How do you get rid of green hair algae?

[trainfever]

How do you get rid of green hair algae? I have a refugium and the macroalgae in there is doing great, so I am baffled as to why I would get green hair algae in my display tank. I thought the macroalgae would overpower the microalgae?

 

[speg]

No no.. macro will help in keeping micro out.. but its not meant to remove all microalgae. Macroalgae needs phosphates just like Microalgae needs.. so if both are competeing for nutrients.......... well you get the idea..
Firstly and most importantly - what kinda water are you using? Tap? Use RO water. Thats the best key for keeping algae down.
Secondly - try reducing your lighting time in your MAIN tank for a little while until the problem is solved. If your refugium is nowhere near your main tank keep the light on it for longer to promote the growth of your macroalgae to try and combat against the micro. If you dont have a reef tank you can reduce the light-on time in your main tank by a lot.
Thirdly - hows your clean-up crew? If you think you're lacking go pick up a few mexican turbo snails or similar snails to try and help you control your problem.
Fourthly - How often are you feeding? Try cutting back to once a day and make sure you moderate your amounts making sure its all consumed within a very short amount of time.
Stay away from using things like phosphate removers, as that will take food away from your macroalgae.

 

[trainfever]

My refugium is underneath my tank. The light on the fuge is on 24 hrs a day. I cut the lighting in my main tank from 14 hrs to 8 hrs. I am using RO water. I have at least 15 hermits and at least 15 snails in a 45 gallon tank. I only feed once a day and the food is gone in minutes.

 

[speg]

What kinda snails? Go rent some mexican turbos until the problem is under control.. I tell you.. these things are crazy fast as cleaning up just about anything green
Where you getting the RO from? Maybe they need to change their friggin filters!
How BAD is the hair algae problem?

 

[trainfever]

I have bumble bee snails, cerith snails, astrailia snails(not sure of spelling). Right now I would say maybe 4 to 6 square inches total spread out on a few rocks, but the majority of it is on the top of one of my powerheads and some on the cable. There's not really much of it but I want to get a hold of it before it gets out of control.

 

[speg]

Ahh... I pictured a green tank Well thats not too big of a deal then.. really the only snails you got in what you said that will clean up algae are the astrea snails.. cerith snails will a bit but they stay pretty small.. so they cant do much. Astrea snails in my opinion are so slow at cleaning algae... I know they do most of their work at night.. but even so I hardly see mine move at night all that much.. but my turbo snails are the pwn, they clean powerheads, cords, rocks, glass, sand, anything they can fit themselves on/into.. they are there.. they even crawled out of my tank and into my outside overflow box a few times (recently fixed that problem). I'd say work up a bigger clean-up crew for your small outbreak.

 

[jacksdad]

h* Patience, a pair of tweezers and a clean up crew!