Hair Algae help!!!

fishfood

fishfood

Member
Ok I bought my girlfriend a tank last march. I got excited and got it set up rather quickly. It cycled in about 3 days. Didn't put anything in for about a month. All of a sudden we have a huge hair algae problem. I told her i would ask for help here but wouldn't get much help without knowing the water quality. She doesn't do tests often. The problem is that she works for the lfs and does maintenance on like 10 tanks. Thus she is always doing water test. She will do some this weekend. We have a 55 gal tank with 3 24" VHO lights. We are using a fluval canister filter to filter and run the protien skimmer. it is an amaricle(sp?) Her boss told her we need a new Protien Skimmer. After reading many messages here i also realize that the cc is a problem. it is getting matted with the hair algae. Is there any help for us at this point. I'm in the process of setting up my 75gal tank and have learned from my mistakes. When we have $ i hope to change to a sump and replace the cc with sand. I'm a recent college graduate w/out a real job and she is a marine bio major with 2 yrs left and only works 10 hrs a week. We love this hobby but it is rough with no money :mad:
You will see posts on here quite a bit from me because i've been doing so much research and all of your exp. helps so much :)
Thanks
Drew
 
kelly

kelly

Member
Drew,
Contrary to popular belief, cc is not your problem. I have a tank that was set up several years ago with cc and an undergravel filter. I have no hair algae, and everything is doing well. I would check your water parameters, especially nitrates and phosphates.
You did not mention what you had in the tank. Could it be that you are overfeeding? Most likely there are too many nutrients in the tank which are fueling the hair algae. Do you have a clean up crew?
If your protein skimmer is not working properly, you may need a new one, but I am not sure that is the problem either. I run a skimmer that is powered by a wooden airstone, and it works well. Part of the problem may be that you may have a build up of "gunk" in the fluval which is acting as a nitrate factory. Limited water flow can also allow hair algae to flurish.
I am by no means advocating cc as a substrate, my next tank, a nano reef for my office, will have a DSB.
There are many posts on this forum about hair algae, do a search and read up.
Best of Luck
 
tomato clown

tomato clown

Member
Drew,
After having the same tank for over a year, I started getting nitrate spikes, due to this I have now seen alot of algea growth. Not alot so I am not going to worry about it too much, but I did accidentally overfeed one day (the can fell over into the tank)
Ever since I placed a skimmer in the tank the growth has stopped, as well I clean my filters out 1-2 times a week.
Dan
where in Fla are you? Boca area here! :)
 
fishfood

fishfood

Member
Well I was about to take everything out of the canister and just use it to hold some carbon and phosgaurd. I was able to get it and the Protien skimmer for free from my parents tank so decided to use it. Actually the lfs said it would be fine.
What i meant about the cc is that it is getting the worst of the algae
As far as livestock: blue eyed tang, perc clown, mandarin, royal gramma
two brittle stars, 1 cucumber, cleaner shrimp, 2 peppermint shrimp, 2 emerald cabs, 20 scarlet crabs, 30 blue legs, and roughtly 25 turbos
3 leathers (one of which i propogated and is doing great) green star frag that i refraged twice, green button frag, 3 gorgonians, and 3 different mushroom frags that have put off more than 15 new sprouts in the past 2 months.
Basically the last time i checked the water everything was great except for phosphate. Thus i added phosguard.
If i really don't need to waste money on a new protien skimmer that would be great. I'm just not sure how well mine is working. It is air stone driven and does get foam. The milk carton that the overflow from the skimmer goes to slowly fills up.
 
tomato clown

tomato clown

Member
Well if it's covering your substrate, then if room allows, maybe you could try something like a lawnmower blenny, or some other algea eater.
 
fishfood

fishfood

Member
Well I think I figured out the problem. It is the phosphate. I put more phosguard in the fluval and changed the filter material. My girlfriend always brings home RO water from the store she works at. She uses the water when she is maintaining some of the tanks that the store has around the area and we get the left over water(not used, but excess). Well after adding the phosguard, cleaning the foam in the fuval and a 25% water change the phosphate was still high. I tested the RO water and found out that the phosphate was very high. Some of the tanks that my girlfriend has been taking care of also started to get hair algea. So i found the problem and now need to buy my own RO system. Anyone have opinions on RO systems?
 
wamp

wamp

Active Member
Mithrax crabs... aka Emerald.. Another thing. I am not disagreing with all of the above however in my opinion, Hair Algea is a problem that comes and goes in alot of tanks. I have seen alot of tanks that a friend of mine maintains go through this and as quickly as it comes it goes away. Almost like part of a cycle. In my on tank I have had outbreaks the everyone blamed nitrates to phosphates to bad ro water. Truth is there are too many things to list that are the cause of this. I have found that in tanks (friends customers),and in my own, with other types of agea , calurpea (sp), there is very very little if any hair algea growth. I think that perhaps competion for nutrients drives the "bad" algea out.
My suggestion, Grow some other type of algea and get a Fish to eat it to balance it out.
 
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