Green Hair Algae Fixes?

[Pedro's Mini]

So, I have had my tank about 6 months. The tank has been running for 2 plus years. For the first 4 months I had it, beautiful, crystal clear and clean. I went on a trip, and when I came back there was some green hair algae. Now, it is every where. I have physically removed it a couple of times, and have significantly reduced my nitrates to the 5-7 range, no ammonia as far as my tests say, and my local store. I have been told that my live rock should eventually denitrify the water over time and the algae will go away, but isn't there a faster way. The only thing I have done is buy a few more snails to hopefully consume more of it. I believe I might have an underpowered skimmer (bak pak on 55 gallon) and will soon upgrade to Remora Pro, and hopefully this will help remove more of the organic build up this seasoned tank may have. I would love any ideas and tribulations which pertain. Thanks.

[bluespotjawfish]

Hope you find the trick that works for you. I use a variety of snails and crabs, tangs, and recently added a sea hare.

Keep any sponges or other mechanical filtration that you have cleaned very good. Run some carbon too. Increase the flow rate in your pump or add an extra one.

Good luck with your troubles!

[Raf]

I had an outbreak of hair algae in one of my client's tanks and here is what worked for me:

Firstly, I physically scrubed it off all the LR each week I was there and netted out the excess.

Secondly, I added carbon and phosphate remover to the mech filter and made very sure the floss was spotless each visit.

Thirdly, i tested for nitrates, their levels were high, so along with larger waterchanges, I also added nitrate remover to the mech filters.

Lastly, I added a lawnmower blenny, snails, hermits and a sea hare. This tank was large (170 gallon reef), hence why the large cleanup crew. The seahare really helped!

After about 1 month, there was a noticeable improvement.

I have to add, despite all thses measures, this type of algae outbreak is exactly that, an outbreak. It can be slowed even reversed and stopped, but you have to find a balance in your tank. Often a nutrient surge leads to various algae outbreaks....what you have to do is find the right balance between macroalgaes, corals, LR, livestock and such.

In many of my client's reef tanks that are doing very well, the balance is there, and no form of micro alage thrives very well, the fish, snails, hermits and the competition for the nutrients in the water don't allow it.

HTH

[bluespotjawfish]

Oh, I forgot one thing, the turkey baster! It is great for keeping loose stuff off the rocks in the first place.

[craig7220]

I have added a phosban reactor to absorb the excess phosphates... works great. I did have hair algae... now its all gone... and Sea hare's are great too.. like little lawn mowers.....

[BEELZEBOB]

my algea secret is FW mollies. i have a 10gal FW, a 55gal brackish, and my nano.

mollies can live in all three, and love to eat the hair algae.

you can buy a couple acclimate them and let em go. my buddy had a 42 gal bow front he had set up for about a year before i even started my tank.

after my cycle and first bloom (WHICH WAS HUGE) i tossed 3 1/2" fry in my nano and in 3 days it was spotless.

my buddy saw my tank about 3 weeks ago and asked if i could help him out. YOU WANNA TALK HAIR ALGAE. by god my homie literally just let it go.

1 male an 3 female black mollies + 10 days = hair algae freedom.

i know it sound unorthodox but, it dont hurt the fish, dont hurt your system and there isn't a clean up crew in existance that will eat as much as mollies.

i had to take them out of my nano so that my CUC would still have food!

[2455coop]

Originally Posted by Raf

I had an outbreak of hair algae in one of my client's tanks and here is what worked for me:

Firstly, I physically scrubed it off all the LR each week I was there and netted out the excess.

Secondly, I added carbon and phosphate remover to the mech filter and made very sure the floss was spotless each visit.

Thirdly, i tested for nitrates, their levels were high, so along with larger waterchanges, I also added nitrate remover to the mech filters.

Lastly, I added a lawnmower blenny, snails, hermits and a sea hare. This tank was large (170 gallon reef), hence why the large cleanup crew. The seahare really helped!

After about 1 month, there was a noticeable improvement.

I have to add, despite all thses measures, this type of algae outbreak is exactly that, an outbreak. It can be slowed even reversed and stopped, but you have to find a balance in your tank. Often a nutrient surge leads to various algae outbreaks....what you have to do is find the right balance between macroalgaes, corals, LR, livestock and such.

In many of my client's reef tanks that are doing very well, the balance is there, and no form of micro alage thrives very well, the fish, snails, hermits and the competition for the nutrients in the water don't allow it.

HTH

AFTER i had tried all of these things I still had hair algae problems.. At this point I wanted to pull my hair out but my LFS guy recommended a product call Marine S.A.T. It's a bacteria that weakens the algae. It's made by TLC Aquarium and Pond Products. My tank is now crystal clear. It took about 8 weeks for the algae to go away.

[sebastian]

the simplest question?? what kind of wate r are You using??? top water or ro???? maybe from LFS ??? i had problem for a year scraping cleaning and....nothing...... i was using LFS water.... i bought my own RO unit and... alge were gone in a week (2 water changes)..... it's like fighting with..... taxes...one day u will have THE SOLUTION