Long Hair Algae

hab2001

hab2001

Member
I've been fighting long hair algae for about 3 months now and I'm not sure what else to do. To give a little history, I have a 90g FOWLR with wet/dry filter system. I have 4 powerheads in my tank at various locations. I have 1 blue tang, 1 yellow tang, 2 clowns, 1 chromis, 1 shrimp, snails, hermit crabs. I have been doing my water changes monthly and I even took out some of the live rock and scrubed it to help remove the algae which didn't help much. I even added a PhosBan Reactor about 5 months ago just to head off problems like this and it hasn't helped. I checked my water specs which seemed to be ok which were Nitrate=20, Nitrite=0, Alk=120, PH=7.0 (roughly and a little low). I'm thinking the problem might be my lights which I haven't changed in over 1.5 years and thought that they might be out of phase but I'm not sure. Any help that someone can provide to get rid of this algae would be great. Thanks
 
koldsouth

koldsouth

Member
This is a good Question. I am also Fighting Hair Algae right now,
I have tried the "Less Light". I have 3 Emerald Crabs that keep certain rock pretty much clean. My glass has cleared up for the most part. But I still have some spots that are growing bigtime.(pictured) I have a Lawnmower Blenny comming this week. I hope he helps some,,What snails should I have?
This is a good thread for some of the more expirenced people to help us out with there tricks for keeping the algae down. any and all suggestions are welcome.


 
yossaria

yossaria

Member
I have found that cyanobacteria and green hair algae are extremely dependent on aquarium lighting. Within the first 6 months of setting up my tank, I experienced both of these nuisances. I found that if I kept the aquarium lighting off for two solid days that both green hair algae and cynaobacteria were eliminated. My aquarium happens to be in my office so the room lights were also off as well. I was totally shocked by how well this worked. Theis treatment did not seem to have a noticeable effect on my corals or anemone. My tank has been free of these algaes for over a year and a half now. A colleague of mine also tried this out in his reef tank and experienced the same success.
Hope this work for you as well as it did for me.
Cheers,
Yoss
 
koldsouth

koldsouth

Member
Originally Posted by NaClH2O Nut
http:///forum/post/2987944
What kind of water do you use?
Well water, But the Phosphates have been tested and they are only 0.25 comming out of the ground. PH is only in the 6's so the Instand Ocean gets it right. Amo. Trite and Trate test out at 0
 
cwolf88

cwolf88

New Member
Hi! I just had a hair algea problem also and some people on here and at the fish store recommended turbo snails and they have helped my problem considerably!!Hope that helps!
 
sickboy

sickboy

Active Member
Originally Posted by hab2001
http:///forum/post/2987803
I've been fighting long hair algae for about 3 months now and I'm not sure what else to do. To give a little history, I have a 90g FOWLR with wet/dry filter system. I have 4 powerheads in my tank at various locations. I have 1 blue tang, 1 yellow tang, 2 clowns, 1 chromis, 1 shrimp, snails, hermit crabs. I have been doing my water changes monthly and I even took out some of the live rock and scrubed it to help remove the algae which didn't help much. I even added a PhosBan Reactor about 5 months ago just to head off problems like this and it hasn't helped. I checked my water specs which seemed to be ok which were Nitrate=20, Nitrite=0, Alk=120, PH=7.0 (roughly and a little low). I'm thinking the problem might be my lights which I haven't changed in over 1.5 years and thought that they might be out of phase but I'm not sure. Any help that someone can provide to get rid of this algae would be great. Thanks
I would definitely change out your lights...immediately. They are probably giving off the wrong spectrum and fueling the growth. Also, I would go to weekly water changes to keep your nitrates down. If you have bad hair algae and it still registers at 20ppm, then you have a lot in there as the algae is sucking it up. The phosphate rx is a good investment.
 
pissyfish

pissyfish

Member
i had a little hair algae and a huge diatom bloom for the first three months. i got a good cuc (hermits, astrea and cerith) and the hair algae disappeared. i attributed it to new tank syndrome and a lacking cuc!
 
girlina4x4

girlina4x4

Member
As with most algea, check your phos. Increase flow. Decrease lighting schedule. Pick out hair algea by hand/siphon. Getting a new critter only disguises the problem...
 
naclh2o nut

naclh2o nut

Member
Originally Posted by koldsouth
http:///forum/post/2988072
Well water, But the Phosphates have been tested and they are only 0.25 comming out of the ground. PH is only in the 6's so the Instand Ocean gets it right. Amo. Trite and Trate test out at 0
Have you checked TDS in the well water? The Instant Ocean that you are referring to is what? Salt?Ph buffer?
And yes it's probably the lights. The catch here is new lights will probably set off an algea bloom!

So change bulbs and reduce the lenght of time that they are on.( alot) then add time back slowly.
 
dschwartz

dschwartz

Member
Similar situation for me - added new Sundial T5 HO to my 29 gallon about 6 days ago and saw increase in brown algae a couple days later and first outbreak of green hair algae two days ago. I've shut the lights off for today and possibly tomorrow...
what would all of you recommend as far as introducing the lights in a more gradual way in order to reduce the chance of algae blooms? Start off with an hour a day and add 30-60 minutes each day until up to 8 hours or is that too quick?
Thanks,
David.
 
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