ridding myself of green hair algae

[dlsmith21]

One of my bad newbie mistakes was putting some LR I was given into my tank when it was covered in hair algae. Well now it's everywhere and I can't get rid of it. I have 2 large stacks of LR in the tank on each side and, with the last water change, I took one stack out and scrubbed the heck out of it. (I was worried to do both at the same time) Today I am doing another water change and was going to do the other stack. The first stack has some on it again as I know I couldn't have possibly gotten it all. What I am wanting to know is if I took out one stack at a time and put it into a trash can with a ph and heater for about a week would that work? Would the hair algae die off from lack of light? Or would that kill off beneficial life also?

As far as living remedies... I have a yellow tang and a fox that won't touch the stuff. My other fish would eat anything I put in there to help. The only things they leave alone are my pencil urchins. I have 4 large ones but they aren't having much of an impact. Snails do not last long with my triggers and I am sick of watching my niger swim around with the snail shells a week after I put them in the tank. Thanks for any help and advice.

[Sicklid]

Ozone made my water almost too clean, and it now looks like the fish are swimming in air it is so clear!!

All hair algae gone in 3 weeks! No nutrients in water anymore.

Best thing that I have done for my tank as long as I have been keeping SW tanks.

[sasscuba]

DO you run a phosphate reactor?

[dlsmith21]

I run a Berlin XL skimmer, 40w UV and I have a 55g sump/fuge with chaeto. What other filtration would you suggest to help? I have messy eaters in the triggers, tang and volitan.

[sunfishh]

Just curious how long has the tank been running?

[dlsmith21]

It's been up about a year now. I never had an algae problem until this. I should have NEVER EVER put the rock in but it was given to me and I had no place else for it at the time. This was about 3 months ago and it's growing like weeds. I have tried scrubbing, lights out, super light feeding, etc etc. My fish started to get lean looking so I had to go back to my regular feeding schedule. Would extra filtration help?

[sunfishh]

Just curious what are your water parameters? If you have high nitrate or phosphate nothing is going to help much. I would say try to find the source of the algae bloom and you will get rid of the algae.

[reefer334]

I would switch ro/di water that will help,also buy a tang he mow that stuff down.

[Zoom]

I will get a GFO reactor first and change the media every month till you start seen the HA getting lighter in color .
Never mind testing i have no significant P04/N03 reading in my tank and still grow HA if i don't use GFO.
Cheato in my refuge will grow like wild fire if i don't use GFO .But soon as i start the GFO reactor it stops growing.
I do all my test with colorimeter and are low .P04 at 0.01 and N03 at 2 and i can still grow HA with out the reactor............ TRY.

[sunfishh]

Ok I am confused. Are we talking about zoom's tank or dlsmith21
tank?

[Zoom]

Originally posted by sunfishh
Ok I am confused. Are we talking about zoom's tank or dlsmith21
tank?

dlsmith21 ask how to get the HA under control in his tank .....
I explain to him how i got my HA under control .

[TitoTee]

Not for nothing but what is GFO? Some of us are a little slow.

[Zoom]

Originally posted by TitoTee
Not for nothing but what is GFO? Some of us are a little slow.

Granular Ferric Oxide (GFO) Phosphate Remover

[TitoTee]

Oh you mean Phosban LOL

[Zoom]

Originally posted by TitoTee
Oh you mean Phosban LOL

Yes Phosban is one of many GFO's

[Underwood]

Melev has an article on his site suggesting a way to get rid of hair algae, if you go to the sitemap it's under "Solutions to Problems and Pests."

I've had this problem before, as you said, adding the rock with GHA started the problem, but there are other things (some of which have been mentioned) that could be contributing to it spreading...

The obvious ones:
- PO4
- Nitrates
- Old bulbs

(Unless you do tons of water changes, your nitrates are probably high between your high bioload and the skimmer your running.)

Assuming all of those check out then (and assuming that you are doing some pruning yourself), one thing I found that helps is get 25-30 hermit crabs and put them in your sump (you could also consider some of the other algae eating invertebrates). Then, rotate in a couple pieces of live rock every day and let the hermits pick it clean. This way the crabs don't become a snack for your triggers, but you still get the algae eating benefits.

If you do decide to go that route then I would also suggest minimizing your lighting for about a week while it's happening, so that the algae growth is slowed down enough that it doesn't have time to spread to all of the newly cleaned rocks.

[sunfishh]

Great tips underwood. I think the move with the hermit crabs is pure genuis

I am guessing his water test pretty low because the GHA is consuming most of the nitrate and phosphate. This makes water changes less important than using phosban and lowering the imput of algae nutrients.

[Underwood]

Thanks sunfishh - I kind of stumbled across that idea by accident, but it will amaze you how quick those hermit crabs can pick a rock, covered solid in algae, completely clean.