hair algae

orthoboy

orthoboy

Member
Currently have a 100g tank with 80 lbs of LR and a 2 inch sandbed. The water parameters are fine, but just recently, I have had an abundance of brown hair algae. Most of it is centralized on the sand with some on the rocks. It is definitely hair-like and not matted on the sand. Any ideas what this is and what can I do to get rid of it? I have used a phosphate sponge, a good clean up crew (astrias, red scarlets, emerald crabs, and nassarius snails).
 
clarkiiclo

clarkiiclo

Active Member
I dont have a snail that will eat hair algae.
I can tell you that I dont have any hair algae and I have had my sea hare for 3 weeks.
 
norcalreef

norcalreef

Member
Use a toothbrush to scrub the rocks and siphon out the alage that gets suspedned in the water.
I had it bad on my rocks, after a couple weeks of scrubbing it was gone.
I added a fuge also, I think that made a huge differce in absorbing the nutriences
 
schneijt

schneijt

Member
IMO, you'll find that adding another fish to your tank will usually not make algae problems get much better. The key is to remove what is causing the algae. If you don't use RODI water, that's a big source of things algae thrive on. If you're overstocked or overfeed, there's a huge source of food for algae. The best thing for an algae outbreak is good maintenance. Make sure your skimmer's pulling out lots of gunk, do regular water changes, and cut back on the feeding. If you add anything, add a few snails and hermit crabs, but don't go any bigger than that or you'll just add more waste to the system for algae to feed on. Taking the crap out of the tank is more important than adding something to the tank when it comes to algae.
Hope this helps you, good luck. We all have algae problems...
-Joe S.
 
clarkiiclo

clarkiiclo

Active Member
Scrubbing the rocks is quite hard on micro flora/fauna
I tried that and it just scattered the algae to other rocks.
 
orthoboy

orthoboy

Member
Okay, after going through a checklist of why the outbreak occured, it appears the timer of lights was not working, and they were on for 48 hours (not good). I did do a water change and cleaned up the tank. When I check this morning (yes, the lights are working properly now), the algae is reduced but there is still some growing back on the sand bed. Not as much as before. What should I do now in order to completely eliminate the problem?
 
clarkiiclo

clarkiiclo

Active Member
You can use some aquarium hose- 1/2" or so and use it as a siphon when you do your water change.
Use your thumb to control the flow rate and skim just above the gravel sucking up the algae. Be careful because it will pick up snails really really easy.
 
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