Hair Algae

[jkhalliday76]

I did a search in here for ways to rid myself of hair algae, but am wondering if there's anything besides buying a protein skimmer or RODI unit(just don't have the fundage right now).

I've got a 20 gallon with a royal gramma, scooter blenny, 3 nassarius snails and 2 astraea snails currently as livestock. The hair algae is not too terribly bad yet. It's mostly contained to one rock, with a few tufts here and there on a few others.

I've been doing weekly water changes, parameters are ok (nitrates are a little high at 20), and I've been blowing the rocks with a turkey baster so the algae doesn't have much to feed on. The lights (1 15 watt Reed Sun 50/50 light - I know that the next investment on my list...please don't bash me.) are on from 10am to 8 pm.

Any critters (besides fish - I'm at my limit) I can buy to help out that won't eat my fish/snails and don't need lighting?

Thanks guys and gals!

 

[Witfull]

get one turbo snail. they are great grazers. or buy a toothbrush and scrub in a bucket of salt water (good time is when you do a waterchange, use the old water as a rinse)

 

[Gibeon]

Ditto to Witfull's post. It works great. I had enough that I actually bought a dish scrubber to scrub my rocks (vs. a tooth brush), and made an aquarium vac for the rocks that I didn't want to pick up or move around.

Witfull, what are the ethics of using turbo's to spot clean? For example, removing him from the glass and placing him in the middle of a hair algae field?

 

[mempho reefer]

Hey JK are you still using tap water? If so that is likely the source of your problem.

 

[iluvzigz]

ditto to witty's post maybe a mexican turbo..or maybe you could buy a couple of small turbos to kick the algae then give em' back to the lfs once the algae is gone so they dont die of starvation..
i did that bought a bunch then returned some and kept enough to keep it in check... seems to be working.

 

[lcstorc]

Ditto with one addition.
Check your phosphates. Algae often feeds off of phosphates so reducing them will help with the issue.
Good ways to reduce phosphates include adding phosban or another iron based phosphate media, and rinsing all food with ro/di water prior to feeding the tank. Many if not all prepared fish foods are high in phosphates and a good rinse helps to reduce them.
I don't remember if you have corals or not, but if not (and possibly even if you do) I would put a skimmer and ro/di unit ahead of the lights on my purchase list. The skimmer is invaluable in reducing the waste in the tank, and the ro/di unit will save you lots of time, trouble and even money down the road some. Since you have a fairly small tank I would purchase bottled water in the short term since most tap water contains lots of yuk we don't want in the tank. Many lfs will sell it or even some grocery stores or Walmart.
One last suggestion. Try using the turkey baster to suck out the yucky stuff instead of just blowing it into the water column. Sometimes it works and sometimes not depending on the size of the debris, but that way you are removing the yuk instead of just moving it.