Do you have hair algae?

ninjamini

ninjamini

Active Member
If you have a hair algae problem then read my cure all. I just recently took a tank off someone's hands, a very experienced reefer too, who had a hair algae problem that they could not fix. But the fix is so easy when you understand it. This is the instructions for a established tank. If your tank is under 3 months old read below* first.
Hair algae wont grow if you don't feed it.
1. Use Ro/DI water ONLY. If your not doing this then you are making a fatal mistake.
2. Pick off the big clumps of hair. Pull the rocks out you can and pull pull pull. Dip them back in the water to get the algae to hang down. Turn off the flow for the rocks you cant remove while you pick it off. By picking off the big clumps you remove the nitrates and phosphates from the water.
3. Know why it grows. It consumes nitrates, phosphates and light. Export the nitrates and phosphates with water changes and some cheto. Rember if you test says that you have 0 Nitrates and 0 Phosphates that does not mean you don't have them. It just means that they are consumed. If you have algae growing then you have nitrates and phosphates. Yea there in there.
4. Cut back on feeding. Where do you thing those nitrates and phosphates come from. If you have any really piggy fish then you may want to move them to QT.
5. Turn down the photo period by shutting the lights off and only turn them on for 6 hours a day. Most corals can handle this for a month. Just think of it as the rainy season.
6. Get a emerald and some mexican snails. Yea the big ones. They will both eat the short stuff.
7. Time. Give it 3-4 weeks then start to turn the lights to 7, 8...more hours till your back to a normal amount of time.
Done. Now I have my nano cube filled with sand, rocks, zoos and fish because I was able to follow this plan and he was not. Which is weird since he has an awesome sps tank.
*If your tank is new that is less than 3 months old then the question is not how to get rid of them but understanding that this is only part of the natural cycle of a new tank. If this happened just as your ammonia and nitrites test at 0 then its going to grow. Its the same reason because there is alot of nitrate and phosphate in the water. This would be the time to do your first water change and then add your clean up crew. They will take care of the algae along with water changes.
Remember don.t feed your nuisance algae and it wont grow.
Good Luck.
 
bonebrake

bonebrake

Active Member
Great advice Ninjamini: a few additions to add.
Always use RO/DI water in newly mixed saltwater and in all top-off water. Make sure it is as close to zero ppm on a TDS meter as possible (TDS = total dissolved solids). Make sure your RO/DI source regularly changes its filter cartridges and test the TDS every time you use it. Tap water/well water generally runs 50-500 ppm and if you continually use poor quality tap water you are continually adding nutrients for the algae to feed on and grow.
If you don't have the space to grow chaetomorpha, phosphate binding products work well when changed regularly. Use the ones that change color when they have bound all the phosphate they can handle so you know when to change them.
:joy:
 
cowfishrule

cowfishrule

Active Member
great advice-
i only feed 1x a week, and my lights are down to 6hours/day total.
i did this 3 weeks ago, and the hair aglae stopped. i got 4 of those big mexi-turbos and they have almost stripped the tank clean of the hair algae.
in about 2 weeks, i am going to slowly up the times on the lights.
***one note- i dont know how i feel about pulling off the big clumps of hair. i have a notion that by doing that, you are spreading spores. i would think that by eliminating the food (lights + phosphates), the hair algae would starve and stop growing, and the turbo's would enjoy the buffet.
just my .02- otherwise, everything you said is 100%- i have used this same method and it works great..
just remember- dont find something to control hair algae- find the source and eliminate it.
 
ninjamini

ninjamini

Active Member
Originally Posted by Bonebrake
Great advice Ninjamini: a few additions to add.
Always use RO/DI water in newly mixed saltwater and in all top-off water. Make sure it is as close to zero ppm on a TDS meter as possible (TDS = total dissolved solids). Make sure your RO/DI source regularly changes its filter cartridges and test the TDS every time you use it. Tap water/well water generally runs 50-500 ppm and if you continually use poor quality tap water you are continually adding nutrients for the algae to feed on and grow.
If you don't have the space to grow chaetomorpha, phosphate binding products work well when changed regularly. Use the ones that change color when they have bound all the phosphate they can handle so you know when to change them.
:joy:
Your 100% on the ro/di. It was so obvious I left it off. But its KEY! I will add this to the top.
You can get a in tank refruguin for about $50.
Originally Posted by COWFISHRULE
i got 4 of those big mexi-turbos and they have almost stripped the tank clean of the hair algae.
in about 2 weeks, i am going to slowly up the times on the lights.
***one note- i dont know how i feel about pulling off the big clumps of hair. i have a notion that by doing that, you are spreading spores. i would think that by eliminating the food (lights + phosphates), the hair algae would starve and stop growing, and the turbo's would enjoy the buffet.
.
The mexicans will not eat the real long stuff and they will devour any new growth caused by spores. Also if you leave all that hair algae to the tank it will put all the nitrates and phosphates back into the water that it consumed. Your better to manually remove it and thus export the nitrates and phosphates.
 
C

civileng68

Guest
My only response would be that, the way you mention that hair algae sort of consumes nitrates, sounded negative.
I've tried and tried and tried to get rid of nitrates for a long long time and just haven't fixed it until now. I've got a fuge and everything. Basically the only thing I haven't done is add LR to the sump.
However, for the first time EVER I tried something new and it worked. I allowed the hair algae to grow in one back corner of my tank where it can't really be noticed. I let it do what it does and sure enough it has consumed the nitrates in my tank.
Though I know they are there, for the first time EVER my trates are 0 (and I mean EVER). I look at it as a positive if you can use it in a positive way without it beind distracting in the tank.
 
whitemike

whitemike

Member
Well for 10 gallon I had problems so I did two things which maybe worked and one by accidnet. First was buy mexican turbo snail. Second was a pistol shrimp which probally did nothing. Than I got pods in my tank from a coral. Also feed less. Now I have no alge problems at all. Pods do eat micro alge and so do bristle worms so is hair alge micro alge?
 
ninjamini

ninjamini

Active Member
Originally Posted by civileng68
My only response would be that, the way you mention that hair algae sort of consumes nitrates, sounded negative.
I've tried and tried and tried to get rid of nitrates for a long long time and just haven't fixed it until now. I've got a fuge and everything. Basically the only thing I haven't done is add LR to the sump.
However, for the first time EVER I tried something new and it worked. I allowed the hair algae to grow in one back corner of my tank where it can't really be noticed. I let it do what it does and sure enough it has consumed the nitrates in my tank.
Though I know they are there, for the first time EVER my trates are 0 (and I mean EVER). I look at it as a positive if you can use it in a positive way without it beind distracting in the tank.
Many people consider hair algae a nuisance that is Ugly. The only problem that I see with the hair in the corner is that you have no way to export the nutrients that they consume. So picture this....
Your water has nitrates and phosphates and you allow hair algae to be the fix. Over time the hair algae will consume these nutrients. But if you dont remove some of the older hair they they are never removed from the system. But you still add it every time you feed. Without the ability to trim and export the algae you will always have it in there.
Now picture this. At any point the algae has new growth, middle age and old growth. When it dies it will be reabsorbed into the water and there it is again.
You would be better to get the hair algae out and use a macro algae like cheto. This way you can pull it out and cut off the old stuff before it pollutes the water again.
 
judyk

judyk

Member
I tried all of your recommendations and nothing worked for my tank. I recently got a phosphate reactor and I'm finally seeing a major change for the better. I read that rocks can absorb phosphates and when they can't absorb anymore the hair algae occurs. This tank is three years old. I think that was my particular problem.
 
bonebrake

bonebrake

Active Member
Originally Posted by JudyK
I tried all of your recommendations and nothing worked for my tank. I recently got a phosphate reactor and I'm finally seeing a major change for the better. I read that rocks can absorb phosphates and when they can't absorb anymore the hair algae occurs. This tank is three years old. I think that was my particular problem.
This is true. Rock that came from a tank with terrible phosphate levels will leech it back out when it is in a tank with low phosphate levels. Hair algae will continuously grow on the rocks until all of the phosphate leeches out. This process can tank a year or more depending on how much is stored in the rock and how bad the levels were in the previous tank.
 
travis89

travis89

Active Member
Originally Posted by 30-xtra high
heres a faster way...
1. buy a lawnmower blenny
This only treats the problem, doesn't cure it.
 
ratrod

ratrod

Member
Here's the cure-all I posted originally way back.
If your algea problem is fixed by adding a lawnmower blenny trust me, you dont have a real problem
Here's my algea 101 rant
I'm gonna give you my advise on the nasty hair algae curse. Not everone will agree with me on all of what I have to say but I can asure you I've had a reef up for over ten years and I've been to hell and back with this stuff and I'll tell you what works, for sure, some of the time, part of the time, and non of the time. It is true that hair algae loves phosphates and silica, and ofcourse light, and eliminating or reducing these things will help curb it to a degree, but here's the thing a perfectly healthy reef with good water quality can grow hair algae, especially if your reef has ever had it before. Water changes are the quickest way to get your PO4 under control assuming your using RO water or a water source that has no PO4 in it. Here's the hard part and the part that always makes me laugh when people pipe off and say it, that is, all you have to do is worry about water quality and get it right and the hair algae goes away. Thats a joke and not true! The hair algae that is in your tank stores enough nutrients WITHIN ITSELF to grow at an alarming rate with perfect water readings!!! Dont be fooled just because the test kits read zero! Its like a heart problem, once you have, you dont cure it, you manage it. So, here's my 2 cents on how to get rid of it including all the blatent obvious things that are repeated over and over again. Bigger and longer established tanks are harder to treat than smaller ones.
1) Do water changes ofcourse, but rig yourself up a rigid length of clear tubing to your siphon hose to control and vacuum up all the loose algae and reef dust.
2) To really get a head start take the rocks out of the tank and dip them into a bucket of salt water and scrub the algae off with a toothbrush.
3) Cutting your light time, and reducing your feedings are certainly helpful at least until you get it under control. Poeple say that older lights cause algae, its possible but changing them wont help much.
4) Get or make sure your skimmer is running properly! And replace your prefilter media constantly.
5) When selecting a clean-up crew, be careful not to over do it at first! Its great to have a snail for every gallon like some people say, and I dont totally disagree, but if you put a lot them in and some die off, you've now created more fuel for your algae.
6) Dump in some long spiny urchins, you cant kill hardly em, and they really mow! They can tip things over though.
7) The phos-ban products do help, but their expensive and with all the other factors they alone wont eliminate your algae only help manage it after you've gottin rid of a lot of it. I like the slower acting stuff for a long term preventative measure.
8) UV stearlization is good for some things, but worthless for hair algae.
The bottom line on all this is to get it under control you have to get a little drastic, or you wont get it under control. Then from that point on its prevention. Hope this helps.
 
30-xtra high

30-xtra high

Active Member
it was so bad i didn't need a background...
how i don't know... but my entire back of the glass was completely covered in hair algae, and i went out and bought a lawnmower for like 5$, and in 2 weeks its clear as ever.
 
mudplayerx

mudplayerx

Active Member
Good info. Just wanted to add that an explosion of hair algae is natural in a newly cycled tank and will most likely go away on its own after a few weeks. It is generally only a sign of a problem if the bloom occurs in an established tank.
 
bonebrake

bonebrake

Active Member
Originally Posted by mudplayerx
Good info. Just wanted to add that an explosion of hair algae is natural in a newly cycled tank and will most likely go away on its own after a few weeks. It is generally only a sign of a problem if the bloom occurs in an established tank.
 
ninjamini

ninjamini

Active Member
Originally Posted by mudplayerx
Good info. Just wanted to add that an explosion of hair algae is natural in a newly cycled tank and will most likely go away on its own after a few weeks. It is generally only a sign of a problem if the bloom occurs in an established tank.
Your 100% on that one. A cycling tank/ newly cycled tank will go through hair algae bloom as part of the process. I will add that to my directions.
 
ice4ice

ice4ice

Active Member
Originally Posted by 30-xtra high
heres a faster way...
1. buy a lawnmower blenny

Better yet , buy a sea hare. Then trade it in to your lfs owner for credit. Once your hair algae is gone, the sea hare will starve and die.
 
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