hair Algae

dazed1

dazed1

Member
yes, another green hair algae thread. Sorry :(
Well, the tank that I have in my sig has been up since august/september of 2001. I did not use RO water from the begining, but switched to RO sometime in Late September/october. Have had my lights since Mid october. i never had a hair algae problem till recently. I've been having diatom's for a while now ( reducing though). I have also been using seachem's phos-guard since I do have some phosphate's present.
Now, I did get one emerald crab last weekend, and it is working constantly on my rock. I already have a scooter blenny so do not want to/plan on getting a LMB just for the algae.
I have a few blue legged crabs, but they don't seem to be doing much.
I need something to get rid of the hair algae that's growing on the sand bed. I did take some of it out, but it keep's growing. I'm using RO water that you get in Jug's in store's. (Great Bear brand purified water).
I also added nassarius snail's which do dig in below the sand. I'm going to cut down on feeding the tank with phytoplex and brine shrimp from once a day to once every other day.
I'm not too sure on if I should reduce the lighting hour's since I have a candy cane coral.
Any thought's/ Suggestion's ? I do not want to buy a RO unit, mainly because I was going to spend 60$ in purchasing an external skimmer, and since I live in an APT, i cannot permanently plumb anything.
Thank's :)
-Mayur
 
birdy

birdy

Active Member
Test your RO water for phosphates.
There has to be nutrients in the water for the algae to be growing. If you know you have phosphates in your tank water then you should do water changes and continue with the phophate sponge. And reduce your photoperiod.
 
dazed1

dazed1

Member

Originally posted by dburr
Have you changed the phos-guard? They will become exhausted and leach.
Well, that could be a little problem. I now started changing them every 48hrs. Otherwise, i used to run it for day's.
Can it make it too bad ? :(
 
birdy

birdy

Active Member
It will just release the phosphates back into your system that it had already taken out, I leave mine in for 48hrs at a time.
 
dazed1

dazed1

Member

Originally posted by Birdy
It will just release the phosphates back into your system that it had already taken out, I leave mine in for 48hrs at a time.
Thank's. I'll try that over the next week or two. In the mean time, i know i have few blue legged crab's and will probably add 10 more this week.
Any other hermit I should add ? maybe a few scarlet's ?
 
birdy

birdy

Active Member
I think my snails did a better job on the hair algae than crabs, except my emerald crabs they ate the stuff pretty good.
 
dazed1

dazed1

Member

Originally posted by Birdy
I think my snails did a better job on the hair algae than crabs, except my emerald crabs they ate the stuff pretty good.
What kind of snail's ? My emerald is feeding on the rock's,but it is too much for him to handle :( . I need something to eat off the sand bed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top