Please Help With Hair Algae

jw1977

jw1977

Member
I've about had it with my hair algae problem. If I can't get on top of it I may have to give up the hobby. I have a 46 gallon bowfront with t5 ho lighting, skimmer, and emperror 280 filter. I do water changes every other week. I only have 2 fish left, a black clown and and a wrasse. I have a CUC as well as many corals although they are almost completely covered by hair algae. I've been dosing reef buffer in my top of water as well as reef builder and reef complete 2x a week. This is what my lfs told me to do. It's probably also time for new bulbs as mine are around 16 months old.
Can someone please help me, I'll try anything at this point. Thanks
 
S

smartorl

Guest
First, what are your actual water parameters? How many hours a day do you run your lights? How and what do you feed? What water are you using for top offs and changes? How large of changes are you doing?
Definitely time to change the bulbs, they could be contributing to the problem but I doubt they were be the root of it all.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

I hope you have your own test kits..
I also hope you have not been dosing your tank without first testing to see if you even need to dose.
What you need are algae eaters, scrub your rock in a bucket of saltwater to get as much HA off as possible. This will give algae eaters a head start. With a proper CUC and lower your feedings, the HA should be under control.
Old bulbs and overfeeding are the main causes of HA. Once it gets going it spreads like fire. This is why you need to give algae eaters a head start.
 
jw1977

jw1977

Member
I use RO water for top offs and water changes. I feed every other day. I alternate between mysis and pellets for food. I do have my own test kits but I've been relying mostly on the lfs. I'll find the last test and post the results. I've been dosing based on the tests at the lfs. I run the light 8 hours a day.
If I scrub the rocks, what do i do with the rocks that have corals on them. Do I just kill the coral? When you say a bigger filter, do mean like the emperror 400? I used to have that one but then I switched when it died since i had the 280 laying around. Thanks for teh responses
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
YES, a more powerful filter...also do you have powerheads? You can feed good foods in small amounts 1x a day....just not the pellets....I have them...I use them periodically for a snack....(maybe 1x a week) and a pinch
soak your food in ro water before feeding, get an emerald crab....NO DO NOT scrub the corals off.....You can manually pick the HA off daily....
this will not be easy, nor will it be quick....you have to be very diligent with your work.....do more frequent w/c's also.....
 
jw1977

jw1977

Member
I do have poweheads. I have two Koralia 2's. Do I need more? I had an emerald crab but i haven't seen him for some time.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Get another one...also sally lightfoot crabs are good algae eaters.....as are the large turbo snails
work on getting your new bulbs too
Do the stuff listed all above, and you should have a good start.....JUST REMEMBER, it will not go away overnight
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Originally Posted by jw1977
http:///forum/post/3299353
I've about had it with my hair algae problem. If I can't get on top of it I may have to give up the hobby. I have a 46 gallon bowfront with t5 ho lighting, skimmer, and emperror 280 filter. I do water changes every other week. I only have 2 fish left, a black clown and and a wrasse. I have a CUC as well as many corals although they are almost completely covered by hair algae. I've been dosing reef buffer in my top of water as well as reef builder and reef complete 2x a week. This is what my lfs told me to do. It's probably also time for new bulbs as mine are around 16 months old.
Can someone please help me, I'll try anything at this point. Thanks
16 months!!!!!
Hmmmmm spectrum shift, along with the heavy feeding regimen you have.....Cut the food way back..... Find yourself a quality food instead of the pellets......Filter???? I won't even comment
 
jw1977

jw1977

Member
Is feeding every other day a heavy feeding regimen? Also, i'm still confused about scraping all of the rock of the hair algae. Don't I have to take it out of the tank? How do I do that without killing the coral? Do I make a separate bucket of saltwater just for cleaning out the hair algae?
 
jw1977

jw1977

Member
Would a canister filter be a better option than the emperror 400? Wouldn't i be better off to pull each rock out and put it into a tub of saltwater and then scrape all the algae off?
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Depends on the canister.....they are a little more involved...with your HOB, you can take stuff out and add more within seconds....with the canister you will have to take it apart each time
 
IDK what you have living on your rocks.....YES, you can take a bucket of tank water...put the rock in it, and clean the algae off...
 
then I would take another bucket of tank water, and rinse the rock before placing it back in the tank
 
 
tim514

tim514

Member
Whenever I see any signs of hair algea i scrub my rocks with a toothbrush. It usually gets into those hard to reach areas and removes the hair algea at the base. Do not do this with large clumps of hair algea, but after you pick 90% of it with your hands or tweezers i would recommend doing this to remove the "roots" or "base" of the hair algea that still remains. Then proceed to do a water change to remove the phosphates from the water.
 
you should also add a phosphate filter with Carbon and Phosphate reducer. Keep this running 24/7 and change the filters every two weeks or so. Once you get the hair algea problem under control you can change the filters at a normal schedule.
 
If you have any rocks without corals, remove them and scrub them in a bucket of salt water. Then rinse them in a bucket of fresh salt water. When i did this i did a water change and used that water to scrub and rinse my rocks.
 
Get a lawnmower blenny if you have room for another fish. You can always bring the fish back if you don't want to keep the fish forever.
 
 
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