Why do i have hair algae??

aarone

aarone

Active Member
I have had a problem with hair algae for the past month now.
I had my water professionally tested with a medusa electronic test kit.
Nitrates 0
phosphates less than .5
silicate 0
What is going on? My bulbs are bnrand new. No sunlight...DSB with a good clean up crew. This sucks...I have not noticed any new growth but my snails constantly are regrowing it on their shells ( i think they touch it alot)
please help.
aaron
 
salisbury a d

salisbury a d

Member
I have hair algae also and have had it all but the first year i set up my tank. I have tried to get rid of it but nothing has my tests are perfect. I have tried yellow tangs lawnmower blennies, growing macro algaes, shorter light time longer light time and no sunlight. None of these worked except my emrald crabs like it but only when it is short enough for them to eat. And they arent very efficient at removing all of it.
Next i am gonna try a lettuce nudibranch but i dont know if that will work.
I hate it but i have learned to live with it and i clean it out whenever i get the time.
Adam
 
aarone

aarone

Active Member
will do. I have not noticed any new patches for quite some time. I know it cannot be the nitrates I havea 6 inch DSB on my 28. Trates are at zero.
I really need to know the best removal method.
aaron
 
aarone

aarone

Active Member
28 gallon
6 line wrasse
watchman wheeler goby
2 maroon clowns
each fish is under 2 inches...(that doesnt matter though)
RO/di
I feed about 1/3 cube of mysis shrimp once every 2 days
I also dose DT's every week (1 cap)
aaron
 
rwhite

rwhite

Member
Hate to say it but the way I got rid of my hair problem was to scrub the rocks and such and do frequent water changes. I dont wish this task on anyone esp. with an established tank. Hope you figure out the problem and good luck. BTW I also added maco to the mix and it seems to have made a diff for me.
 
hirock

hirock

Member
The problems seems to be the accumulation of PO4's contributing to your hair algae problem. Unless your using RO/DI H2O in your top-offs, I can almost guarantee that it is coming in from your tap. If your using "LIVE" foods, chances are that they too are contributing to the cause. .05 ppm of phosphate is enough to keep the nuisance algae a constant problem. First, you have to find out where the nutrients are coming from and eliminating the cause. Carbon(s) can also leach PO4's into the system, (as well as drive your alkalinity down, but that another topic). You should try a good PO4 remover to help export some of the nutrients from the system. Placing it in a bag on top of your drip plate or deposited into a chamber inside your canister filter would be the most appropriate place. Regular tank maintenance, consisting of physical exportation of the nuisance algae, (harvesting) should be done when it is noticeable. Using a toothbrush or other cleaning utensil on the rocks, while inside your system, will most certainly just spread the filaments into harder to reach places and make it just that much aggravating to eliminate. Try cutting back on the live foods, if you do use them, and try to wean your fish onto a good flake if possible. Lighting could also be a problem, but lets just work on getting that phosphate level below .03. 0.0 will most definitely starve off most of your problem, but the contribution of fish waste will tend to keep this reading at around .03, a manageable level.
Hope that this helps you in your quest.
:D
 
nas19320

nas19320

Active Member
I use to have a horrible algae problem but as of today I am almost completly algae free. What I found really worked was the following:
- Stopped using tapwater-- I found this was a large part of my problem as my tapwater has high nitrates.
-Got a really efficient protein skimmer---The Remora Pro
-Cut the lighting back to 5 hours a day
-Kept my cleaning crew well stocked
-Cut my feedings way back-- I only have two fish and fed very little
Doing all this made my algae slowly turn brown in 1-2 months and then my clean up crew finished it off. HTH.
 
aarone

aarone

Active Member
thanx for all the help guys. I dont use tap water...and i do not feed live foods. I will try and get to the bottom of this.
aaron
 
stargazer

stargazer

Member
i have a 125gal reef with 3 custom sealife mh pendent's 2x175 one of these on each end of the tank 1x250 mh in the middle of the tank the 175's are blue line bulbs the 250 is crisp white i get hair algae under the 250 crisp white but not under the 175's with the blue line's this is just an observation hope this helps in some way
 
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