hair alge
- Thread starter cremer9
- Start date
There is no quick and easy way. If you do all of the following you won't have hair algae.
- manually remove hair algae you currently have
- keep a properly stocked clean up crew for your tank size and bioload (about half reefcleaners recommendation is a good amount usually)
- occasionally vacuum sandbed to keep it from turning into a nitrate factory.
- if you tank is not mature (6+ months) give it time. Every tank goes through the ugly stage
- keep your fish well fed, but don't go nuts with feeding.
- use your choice of export means (ex skimmer, refugium, water changes, GFO, carbon, vodka dosing, etc) to get nitrates between 5 and 20 and phosphates between 0.05 and 0.20.
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- manually remove hair algae you currently have
- keep a properly stocked clean up crew for your tank size and bioload (about half reefcleaners recommendation is a good amount usually)
- occasionally vacuum sandbed to keep it from turning into a nitrate factory.
- if you tank is not mature (6+ months) give it time. Every tank goes through the ugly stage
- keep your fish well fed, but don't go nuts with feeding.
- use your choice of export means (ex skimmer, refugium, water changes, GFO, carbon, vodka dosing, etc) to get nitrates between 5 and 20 and phosphates between 0.05 and 0.20.
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SynDen
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Ya CUC is a must to help get it under control. Turbos, sea hare, pincusion urchins are great for keeping the lawn mowed once you pull out the big clumps. You won't be able to get the algae under control without a CUC so don't wait on this one, go and get them in asap.
Tangs and rabbit fish are a great addition too as long as you have a large enough tank for one of them.
GFO in a GFO reactor is very effective at pulling phosphates out of the water and even the rocks, which will help limit the nutrients that are feeding the algae. If you started with dry rock, this is almost required to have, as all dry rock will have a fair amount of phosphate stored in the rocks.
Tangs and rabbit fish are a great addition too as long as you have a large enough tank for one of them.
GFO in a GFO reactor is very effective at pulling phosphates out of the water and even the rocks, which will help limit the nutrients that are feeding the algae. If you started with dry rock, this is almost required to have, as all dry rock will have a fair amount of phosphate stored in the rocks.
I have residual nitrate around .1 and phosphates at 1-3 ppb and I can get algae overgrow my tank if I don't have critters to eat it. Pincushions, snails and sometimes a rabbitfish can help. I rarely have had tangs do any good, but some have.
Sand beds have no way to make nitrate out of nothing. In fact, the anoxic areas deeper in the sand convert nitrate into nitrogen gas and complete the FULL nitrogen cycle, so they do the opposite of a "nitrate factory." You need about 2 inches, or more, for this to usually happen, but sometimes less is OK. It can take a number of months for these anoxic bacteria to grow and populate. You also need to leave it alone.
Algae can get nitrogen directly from ammonia, so residual nitrate levels are near meaningless, even though message board mobs think otherwise. I would keep the N and P low enough for coralline to thrive - it gets growth limited the higher N and P climb. Surfaces with live and growing coralline do not have algae, cyano, dinos and diatoms attach. Not all purple stuff is alive and thriving, though. Other surface stuff on real live rock can also keep nasty things at bay... surface bacteria and slime being the most common. Dry and dead rock is a super easy and nice place for ugly things to attach and grow.
Sand beds have no way to make nitrate out of nothing. In fact, the anoxic areas deeper in the sand convert nitrate into nitrogen gas and complete the FULL nitrogen cycle, so they do the opposite of a "nitrate factory." You need about 2 inches, or more, for this to usually happen, but sometimes less is OK. It can take a number of months for these anoxic bacteria to grow and populate. You also need to leave it alone.
Algae can get nitrogen directly from ammonia, so residual nitrate levels are near meaningless, even though message board mobs think otherwise. I would keep the N and P low enough for coralline to thrive - it gets growth limited the higher N and P climb. Surfaces with live and growing coralline do not have algae, cyano, dinos and diatoms attach. Not all purple stuff is alive and thriving, though. Other surface stuff on real live rock can also keep nasty things at bay... surface bacteria and slime being the most common. Dry and dead rock is a super easy and nice place for ugly things to attach and grow.
SynDen
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Reefcleaners is gonna be the best prices, but not local.
Make sure you get some trochus snails. They breed easily in a home reef environment and right themselves. Best CUC member hands down. 1 per 10g is a good number but make sure you get at least 4 so they will breed.
You will also want hermits at least 2-3 per 10g. They will eat algae when it's long instead of just the short stuff like snails.
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Make sure you get some trochus snails. They breed easily in a home reef environment and right themselves. Best CUC member hands down. 1 per 10g is a good number but make sure you get at least 4 so they will breed.
You will also want hermits at least 2-3 per 10g. They will eat algae when it's long instead of just the short stuff like snails.
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Trochus are going to be the first to die if you have to raise you nitrate level, or just keep it high. They don't often do well with temps over 78 degrees. They are more sensitive. They do a LOT of work when you can keep them happy. They are from the pacific and not available at order-for-yourself places. Urchins are not all that tolerant of high nitrate or phosphate either.
Beware of mexican turbos. They crush massive amounts of algae, but temps over 78 will kill them pretty quickly. I use them in my easy-coral mostly FOWLR where the temp is around 76 and they are amazing. Like even a day or two at 79 and they can flip over on their backs and start to die.
Nerites, ceriths, hermits, astreas, emerald crabs, peppermint shrimp and pincushions are my staple clean up crew in my reef tanks. I have blue leg hermits too but they appear to mostly eat debris and food over algae. I get them from ReefTopia since they are kinda hard to get from local shops. They need to eat beyond algae and fish poo, so they get flakes and other food too. It is important to get peppermints and emeralds from the keys over other parts of Florida to make sure that you get the best ones that eat bubble algae and aiptasia.
Beware of mexican turbos. They crush massive amounts of algae, but temps over 78 will kill them pretty quickly. I use them in my easy-coral mostly FOWLR where the temp is around 76 and they are amazing. Like even a day or two at 79 and they can flip over on their backs and start to die.
Nerites, ceriths, hermits, astreas, emerald crabs, peppermint shrimp and pincushions are my staple clean up crew in my reef tanks. I have blue leg hermits too but they appear to mostly eat debris and food over algae. I get them from ReefTopia since they are kinda hard to get from local shops. They need to eat beyond algae and fish poo, so they get flakes and other food too. It is important to get peppermints and emeralds from the keys over other parts of Florida to make sure that you get the best ones that eat bubble algae and aiptasia.
This has not been my experience at all. I rarely lose a trochus to anything other than a rogue hermit or starvation from overstocking and I keep my tank at 81 in summer transitioning to 77 in winter. Temp is NIST calibrated so I know it's accurate.
High nitrates in my newest tank and haven't lost one yet and they breeded enough to net me 14 pea sized babies that got split between this tank and the old one.
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High nitrates in my newest tank and haven't lost one yet and they breeded enough to net me 14 pea sized babies that got split between this tank and the old one.
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If the bloom is out of control, RENT a sea hare!
By far the best way to remove the algae, while you get your params/(skimmer, fuge, etc) in control.
Please note that I said rent, being a herbivore once the algae is gone they will starve very quickly. One could be large enough that when they do die, pretty large nitrate spike. Most shops will sell you the sea hare, and then buy it back from you.
Also what does your lighting spectrum/intensity/and duration look like? This can be a very large factor for creating prime growing conditions for algae.
By far the best way to remove the algae, while you get your params/(skimmer, fuge, etc) in control.
Please note that I said rent, being a herbivore once the algae is gone they will starve very quickly. One could be large enough that when they do die, pretty large nitrate spike. Most shops will sell you the sea hare, and then buy it back from you.
Also what does your lighting spectrum/intensity/and duration look like? This can be a very large factor for creating prime growing conditions for algae.