hair algae

[modhatr]

has anyone had to deal with hair algae? what did you do to get rid of it? ive had two small sea hares, various snails, red leg hermits, and a lawnmower blenny. i have a 75, water tests fine, its not next to a window and i only run my lights six hours. so whats up...who has had the battle of the hair algae and won..... thanks for the help :help:

 

[lion_crazz]

When you say water tests fine, what do you mean? What are your nitrates? Do you use tap or RO water? Have you tested your water source for phosphates and silicates?

 

[modhatr]

i take my water into my lfs who ive had no problems and they have only given me good advice. they cut me good deals, give me crap without paying( "pay me the next time your in"), plus they call me by my first name. so i trust them completely. i had them test my water yesterday and they said everything is good except my ph was at 8.0.....just a little low. last time i personally tested, june 25 nitrite was 0, nitrate was 2, po4 was 0, i do get my water from a water machine that has the last service date posted and if it been more than 5 days i wait til it gets serviced again or go to the lfs. so im pretty sure its not the water...but im baffled :notsure:

 

[modhatr]

dont test for silicates.....think i should :thinking:

 

[lion_crazz]

Yes, I think you should test for silicates. Most RO units do not take out silicates, only RO/DI units usually do.

 

[monalisa]

I did do the battle of the hair algea for a while...a long while. I took much of the advice from this board and cut my lighting time down, from 10 to 7.5-8 hours, cut down on the feeding and did water changes like crazy with RO. I had been using RO from the start, but the algea came in on some live rock that I purchased. It takes a long time, but with subtle changes you'll start to see the algea begin to diminish. Work it, and give it time. I'm happy to say that at the moment, my tank is hair algea-free...Finally!!

Best of luck to you. Be patient.
PS, I also added a handful of chaeto algea to my tank because that's supposed to take care of phosphates...try that too!! It seems to me that shortly after adding that the hair algea really started to thin out.
Lisa :happyfish

 

[jerthunter]

I battled hair algae for awhile and what I think finally helped me win the battle was the fact that I added chaeto and doubled my number of snails...

 

[ajwaters]

i tried to pull all my algea off the rocks did water change with different RO sourse and put a poly (sp) filter in the sump spaces

 

[modhatr]

Originally Posted by lion_crazz
Yes, I think you should test for silicates. Most RO units do not take out silicates, only RO/DI units usually do.

ok so i tested for silicates and it come up 0

.....any other ideas :notsure: :thinking:

 

[rusting]

More snails. Lots of snails.

 

[modhatr]

Originally Posted by rusting
More snails. Lots of snails.
turbo snails? i do know that i am slacking in the snail dept. thanks for the help.....

 

[nano_nut]

I think i've read that Cerith snails are good with hair algea...not sure what else.

 

[payton 350]

if possible try to remove as much as you can...scrub the rocks ..preferable outside the tank with tank water..use a toothbrush.....or if you absolutely have to in the tank...or cut the hair down..make it short....most of these snails and fish won't touch it if it is to long

 

[rusting]

Unread Yesterday, 11:29 PM
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if possible try to remove as much as you can...scrub the rocks ..preferable outside the tank with tank water..use a toothbrush.....or if you absolutely have to in the tank...or cut the hair down..make it short....most of these snails and fish won't touch it if it is to long
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Save your change water, and clean your rock in a bucket, or a storage tub works great to.

 

[modhatr]

thanks everyone for the suggestions. i do have alot of corals, so they kinda tie most of my rock work together,which makes it hard to remove the rock from the tank but i do use the toothbrush method of removal...haha. so i will continue with that and add a bazillion snails..... haha. here go's nothin. thanks again for everyones suggestions.