green stuff everywhere

[signman]

Ibeen gone for 6 months and left my 210 eel tank for my daughter to yanke care of. got back and eels and fish are great but the tabk is covered in green fuzy weed . checked water and every think is at 0 and salt at 1.022 and ph is at 8.2 powerheads are all working. what can i do to remove this?

 

[jackri]

Looks like hair algae... if you have extra time and feel like having your hands wet start pulling... or get some hermit crabs/snails and a tang. You got your hands full.. good luck!

 

[signman]

i do have a med/large salfin tang and hermit crabs and have been pulling at this for to weeks now. i think that it looks like hair alge to but it don't want to go away.

 

[jackri]

Hair algae is a pain in the rear to get rid of. Easy way to get rid of it.. but how much do you like your live rock? you could dry it out and boil it and recure it (or something to that effect) and start with base rock again.
Sounds like something is fueling it yet though

 

[signman]

love my live rock and i have over 300 lbs but i don't know why it want stop. tank hase been up and running for 2 yr now i have a 3' snowflake eel and a 2.5' zebra eel and 2 tomato clowns and some damsels.

 

[jackri]

How big is your clean up crew?
How much do you feed?
Have a good skimmer?

 

[signman]

would have to say that they are getting small know don't know hoew many are left and the protien skimmer has been off for 4 months they told me. working on getting going again.

 

[snakeblitz33]

she overfed the tank while you were gone.
Check your top off water to make sure your water doesn't contain phosphates or nitrates. Then, decrease your illumination period to only 2-4 hours a day. Pick out as much as you can. While you are picking, dip your fingers in freshwater before you put your fingers back in the tank. Siphon out as much as you can at first off of the sandbed. Then, add a UV sterilizer to kill the extra hair algae spores in the water column.
Once you have done all of that, you will probably see a pretty good dent in the hair algae. Go to your live fish store and order a "sea hare" one should definately suffice. Make sure that your tank isn't in any contact with direct sunlight. Stop feeding your fish so much. Especially if you have only herbivores.
Good luck with everything. I hope all goes well. IF you need any additional assistance, PM me or send me an e-mail. Ta Ta

 

[snakeblitz33]

Definately get your skimmer going again as well as you can. Should pull out a bunch of skimmate if possible. Consider building a turf algae filter. The hair algae will grow on the screen instead of in your tank.

 

[jackri]

Great advice on the sea hare! Yeah sounds like overfeeding and no skimming while you were gone.. recipe for algae unfortuantely

 

[snakeblitz33]

Personally, if hair algae wasn't such an invasive species and can become a problem... I don't mind the look of it when it becomes cleanly matted on stuff. lol!!!

 

[signman]

thank you sounds like a great start, but i know that she did not over feed as pre my wife she did not feed half of what i told her that my wife had to make her feed i feed shrimp or squid 1 time a week to the eels and a pinsh of flake to the clowns 1 time a day. i have a refuge that is full of brillo alge that looks great and is just full of pods and the lighting is just 260 of pc lights for 8 hours i will cut that back to 2 hours and thank you for that advise:

 

[creekchub]

I went and picked me up a Sea Hare this afternoon, he start on the hair algea shortly after in the tank. Kinda ugly looking, buy he's doin the job......
I'm sold on him.

 

[signman]

how will do with my eels ? i got a lawnmower blenny and the loved him to death!!!!!!!!!!

 

[snakeblitz33]

I'm not sure if he will be fine with eels or not. I think he's toxic to things that eat him, so I'm sure they might leave him alone. I really don't know for sure though.
If you have PC lights, the spectrum of your lights is definately gone bad, especially after 6 months. You should really change your lights once every four months. You see, hair algae loves light that is yellowish red, and so that's what has happened as well.
Too many phosphates in the water - (overfeeding), not enough water changes, and your skimmer not working have definately contributed. If you want something that will completely get rid of it in one month - not only change your lights, but also create a turf algae filter. It will definately get the job done.

 

[signman]

lights have not been changed since i was gone. gothe skimmer back up and running. turned off lights and will run them 2 hours aday. will do a water change next weekend since i use ro water and it takes a day or two to make the 25 gals to do a water change. thank you

 

[snakeblitz33]

Your welcome. If you have any other questions, just Private message me or e-mail me.

 

[sean48183]

Hair algae is both a curse and blessing all in one. It makes your tank look nasty but puts O2 in your tank and chews up phosphates and nitrates like no other. Like Snake blitz said the idea is to get it to grow somewhere beside your display tank. A long shallow tank with intense 65k light on it will really make it flourish. All tanks over time become nitrtate factories overtime just do to crap getting under rocks and stuff like that. I tried 2 sea hares and they both got stuck on my powerheads within 2 days of being in my tank.