Hair Algae

[CoMMaNdeR]

What are the best methods to eliminate hair algae?

[Andrew]

Heres some questions:

-How old are the bulbs you are using?
-How large of a water change are you doing?
-What is your Phos level at?
-Do you use ro/ro water?

[CoMMaNdeR]

- Bulbs are 5 months old
- I do 10% water change every month. ( 2 only fish in a 160g)
- Phos 0.1
- I use RO water

[Fanof49ASU]

Emerald Crab

[Sk8r]

A variety of snails, conch, maybe a limpet. And hermits. I personally greatly regret having an emerald crab, which does nothing but pick at the coralline.

As your tank ages and with good management and weekly water changes, the algae will abate---or at least you'll get a more civilized variety.

You might try cheato and a light in your sump, if you can fence it in. That will take nutrients the hair algae is eating.

[utes2k5]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7546177#post7546177 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Andrew
Heres some questions:

-How old are the bulbs you are using?
-How large of a water change are you doing?
-What is your Phos level at?
-Do you use ro/ro water?

Andrew forgive me for asking but could you please elaborate on why you asked the questions you did? I am curious to know how those factors contribute to hair algae. :confused:

Thank you!! :fish1:

[dvarner32]

Dilution is the solution to pollution. Hair algae feeds off excess nutrients. Improper filtration and poor water movement can let nutrients accumulate in the water. Step up your water changes to once a week of the 10% that you are doing now. Nutrient export is the number one killer of hair algae. Critters are useless once the algae is longer than 1/4 of an inch. Emeralds will eat it when its that long and some tangs will, but the snails and hermits won't touch it. I have gone as far as to remove all the rock and scrub it off. Some advise against that but it worked for me. I installed a new skimmer and upgraded the clean up crew. After I got rid of the algae and introduced the rock again, the algae never came back. But had I not put the larger crew and better skimmer in, I bet the algae would have been back within 2 weeks. If your inhabitants can stand it reduce the time the lights are on. Don't waste your money on bottled up solutions claiming to get rid of the algae, its a waste of money. Spend it on a better skimmer. I had a tank that used nothing but RO water and still had hair algae. Don't know why that was asked. Phosphates can contribute to hair algae but if this person's algae is as bad as it seems it could mask the true phosphate level.

[Andrew]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7546799#post7546799 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by utes2k5
Andrew forgive me for asking but could you please elaborate on why you asked the questions you did? I am curious to know how those factors contribute to hair algae. :confused:

Thank you!! :fish1:

Say if he said he didn't use ro/di water or do water changes, that would be a good guess for the cause of the hairalgae. Old light bulbs can also cause algae growth.