Please Help with Hair Algae

[pclown]

My tank has been up for six months and about 2 month ago I had a breakout hair algae that I have been fighting with. I believe I have it under control where it is not spreading anymore or not much.
Ammonia - 0, Nitrites - 0, Nitrates - 0, PH - 8.4, Alk - 10.8, Phosphates - between 0 - 0.1
I have a 24g Aquapod w 150MH Lighting
20# LS
35# LR
Using Phosgaurd and Purigen (Replace monthly)
Weekly water changes with RO water only, Top offs are RO water only
I feed once daily, 4 x week with Formula one Pellet and 3 x week with frozen Brine Plus.
I have 2 perc. clowns and a royal gramma
1 cleaner shrimp
1 emerald crab
5 blue leg hermits and 5 scarlett hermits
I believe that the reason it started was I was over feeding and was not rinsing of the frozen food but now I under feed and for two weeks only fed ever other day. I rinse off the frozen food really good before I add it and I try to add only what I can see them eat.
I have been picking out the algae by hand but I dont want to take all my corals and live rock out to scrub.
Please any help will be great!! I need sucess stories or advice or a maricle fix any thing right now.
Thanks

 

[reefnut]

Are there any corals in the tank?? If not, shut the lights off for a week or so and then do a good water change. I also think you need a larger cleaner crew... more hermits and some omnivore snails.

 

[teen]

if itsa not spreading anymore, i would add to your clean up crew. a couple more emeralds. some nassarius snails, a mexican turbo,a few scarlet hermits, sallylightfoot, a queen conch, or persian conch. also, how many hours a day do you run your lights?

 

[pclown]

Thanks for the help, I run my lights between 9 and 10 hrs a day. I have thought of adding more to my cleanup crew.

 

[pclown]

Oh, I do have several corals that depend on light.

 

[teen]

i would add to the clean up crew and cut down your lights to 8 hrs a day for a while and see if it starts to go away. then if it goes away, you can keep the lights on 9- 10 again.

 

[pclown]

I have read where if I should stop the weekly water changes and go about a month that it will help. I have read where once you get hair algae to stop with weekly water changes and it will help it go away as long as your Nitrates are not high.
I also have a decent amout of Macro Algae growing behind my live rock to help control nutrients.
I do think I will be adding a turbo snail and a few more hermits.
I thought about adding a bi-color Bleeny but do they really eat hair Algae? I always here about this or that but it hasnt worked for me.

 

[klaramore]

cut the light to 8 hrs

 

[pyro]

I wouldn't cut the water changes unless you are using tap water. The reason some get more algae after water changes is because they are adding the PO4's and silicates from the tap water and giving the algae more to grow off of.
My $.02

 

[symon]

I have had hair alge for some time now, I really think that cutting the water changes have helped! Also i have carefully removed LR and scrubbed the heck out of it, It does seem to have stopped spreading but is still there!
I wonder if anything will actually eat the hair alge, Rabbit fish will eat it, But then again not always!
The other thing is, if you are feeding your fish once a day , they will not look for food, so adding to your cleanup crew and cutting back on feeding even more still should help!

 

[pclown]

Thanks for the Help

 

[jbyrd]

I use polyOx in my 75gal. I had a red hair alge problem. With this it has taken acouple of weeks at 21 drops/twice a day (3 drops/gallon) but all of it is almost gone very little left. I think there is another product called ChemClean that works fast but cost more. These are safe for reef tanks!!

 

[shoimen]

I had a huge issue with Green Hair Algae.
I started by reducing the main tank hours. Didnt help much.
I had been scrubbing the rock in the tank, but that was the worst idea...every spec of the algae that is scrubbed off the rock will settle somewhere and grow there.
I took 2 steps to clean the rocks...
First, I took the BAD pieces and placed them in my quarantine tank for about 2 weeks with VERY little light. After that time they were mostly clean. I used an electronic tooth brush and scrubbed the rest IN THE QUARANTINE TANK, shook them off and then returned them to the main tank.
Second, I took the rest of the rocks from my main tank and one by one....scrubbed off all the algae with the toothbrush, shaked them off and then placed them back in the main tank.
Now, I have a few small patches of it, but nothing compared to it previously.
Obviously use caution if the rocks have corals on them.

 

[valgae]

I Had A Bad Case Of Hair Algae A While Back Used A Prod Called Marine S.a.t. Worked In Like Two Weeks An Oz Per 10gal Once A Week Some How Takes The Food The Algae Lives On Out Of The System Just Scrub And Syphon Out. Safe For Corals Too.

 

[pclown]

Thanks everyone, I have cut my lights to seven hours a day and I am going to go 3 weeks before I do my next water change and I will also check out the product you all have mentioned. I dont want to take my rock so I will try to remove it from inside the tank.

 

[pclown]

Ok, my cleanup crew now consist of
1 cleaner shrimp
1 emerald crab
13 blue leg hermits
7 scarlett hermits
2 Cerith Snails
2 Bumble Bee Snails
2 Astrea Snails
And a Pincushion Urchin
What do you think?