hair alage is driving me nuts

rgaynor81

Member
Originally Posted by BigDaddyC
http:///forum/post/3171851
I had a wicked case of Hair Algae. I killed it by hours and hours of pulling it, along with 3 days of no light, (recomended by lfs) and a phosban reactor. It has worked for me.
do you have coral in the tank i was told thst you could not eave the lights out. How long did it take for you to get rid of it. My battle will start today.yeah
 

i<3reefs

Member
Algae is a symptom, you need to find the illness. Phosban reactors are a great bandaid, to help you get past the aggravation. Is it really necessary for you to feed your aquarium that often? I feed mine every 2 to 3 days, while supplementing my tang with part of a nori sheet. Having something eat the algae really doesn't get rid of the algae, it just trims it back. I use pellet, manufactured frozen, and I blend my own food. I have zero hair algae in my aquarium.
I am a really big fan of a refugium that is the correct or even to large for the DT. The more plants you can grow and pull out of that refugium the cleaner your aquarium will stay. I've never seen a DT that was free of hair algae without a solid refugium (I've never personally seen a turf scrubber in action).
 

posiden

Active Member
Originally Posted by rgaynor81
http:///forum/post/3171883
do you have coral in the tank i was told thst you could not eave the lights out. How long did it take for you to get rid of it. My battle will start today.yeah

Lights out for no longer then three days with corals in the tank IMO. You will be just fine. I have only read of one person having ill effects from it on one coral. I think there was other issues going on and not the lights out period. I have done the three day blackouts a few times. I have never had any issues.
 

cdposey26

Member
You can try a product called algaefix marine, I know suggesting an additive will cause some disagreement, but the product works and is reef safe and it will help you get it to manageable levels pretty quickly
 

bigdaddyc

New Member
Originally Posted by rgaynor81
http:///forum/post/3171883
do you have coral in the tank i was told thst you could not eave the lights out. How long did it take for you to get rid of it. My battle will start today.yeah
I do have coral in the tank. 3 days with no light did not phase my corals. Not saying that it won't hurt corals, but the approach I was taking was to starve the hair algae. My corals opened up after day 3 and show growth.
 

rgaynor81

Member
Originally Posted by rgaynor81
http:///forum/post/3171883
do you have coral in the tank i was told thst you could not eave the lights out. How long did it take for you to get rid of it. My battle will start today.yeah
Wow that did not make much sense. I guess i was just a little upset that day. Oh well here is the update on saturday i started at 10am and got done around 9:30pm no lunch or dinner. I starting by taking out some of the smaller peices of rock that were on top scrubing them all down and getting all the HA off i then filled a 5 gallon half with water from tank and the other half was water that i made up put all the small peices of rock in there. I then got might hands in there and removed 99% of HA of all the bigger rocks i then removed all the power heads, filter box, bio balls and relaced all filter pads/sponges even went to the extreme of cleaning off some of the snails that had HA on them and last thing i did was a 15% water change. Sunday went to LFS got a new 150w mh bulb and frozen food and know today i feel like i was ran over by a mac truck. Going back to the store today to get something to take care of the phosphates. What a weekend.
 

browniebuck

Active Member
don't lettuce nudibranches also eat hair algae? I know that once the hair algae is gone, they usually end up going as well, but if the tank has so much, this may be an avenue to go...I had a couple in my 55 when I had hair algae and they did a really nice job on it while I was trying to get things under control myself.
 

meowzer

Moderator
WOWWWW!!!! I was just looking up Chemipure Elite.....for a 225G tank I have to buy 46oz...at $36.......
TELL ME, IS it worth it??? If so I will get it
 

rgaynor81

Member
Originally Posted by meowzer
http:///forum/post/3173040
WOWWWW!!!! I was just looking up Chemipure Elite.....for a 225G tank I have to buy 46oz...at $36.......
TELL ME, IS it worth it??? If so I will get it
You know i just goggle Chemipure Elite it seems like pretty good stuff. Hopefully can get some postive feedback back on this product and i might go for it.
 

meowzer

Moderator
Originally Posted by rgaynor81
http:///forum/post/3173053
You know i just goggle Chemipure Elite it seems like pretty good stuff. Hopefully can get some postive feedback back on this product and i might go for it.
I asked someone I trust 200%...and he said he uses it....that's good enough for me..LOL...I am in the process of ordering it right now :)
 

rgaynor81

Member
I was thinking if i got what looks to be 99% of all HA out of tank by scrubing rock/picking doing a 15% water change right after and cleaning filter and everything esle with HA on it, get something to control the phos.,already have cheato in fuge to control the trates will it kill off alot of my clean up crew since there wont be much alage growing due to the lack of phos/trates?
 

meowzer

Moderator
What do you have for CUC? Now a sea-hare needs algae, but most other cuc eat the detrius and bacterias....etc...etc, so you should be fine
 

posiden

Active Member
Says he has variuos snails and hermits on page 1.
Sounds like you are off to a great start on getting ahead of this. Don't loose your steam. Also try not to burn yourself out. Pace yourself, it will take some time for the issue to go away. Sounds like you are doing really well.

Did you get that phosphate media? Doesn't sound like you did.
 

rgaynor81

Member
Originally Posted by Posiden
http:///forum/post/3173333
Says he has variuos snails and hermits on page 1.
Sounds like you are off to a great start on getting ahead of this. Don't loose your steam. Also try not to burn yourself out. Pace yourself, it will take some time for the issue to go away. Sounds like you are doing really well.

Did you get that phosphate media? Doesn't sound like you did.
I went with the Chemipure Elite heard good things about it. Put it in last night.
 

mastertech

Member
I was told to get various snails when i first started 2 months ago and the lfs taked me into get 5 very large turbos. 2-2 1/2 inch in dia. and they have mowed down all my algae. some times i wonder if they have enough food now that the hair algae is gone.
(old post of mine https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/365958/it-was-dumped-on-me-please-help )
 
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