Cleaning hair algae off live rock help
- Thread starter Amatuer21
- Start date
Dexters Reef
New member
Remove the rock and drench the algae with 3% hydrogen peroxide outside of water. let the rock sit out of water for 5 minutes making sure the algae stays wet with hydrogen peroxide...add more if needed. Do not do any scrubbing, just make sure the algae is saturated with hydrogen peroxide.
After 5 minutes, dip once real quick in rodi, and place back in the tank right away. You should see the algae releasing tons of bubbles. Just leave it alone now and in about 3 days the algae will be 80-100% gone. If there is any leftover, repeat this and it should be taken care of.
Dont let the hydrogen peroxide hit corals though, it can stress them.
After 5 minutes, dip once real quick in rodi, and place back in the tank right away. You should see the algae releasing tons of bubbles. Just leave it alone now and in about 3 days the algae will be 80-100% gone. If there is any leftover, repeat this and it should be taken care of.
Dont let the hydrogen peroxide hit corals though, it can stress them.
billdogg
Well-known member
Why kill off the good stuff too? Kinda like cutting off your nose to spite your face IMO.
Just remove the offending piece of rock and then, using the water removed for the water change (old tank water) in a bucket scrub it off as best you can. Swish the rock around a bit and put it back in. Nothing good dies that way!
Next - determine WHY you are having a hair algae outbreak. Usually it is due to excess nutrients in the water - over feeding and insufficient water changes are the usual culprits. Fix the cause and you won't have to worry about the effect!
Just remove the offending piece of rock and then, using the water removed for the water change (old tank water) in a bucket scrub it off as best you can. Swish the rock around a bit and put it back in. Nothing good dies that way!
Next - determine WHY you are having a hair algae outbreak. Usually it is due to excess nutrients in the water - over feeding and insufficient water changes are the usual culprits. Fix the cause and you won't have to worry about the effect!
trinidiver
New member
Also too much light period, old bulbs depending on type, Phosphates too high
Cleaning the nutrients from your tank is the best way to clean hair algae off of anything.
Absolutely no reason to remove the rock and soak or scrub in anything, a spot or 2 of algae is COMPLETELY normal (and certainly not anything close to an outbreak), especially with a young tank like yours. Nothing to worry about.
Keep nitrate and phosphate low and you won't have any problems.
FWIW, here's my current tank at 2 months:
I'm now approaching 4 months and I don't have any algae present. I didn't do anything except get (and) keep nitrate and phosphate as low as possible, and once it was undetectable, I pulled what I could with my fingers. The stuff I couldn't remove manually ended up starving and disappearing.
Absolutely no reason to remove the rock and soak or scrub in anything, a spot or 2 of algae is COMPLETELY normal (and certainly not anything close to an outbreak), especially with a young tank like yours. Nothing to worry about.
Keep nitrate and phosphate low and you won't have any problems.
FWIW, here's my current tank at 2 months:
I'm now approaching 4 months and I don't have any algae present. I didn't do anything except get (and) keep nitrate and phosphate as low as possible, and once it was undetectable, I pulled what I could with my fingers. The stuff I couldn't remove manually ended up starving and disappearing.
Actually there are good reasons. If you can do a water change, and the water removed from the tank can be used to scrub the hair algae off. And put the rock back into the tank. This will remove the phosphates the HA is using and will remove it from your tank.
Keeping nutrients low is good prevention and eradication methods, but you can do more than just that.
The OP doesn't have a hair outbreak, it's merely "a few spots."
Desperate times call for desperate measures, but "a few spots" isn't a disaster. If this algae was overwhelming livestock and growing out of control, removing rocks and scrubbing would be in store.
In this case, controlling nutrients should be more than adequate, and less work.
Ok my fault lol. You know there are at least 50 threads a day started about hair algae lol.
But yes nutrient control is your best thing. Water changes, GFO or other phos media in a reactor, easy on the feedings and not over stocking the tank.
But in extreme cases, rock scrubbing does help.
OKCchief
New member
I had a horrible outbreak in my first tank. Hairn algae growing on the wall, rocks and sand. I got 4 turbo snails which made short work of the algae. My nitrates went up of course, but I did allot of water changes to get it under control. Find out the source first or it will be back.
Yeah, this forum would probably run much quicker if they were more strict about using the search button before posting new threads.
If all "help, algae," "help, everything is dead" and "what LED should I pick" posters would use the search button before posting, RC would probably only have a quarter of the posts it has.
I agree. Using the search is a good way to get quicker answers. But I think alot of new people are a little scared and want people to help them along. But self research will give you answers quickly. Not only on here, but other forums as well.
One of my favorite phrases for reefing: "Google is your friend"
And dont forget all the cycling question posts lol
SaltyWenStirred
Member
I have a piece of favia that is doing great. But it doesn't cover the rock it's on entirely. A small area has hair algae growing out of it. I can't take it out and scrub it without hurting the favia. Any ideas?
petere1989
New member
i had bad hair algae in my tank. I took the rock out and let it dry, so it killed everything in the rock. Then I put it in hot water, couple glugs of bleach and scrubbed. Rock is clean! but it kills your live rock obviously but thats ok if you don't care. check your phosphates and nitrates to rid of your problem.
OKCchief
New member
As I just read the rules, I found nothing in there about asking a question that has already been asked. Maybe reefcental doesn't have a problem with people doing that....
He didn't say anything about there being a rule of searching before posting questions like this over and over...He was simplay saying if more people used the search function of the forum to try and figure out their problem before just posting something about it....there must me so many posts about the same exact thing such as what does cycling mean? what test to i need to do? algea outbreak!?!?!? RC is here to help everyone even the veterans at times, but just about every question ive seen people ask can be answered by a quick search. I am new here and very new to saltwater aquariums but i also search on RC use youtube and other google searches to find what im looking for before i just post on here...
