LouPhoenix
New member
Getting a bit of a hair algae bloom. Phosphates are down to zero, and otherwise water parameters check out alright. what would be the best (and most natural) way of getting rid of it?
algae
- Thread starter LouPhoenix
- Start date
ninjamini
New member
Run some macro algae
decrease feeding the tank
water changes
decrease the light amount to 6-7 hours a day
Get:
Mexican snails - yea the big ones
emerald crabs
pencil urchins.
Pull the long strands. You dont want it to break down in the tank. It will allow too many nutrients back into the water. Give it a month with reduced light. Take away what the algae needs to grow. Light, food...and Place some thing that will eat the stuff.
decrease feeding the tank
water changes
decrease the light amount to 6-7 hours a day
Get:
Mexican snails - yea the big ones
emerald crabs
pencil urchins.
Pull the long strands. You dont want it to break down in the tank. It will allow too many nutrients back into the water. Give it a month with reduced light. Take away what the algae needs to grow. Light, food...and Place some thing that will eat the stuff.
loyalrogue
New member
Wow. I think that's the shortest post I've seen that covers every base.
Good job.
Good job.
LouPhoenix
New member
Great advise. Thanks!!! 
ninjamini
New member
Here is my long version:
If you have a hair algae problem then read my cure all. I just recently took a tank off someone's hands, a very experienced reefer too, who had a hair algae problem that they could not fix. But the fix is so easy when you understand it. This is the instructions for a established tank. If your tank is under 3 months old read below* first.
Hair algae wont grow if you don't feed it.
1. Use Ro/DI water ONLY. If your not doing this then you are making a fatal mistake.
2. Pick off the big clumps of hair. Pull the rocks out you can and pull pull pull. Dip them back in the water to get the algae to hang down. Turn off the flow for the rocks you cant remove while you pick it off. By picking off the big clumps you remove the nitrates and phosphates from the water.
3. Know why it grows. It consumes nitrates, phosphates and light. Export the nitrates and phosphates with water changes and some cheto. Rember if you test says that you have 0 Nitrates and 0 Phosphates that does not mean you don't have them. It just means that they are consumed. If you have algae growing then you have nitrates and phosphates. Yea there in there.
4. Cut back on feeding. Where do you thing those nitrates and phosphates come from. If you have any really piggy fish then you may want to move them to QT.
5. Turn down the photo period by shutting the lights off and only turn them on for 6 hours a day. Most corals can handle this for a month. Just think of it as the rainy season.
6. Get a emerald and some mexican snails. Yea the big ones. They will both eat the short stuff.
7. Time. Give it 3-4 weeks then start to turn the lights to 7, 8...more hours till your back to a normal amount of time.
Done. Now I have my nano cube filled with sand, rocks, zoos and fish because I was able to follow this plan and he was not. Which is weird since he has an awesome sps tank.
*If your tank is new that is less than 3 months old then the question is not how to get rid of them but understanding that this is only part of the natural cycle of a new tank. If this happened just as your ammonia and nitrites test at 0 then its going to grow. Its the same reason because there is alot of nitrate and phosphate in the water. This would be the time to do your first water change and then add your clean up crew. They will take care of the algae along with water changes.
Remember don.t feed your nuisance algae and it wont grow.
Good Luck.
http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?t=255585
If you have a hair algae problem then read my cure all. I just recently took a tank off someone's hands, a very experienced reefer too, who had a hair algae problem that they could not fix. But the fix is so easy when you understand it. This is the instructions for a established tank. If your tank is under 3 months old read below* first.
Hair algae wont grow if you don't feed it.
1. Use Ro/DI water ONLY. If your not doing this then you are making a fatal mistake.
2. Pick off the big clumps of hair. Pull the rocks out you can and pull pull pull. Dip them back in the water to get the algae to hang down. Turn off the flow for the rocks you cant remove while you pick it off. By picking off the big clumps you remove the nitrates and phosphates from the water.
3. Know why it grows. It consumes nitrates, phosphates and light. Export the nitrates and phosphates with water changes and some cheto. Rember if you test says that you have 0 Nitrates and 0 Phosphates that does not mean you don't have them. It just means that they are consumed. If you have algae growing then you have nitrates and phosphates. Yea there in there.
4. Cut back on feeding. Where do you thing those nitrates and phosphates come from. If you have any really piggy fish then you may want to move them to QT.
5. Turn down the photo period by shutting the lights off and only turn them on for 6 hours a day. Most corals can handle this for a month. Just think of it as the rainy season.
6. Get a emerald and some mexican snails. Yea the big ones. They will both eat the short stuff.
7. Time. Give it 3-4 weeks then start to turn the lights to 7, 8...more hours till your back to a normal amount of time.
Done. Now I have my nano cube filled with sand, rocks, zoos and fish because I was able to follow this plan and he was not. Which is weird since he has an awesome sps tank.
*If your tank is new that is less than 3 months old then the question is not how to get rid of them but understanding that this is only part of the natural cycle of a new tank. If this happened just as your ammonia and nitrites test at 0 then its going to grow. Its the same reason because there is alot of nitrate and phosphate in the water. This would be the time to do your first water change and then add your clean up crew. They will take care of the algae along with water changes.
Remember don.t feed your nuisance algae and it wont grow.
Good Luck.
http://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?t=255585
LouPhoenix
New member
Thanks!
Thanks!
Excellent. I've had well established freshwater tanks for several years, so algae behaving pretty much the same in both fresh and saltwater, i've started doing some of the same things i've done in fs, like decreasing the feedings, avoid using untreated water, and using algae feeding fish/inverts. One of the things that I can't do, unfortunately, is remove the LR because of the way it is setup would make it a stressing task. I've only held back on reducing the photoperiods to less than 8 hrs cuz I wanted to avoid stressing my corals, some of which are fairly new. My setup was a transfer of established LR, LS, and 1/2 the water volume of a 75 gal tank to a 60 gal, so the chemical spike was very shortlived as the tank settled in. I've now had it for several months w/o any issues. I'll try reducing that photoperiod to 6 hrs for a few weeks.
I do wonder if using actinics only while reducing the 10K exposure would have the same effect as having both lights off during the no light period... I am guessing no because they would still be able to photosynthetize at a 420 nm range...
I'll also be getting some macro and the fattest turbos I can find... all the stores i've checked tend to have rather small snails, but i'd like to get at least a few algae loving gluttons.
Thanks for the extended version, it dispelled some of the doubts i've been having about fighting the hair..
Thanks!
Excellent. I've had well established freshwater tanks for several years, so algae behaving pretty much the same in both fresh and saltwater, i've started doing some of the same things i've done in fs, like decreasing the feedings, avoid using untreated water, and using algae feeding fish/inverts. One of the things that I can't do, unfortunately, is remove the LR because of the way it is setup would make it a stressing task. I've only held back on reducing the photoperiods to less than 8 hrs cuz I wanted to avoid stressing my corals, some of which are fairly new. My setup was a transfer of established LR, LS, and 1/2 the water volume of a 75 gal tank to a 60 gal, so the chemical spike was very shortlived as the tank settled in. I've now had it for several months w/o any issues. I'll try reducing that photoperiod to 6 hrs for a few weeks.
I do wonder if using actinics only while reducing the 10K exposure would have the same effect as having both lights off during the no light period... I am guessing no because they would still be able to photosynthetize at a 420 nm range...
I'll also be getting some macro and the fattest turbos I can find... all the stores i've checked tend to have rather small snails, but i'd like to get at least a few algae loving gluttons.
Thanks for the extended version, it dispelled some of the doubts i've been having about fighting the hair..
LouPhoenix
New member
yes, the bulbs are brand new.
jeffbrig
Premium Member
The only place where I'll disagree is the suggestion for reduced lighting. Reduced photoperiod may inhibit algae growth in the short term. But, if you have a nutrient problem, it simply allows those nutrients to build up rather than be consumed by algae growth. As soon as you turn the lights back up to full intensity/druation, those accumulated nutrients will continue to full algae growth. So, it's not a true fix. The long term solution is to find a happy balance between nutrient input (feeding), nutrient removal (skimmer, water changes, pruning macroalgae), and algae control (snails, fish, urchins, etc.).
LouPhoenix
New member
Found some respectable sized Turbos at Atlantis aquarium, and they got to work right away, which is a relief.
Of course, the last thing I would want to do is to contribute to the nutrient problem, so i've been picking up the pace with the water changes.
I take it 'pruning macroalgae' means taking off the excess macro so that its decay does not become a source of nutrients to feed the hair algae... am I correct?
And regarding photoperiods, I wonder if my previously posted theory holds any ground... I wrote:
"I do wonder if using actinics only while reducing the 10K exposure would have the same effect as having both lights off during the no light period... I am guessing no because they would still be able to photosynthetize at a 420 nm range..."
Does it make any difference to the algae whether I run 10ks or actinics? I'm still guessing no.
Thanks!
Of course, the last thing I would want to do is to contribute to the nutrient problem, so i've been picking up the pace with the water changes.
I take it 'pruning macroalgae' means taking off the excess macro so that its decay does not become a source of nutrients to feed the hair algae... am I correct?
And regarding photoperiods, I wonder if my previously posted theory holds any ground... I wrote:
"I do wonder if using actinics only while reducing the 10K exposure would have the same effect as having both lights off during the no light period... I am guessing no because they would still be able to photosynthetize at a 420 nm range..."
Does it make any difference to the algae whether I run 10ks or actinics? I'm still guessing no.
Thanks!
r00onmac
DVM in training
WOW i was just about to post about this..
a few weeks ago i ran out of phosban so i stopped running it... within a week i started getting little short batches of hair algae. compound this with the fact that i havent had time to do my 7 gallon water changes every 5 days like i have been since oct/nov... THEN last week the one LFS i get my water from was having a RO/DI problem so i had to use about ~2 gallons of spring water to top off. compound this with my fairly heavy feeding in the past (to keep my peppermint from destroying my tank) and the fact that i only have a halide with no supplementation, so i run it 8-9 hours a day... i now have some very long patches and short ones all over..
in the past week i have bought some new phosban, reduced feeding (the peppermint has already killed/eaten 2 large turbos in the past week as a result), and started skimming pretty wet..
i was going to ask if anyone in the area :cough cough: morgan/johnny :cough cough: has a sea hare i can borrow for a few days to much this stuff down...
really, i have a very small tank in comparison to most, so it shouldnt take too long to clear it up with a sea hare, and then i can start watching my feedings, etc from here on out...
a few weeks ago i ran out of phosban so i stopped running it... within a week i started getting little short batches of hair algae. compound this with the fact that i havent had time to do my 7 gallon water changes every 5 days like i have been since oct/nov... THEN last week the one LFS i get my water from was having a RO/DI problem so i had to use about ~2 gallons of spring water to top off. compound this with my fairly heavy feeding in the past (to keep my peppermint from destroying my tank) and the fact that i only have a halide with no supplementation, so i run it 8-9 hours a day... i now have some very long patches and short ones all over..
in the past week i have bought some new phosban, reduced feeding (the peppermint has already killed/eaten 2 large turbos in the past week as a result), and started skimming pretty wet..
i was going to ask if anyone in the area :cough cough: morgan/johnny :cough cough: has a sea hare i can borrow for a few days to much this stuff down...
really, i have a very small tank in comparison to most, so it shouldnt take too long to clear it up with a sea hare, and then i can start watching my feedings, etc from here on out...
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