what eats hair algea?
- Thread starter garycarr
- Start date
mebigloser
Member
What is your Phosphate reading?
saltaddict
Member
garycarr I recently bought Mexican Turbo Snails . I was a little wory at first these things are about 3 to 4 times larger than a normal snail. Well to make a long story short I placed two in muy tank andso far they are eating machines. I would recomend them over tangs and LB blenny. I'm starting to wonder if I should have bought just one.
clownfish1452
Member
My sail fin tang eats it right up. But i do not think they get along with anyother tangs.
Sarah
Sarah
clarkiiboi
Active Member
Try to manually remove as much as you can and then see what happens. Most wont go after such a long and dense patch. Can you easily remove that rock, if so, a good scrubbing in a bucket of SW and alot of rinsing off in SW would help out. HTH
trigger reid
Member
yeah turbo snails will take care of algaeon glass but hermit crabs take care of my algae
deuceb
New Member
I have the same problem with this annoying hair algae. I was told
that it is due to a high level of phosphates in the water. My local
saltwater fish store recommended that I buy some phosphate reducer
and that will help stop the growth of the algae. He also said using R.O.
water would work and that once you use R.O. water, you'll never go
back. Guess I'll try it.
that it is due to a high level of phosphates in the water. My local
saltwater fish store recommended that I buy some phosphate reducer
and that will help stop the growth of the algae. He also said using R.O.
water would work and that once you use R.O. water, you'll never go
back. Guess I'll try it.
doodle1800
Active Member
lawmower blenny
toddpolish
Member
royal urchin will mow down your hair algae
garycarr
Member
I already use a RO/DI unit and my phosphates are at .1 Is that high or acceptable? Removing it only causes it to spread since I have to rip it out to remove it. I dont know that I can remove the rock easily.
I have a LMB as well but he wont eat it either. Guess I will try a foxface and a urchin next.
I have a LMB as well but he wont eat it either. Guess I will try a foxface and a urchin next.
jhead
Member
I have to go with using a phosphate remover here also. I had a bad hair algae and Feather macro issue about a month ago. After arguing that there's no way that Phosphates were the issue I finally broke down and added some Kent Phosphate sponge to one of my filters and BAM! In less than a month almost all of the Feather macro in my display tank is gone. Feather macro is a true weed and almost impossible to get out of your tank without destroying the tank. The hair alga is about a third of what is used to be. I had one patch that was about 8 inches high and 5 inches across and about 2 inches deep. It's almost 2/3 gone and I can see the rock below again.
It all seemed to be great. Then I found out from a few sources that I should not be using an aluminum based remover in the reef tank I should be using a Feric oxide based remover. So I ordered some PhosBan and swapped out the Phosphate Sponge. At this point I can't tell that the PhosBan is working as good as the Phosphate Sponge and I can start to see the hair algae turn Blue green again. So I'm thinking about changing back at least long enough to get rid of the problem. None of my corals or inverts was the worse for it.
Hair algae create a real mess when it starts dieing. It turns a pale greenish yellow and then it starts to turn loose from the rock work and float around the tank and in to the filters. So you have to be on top of cleaning your filters. In addition once the alga started to change color the hermits went after it with a vengeance. It's kind of a trip I never noticed them eating it until it started to change colors, maybe there was more than they could make a dent in I'm not sure. It could be that the toxins in the algae where reduced and allowed them to eat it.
I guess what I'm trying to say is get some sort of phosphate remover and it will fix the problem. Hand weed as much as you can and it will help too. The next issue is to figure out where the phosphates are coming from and try and reduce it at the source. If you have detectable level of phosphates in your tank now then you'd have even more if the hair algae wasn't removing part it for you.
BTDT
(Stepping off the soapbox) HTH, GL
It all seemed to be great. Then I found out from a few sources that I should not be using an aluminum based remover in the reef tank I should be using a Feric oxide based remover. So I ordered some PhosBan and swapped out the Phosphate Sponge. At this point I can't tell that the PhosBan is working as good as the Phosphate Sponge and I can start to see the hair algae turn Blue green again. So I'm thinking about changing back at least long enough to get rid of the problem. None of my corals or inverts was the worse for it.
Hair algae create a real mess when it starts dieing. It turns a pale greenish yellow and then it starts to turn loose from the rock work and float around the tank and in to the filters. So you have to be on top of cleaning your filters. In addition once the alga started to change color the hermits went after it with a vengeance. It's kind of a trip I never noticed them eating it until it started to change colors, maybe there was more than they could make a dent in I'm not sure. It could be that the toxins in the algae where reduced and allowed them to eat it.
I guess what I'm trying to say is get some sort of phosphate remover and it will fix the problem. Hand weed as much as you can and it will help too. The next issue is to figure out where the phosphates are coming from and try and reduce it at the source. If you have detectable level of phosphates in your tank now then you'd have even more if the hair algae wasn't removing part it for you.
BTDT
(Stepping off the soapbox) HTH, GL