lots of hair algea
- Thread starter bking
- Start date
harlequin
Member
I have been fighting a major problem of this for 8 months now in my 55. The only thing that seems to work is water changes to suck the stuff out and snails. I finally found a species of big snails that seems to survive. Feathertop snails. Turbos die quickly. I cant even grow macro in a refugium because the hair algae will choke out the macro. Um one thing I did was set my skimmer at maximum to suck out as much as possible. Its been going now for about two months like this and the hair is slowing down. I know its not the water I add because i use the same in my other tank and have very little hair problems, what I do have in there could be corrected with a few more turbos who do fine. Try changing the bulbs on your lighting if they are too old. The goal is the find and cut off the source.
armageddon
Member
Kill the food source. Phosphates, nitrates, and silicates are all food sources for hair algae. Keep those levels low and cut down on your lighting. Of course a nice clean up crew will do wonders also.
Andrew
Andrew
beaslbob
Well-Known Member
Originally posted by bking
will the reduced light hurt mu curlyque anemone? just curious, and thanks for all the help,,,how do I get reid of or control all the chemicals they are talking about, like I said, still kinda new to this////
Probably.
What happens is the hair algae is more cellular and the macros are more specialized. And the anemone does need light. So the hair algae is faster growing (and dieing) than the macros and anemone. With reduced lighting the hair will die off faster. Meanwhile, if anything, the macros and anemone will grow faster using stored energy in an attempt to find light. Therefore, the macros and anemone can survive the reduced lighting longer than the hair. So when the lights come back on, the plant life is a much greater percentage of macros then before. then the macros take off using the new light. And the anemone recovers also. Obviously you want the lights to come back on long enough for the macros and anemone to regain their strength. And you have to adjust the lighting to allow the macros to grow but discourage the hair. this is obviously not something you want to be a permant thing. But a once to twice effort to overcome hair is a good thing.
beaslbob
Well-Known Member
Originally posted by bking
what would be a good schedule of lighting in the tank then,,,6 hours a day or more....
Actually it depends on your system. I turned the lights completely off in my macro algae tank for two weeks. All the hair died off and the macros and plants survived and were larger. then I reduced lighting and am still getting some hair. So now I am going to reduce the lighting further. You just have to experiment to determine what duration with your particular plants lights and livestock works. Once you get desirables ahead of the uglies then you can increase the lighting and allow the desirables to increase. eventually a very long duration will not result in the uglies. this is the reason I recommend the establishment of desirable plant life as the very first thing in tank setup. Once other live stock in in there (such as your anemone) it is much harder to control the uglies.
logen32
Member
yes that is the good thing about this prouduct, is that it is coral safe, and invertebrate safe. I was battling it for a very long time every time i thought it was over it came back, i used the red slime remover once and the next day i siffed it through and the slime did not come back.
I also turned of the lights and that did not work for me also. this is because it is more of a bactirea then an algae.
I also turned of the lights and that did not work for me also. this is because it is more of a bactirea then an algae.
lorin
Member
bking
I would switch to RO/DI water if you are using tap water. Start doing 10 to 20 percent water changes with RO/DI water. If you have high phosphates, use a produce that will absorb the phosphate and silicate from the water like Phosphate Sponge. My first tank (FO) I used tap water. After a year the algae was so bad that I was doing weekly 30% water changes so I could vacuum the algae from the crushed coral. I ran 2 40-watt fluorescents. This was the most frustrating thing. Ten months ago I took the fish back to the LFS and started over. I emptied the tank and added a DSB with lots of LR. I only use DI water in my tank. From day 1 I have not had a problem with algae. I run 500 watts of MH 10 hours a day and 220 watts of VHO 12 hours a day. I do not have a sump/fuge, no macros/plants. I have a great clean up crew, which includes: a fighting conch, several types of snails (Cerith, Mexican Turbo, Aesterea and Nassarius) and lots of starlets and 2 emeralds. I have 1 cleaner and 3 peppermint shrimp. Of all the changes that I made, I think the one that solved the algae problem the most was the DI water. Hope this helps Lorin
I would switch to RO/DI water if you are using tap water. Start doing 10 to 20 percent water changes with RO/DI water. If you have high phosphates, use a produce that will absorb the phosphate and silicate from the water like Phosphate Sponge. My first tank (FO) I used tap water. After a year the algae was so bad that I was doing weekly 30% water changes so I could vacuum the algae from the crushed coral. I ran 2 40-watt fluorescents. This was the most frustrating thing. Ten months ago I took the fish back to the LFS and started over. I emptied the tank and added a DSB with lots of LR. I only use DI water in my tank. From day 1 I have not had a problem with algae. I run 500 watts of MH 10 hours a day and 220 watts of VHO 12 hours a day. I do not have a sump/fuge, no macros/plants. I have a great clean up crew, which includes: a fighting conch, several types of snails (Cerith, Mexican Turbo, Aesterea and Nassarius) and lots of starlets and 2 emeralds. I have 1 cleaner and 3 peppermint shrimp. Of all the changes that I made, I think the one that solved the algae problem the most was the DI water. Hope this helps Lorin