever the problem is.

Added a whack of snails from JL and a pin cushion urchin and the seem to be working on the red turf. Two monster looking and one smaller emerald crabs are doing a great job on the bubble algae.

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by Doug

I would not panic over the crapped ph meter Christy. I have mine on my RK2 but never read it. I dont think Brad even owns one. Cant see it having any effect one way or the other on hair algae.

Still think just following normal routine, scrubbing out the long stuff as best one can and when time permits. And perhaps the seahare idea. {is that whats its called}.

With my own version of the Asmodeus Red Turf Plague,, is seems to be a never ending battle keeping up with it. No matter how much water changes or GFO or whatever. I also had serious bubble algae, {wont say where from, }. Besides regular cleaning of both........the best solution seems for me to be the critters to control it, whatever the problem is.

Added a whack of snails from JL and a pin cushion urchin and the seem to be working on the red turf. Two monster looking and one smaller emerald crabs are doing a great job on the bubble algae.

Yeah, I'm not overly worried about the pH probe. I had one in my cart at the J&L boxing day sale but removed it and opted for something else. I do think more snails and a couple emerald crabs would be handy (I have bubble algae too ) but the selection around here is so freaking limited its really sad, I thought the winter was prime time for shipments. I didn't even have much luck at the stores in Victoria a few weeks ago although I did manage to find some astreas and a tuxedo urchin. No turbo snails though, I haven't seen those in a very long time and I suspect they would do a better job on some of the algaes.

[somewherebeyondthesea]

I battled HA for a few months along with Cyano bacteria when i set up my 12 gallon fluval, and all i did was:

1.) remove any natural lighting (ie. sunlight next to windows)

2.) reduced my LED tank lighting by 2 hours.

3.) tossed in an emerald crab* (I pluck some of the taller stuff too right before i do a water change)

4.) weekly water changes with RO/DI ultraviolet polished (Type 1) water.

I'm currently working on my dad's 300G tank as his was overrun by HA and so far just using steps 1 and 2 we've had a significant difference.

*one thing to note is that HA in large amounts is considered toxic to your inverts, at least that's what I have researched, so hitting it with large amounts of "borrowed inverts" may help as well fyi.

[Myka]

Just for clarity, I was asking about pH in relation to what sounded like dinoflagellates from Christy's first post. Christy says they aren't dinos. No, proper range of marine pH won't affect hair algae.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

As others have suggested, a sea hare is very good for eating up hair algae. While the sea hare is dealing with the symptom, hopefully you've figured out the root cause of the outbreak and deal with that. It may be as simple as outdated bulbs or bulbs with wrong wavelength.

[Delphinus]

I found that Foz-Down didn't really do a lot for my tank. PO4 would bounce back up within a day. I keep some onhand in case my 65g (which is FOWLR) needs it but I stick to hc-gfo in the reef. It sucks because it's expensive, but it's the only thing that seems to keep it at bay. I change out a cup every week or two. You should be able to get by with less though.

I like having a rabbitfish in the tank because the presence of competition for greens seem to encourage my tangs to eat algae. Without the rabbit in the tank they turn a blind eye to most of it. Personally I like Siganus doliatus because they stay smaller but probably any rabbitfish will do.

Good luck!

Another option instead of a seahare is an abalone. However, they're probably harder to source, not quite as effective as a seahare, and can take a while to acclimate to a tank (last few literally sat in one spot for weeks before waking up). But they're really cool creatures and unlike seahares can adapt to other foods so tend not to starve out once all the HA is gone..