Green Hair Algae...

[AquaFrenzy]

have been looking around a lot about this nuisance but haven't really found what I am looking for.

1. if you have a large bloom, should you manually remove it before you have fixed the root of the cause or let it stay to help consumer access nutrients?

2. after you have fixed the root of the issue (nitrate spike, phosphates etc) is it unsafe to let it die off on its own?

thanks!

 

[PatW]

I had a decent bloom. The dry rock I had leached phosphates. I did water changes. I scrubbed the rocks in situ. I ran GFO. And I ran macro algae in the sump. Oh, and I did vodka dosing. The hair algae is almost gone now. I scrubbed the rocks during each water change. The sicker algae went into the water. For weeks, I was cleaning the filter socks daily.

 

[AquaFrenzy]

I have a beastly skimmer on the way, maybe a bag of carbon in the sump would be helpful

 

[JohnnyHildo]

I have a beastly skimmer on the way, maybe a bag of carbon in the sump would be helpful

i've also got some hair algae and while that skimmer will be a great addition to your tank it doesn't impact algae in my experience nor does carbon.
i've got a couple of emerald crabs and lots of snails to make a dent in it.

 

[AquaFrenzy]

my skimmer isn't keeping up, nitrates are fluctuating =/

 

[gone fishin]

I always took a two prong approach. Try to eliminate the sources of the excess nutrients and manually remove as much as possible.

The reasons for manual removal are that the nutrients are sequestered into the GHA by removing it then you are removing some of the nutrients. Also it is pretty gratifying to rip out a clump of the stuff. If you let it all die in the tank then nutrients go back into the water. Good luck just my 2 cents.