Going to War with the Hair heres my strategy what ya think?

neowind

neowind

Member
Ok first let me give you my readings.
Nitrates = 10
Nitrites = 0
Ammonia = 0
PO4 = 0
CA = 520
alk = 9Dkh
Magnesium = 1500 + (little high)
20k XM MH 175w running for 8 hours daily
Millenium 2000 Hang on filter
Prizm Pro Deluxe Skimmer (no longer running algae was growing inside it and causing even worse hair algae)
Window beside the tank but light shines accross the room not directly on it. Wooden blines.
RO/DI 4 TDS water
1 Yellow Tang, 2 Percs, 1 Bicolor Blennie
15 Nassarius snails
7 Astrea
7 Cerith
5 Scarlett Hermits
3 Blue Leg Hermits
Ok thats about all I can think to tell ya about my tank. Here is my plan. I am going to start by doing a series of 10% water changes 1 per week. I was only doing 10% changes once every other month. I am going to start running my lighting 10 hours daily earlier so the daylight will not be lighting my tank for most of the day. I am going to run a phosphate sponge and nitrate sponge through my wet/dry. I am also going to mannually try and remove as much as the algae as I can. Do you think this will help. I swear the bloom started as soon as I started running a skimmer on my tank so I took it off. So I got a firm toothbrush and ready to scrub.
Here is my tank before the bloom.
 
bencc

bencc

Member
I would remove all the really long stuff by hand. A Lawn Mower Blennie would help alot. I had pretty bad hair algae and the LMB did a great job. The only prob is now it is all gone and he always looks skinny. I'm not sure what to do with him.
 
neowind

neowind

Member
I have a Bi-Color Blennie and that would be a massive fight between the 2. 1 would die and I don't want to risk loosing my Bi-Color. Too bad he don't have taste for Hair algae.
I am also adding 2x65w of Actinic 03 PC to my tank don't think it will help but maybe.
 
jauringer

jauringer

Member
good luck Neowind. i would deffinatly put the skimmer back on. it would be impossible for a skimmer to create an algea problem.
 
h2oengr

h2oengr

Member
Dude, I just successfully battle the hair! Now the tank is looking killer!

Don't know if you caught the thread, but my 4-year-old pumped anti-bacterial soap into the tank. Needless to say, everything died. But, worse off, the phosphates created major algae blooms!

I took out about 1/2 of my LR (that rock that had hair growing on it) and scrubbed it with a toothbrush. I know that sounds really crazy, but it did a lot of things. Of course it got rid of the algae, but it also rejuvenated the coraline that was under the hair. I really need to add a pic, but the tank is looking awesome now. I don't have a bunch of corals yet, but it sure looks a lot better than with the hair! :happy:
 
h2oengr

h2oengr

Member
BTW, a phosphate sponge isn't going to hurt. I'd try that also. Perhaps a polyfilter - takes out more than just phosphates.
 
stuckinfla

stuckinfla

Active Member
Every tank has its day.....Ben there, done that..... Every time this happens to me, I realize that its time to change my bulbs. Never had a prob w/hair, and never tested for phos. Been goin for 6yrs now.(ps.........used tap for six of them)
 
h2oengr

h2oengr

Member
If your tap source water is groundwater I think most will be safe. However, if you're unlucky enough to have a surface water source (lake) you're bound to get phosphate (among other things) buildups.
In FL, 90% of municipalities use groundwater - around the country, it's more like 50%. We (the city I work for) has a 4.0 million gallon/day reverse osmosis plant using groundwater. I love my job . . . :happy:
 
neowind

neowind

Member
I manually removed all Hair Algae from the sandbed today. I also scrubbed a couple rocks. Most of my rocks have coral on them so its hard to do without hurting the coral. So far so good. Going to do a 15% water change twice this week hopefully this will help. My bulbs are only about 3 months old or so but I am thinking of buying a new one because I bought the bulb from someone and they said they didn't use it but you never know.
 
judyk

judyk

Member
I'm having the same problem. I rubberbanded a toothbrush to my siphon hose to scrub and suck up the algae as I go along. It seems like whatever floats sticks to where it lands. I also got a lawnmower blennie and some emerald crabs. I'm told once the longer hair is gone they will control whatever grows back. We'll see.
 
h2oengr

h2oengr

Member
Don't forget to keep a close eye on your nitrates and phosphates. Those are the nutrients that contribute to the outbreaks!
 
hondo

hondo

Member
keep in mind that a 0 nitrate reading just means your hair algea is consuming them and producing more hair algea. try testing your top off water. Hair algea is caused by excess nutrients in the water and the only way they get there is by you putting them in there through your top off water, or the food you feed your fish with. If your top off water is not at fault then review what, when, and how much you feed the tank. Once you stop putting the nutrients into the tank your Hair algea will start to die back a bit.
Definitely run a skimmer as it takes the solid nutrients out of the water.
from a clean up crew stand point your a little thin as the bulk of your crew is nass snails whcih are great for detrius but will not touch hair algea. i would add some more snails. Try to remove as much manually as you can before allowing your clean up crew to do the rest as snails (trouchas) and red leg hermits usually won't do much damage to long hair algea, after you remove the big stuff they will clean the rest.
do you run a fuge? if not then you might want ot consider one as this is the best way to rid your tank of excess nutrients. Others will say a DSB also but jury is still out on that IMO.
The last thing to check is your lighting, how old are your bulbs. Old bulbs lose their spectrem and will cuase and contribute to hair algea outbreaks.
 
neowind

neowind

Member
Day um not sure but the hair algae has taken over again. Gotta love it. I have now added a temporary in tank refugium to fight for nutrients filled with macro algae. I have also added a few HUGE mexican turbo's and have a Sea Hare on order. I will win this battle but it seems to be taking forever.
 
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