Green Hair Algae

[Xpoza]

Hello all,

I've been experiencing problems for a while now after upgrading to a 46g bowfront and the problem lies with green hair algae. It's growing sporadically and I've had enough of it. I've taken every rock out of the tank, scrubbed them off, placed them back in, used posphate remover, etc, only for it to spawn back and grow out of control 3 weeks later. It's demotivating, so right now I've ordered 2 more powerheads and I'm going to get the fish in my 20g tank for now and pull everything out and leave it to air dry for 3 days after scrubbing the rocks. Is there any advice to keep this stuff away or get rid of it?

 

[Cancun]

Hi there......I would get a few turbo snails...1 per 10 gallons should be good.....they do a good job with hair algae.....in the mean time cut back on your lighting if you are running lights all day....also check your nitrates also....another good thing to do is cut down on your feeding as well. I wouldn't take the live rock out and scrub it though.....you wouldn't want to scrub away any of your beneficial bacteria......hope some of that helps....

 

[MMacro]

I got rid of my hair algae through doing a few things. Added new CUC - pincushion urchin and scarlet hermits. The urchin ate the rocks CLEAN of hair algae. I would have to disagree with getting turbo snails as they have not done anything useful for me. I also increased flow as well as added a skimmer. The thing that helped the most though had to be insane amounts of water changes. Another thing to consider would be iron levels in your water. High amounts of iron will also fuel algae growth so keep that in mind. I
Good luck!

 

[Xpoza]

Hi there......I would get a few turbo snails...1 per 10 gallons should be good.....they do a good job with hair algae.....in the mean time cut back on your lighting if you are running lights all day....also check your nitrates also....another good thing to do is cut down on your feeding as well. I wouldn't take the live rock out and scrub it though.....you wouldn't want to scrub away any of your beneficial bacteria......hope some of that helps....

I tried buying turbo snails the first time around. Ended up bringing 5 home and 3 died nearly instantly because of things attacking it. The other 2 were useless (already had another 2 in the tank). Even if I place the snails where I want them to eat they seem to ignore it and go somewhere else.

I got rid of my hair algae through doing a few things. Added new CUC - pincushion urchin and scarlet hermits. The urchin ate the rocks CLEAN of hair algae. I would have to disagree with getting turbo snails as they have not done anything useful for me. I also increased flow as well as added a skimmer. The thing that helped the most though had to be insane amounts of water changes. Another thing to consider would be iron levels in your water. High amounts of iron will also fuel algae growth so keep that in mind. I
Good luck!

I'll give the urchin a try for sure. I ordered 2 more powerheads (on top of the 2 I already have), so my water flow should definitely be sufficient. How does 10% water change every 4 days sound?

 

[MMacro]

I tried buying turbo snails the first time around. Ended up bringing 5 home and 3 died nearly instantly because of things attacking it. The other 2 were useless (already had another 2 in the tank). Even if I place the snails where I want them to eat they seem to ignore it and go somewhere else.



I'll give the urchin a try for sure. I ordered 2 more powerheads (on top of the 2 I already have), so my water flow should definitely be sufficient. How does 10% water change every 4 days sound?

I would do more depending on your system volume. I did 20% every 2-3 days.

 

[robertifly]

Astrea snails worked really good for me, and yeah I want to get a urchin like a tuxedo type. Just remember there are worst things than a little hair algae, try skimmer, wc, cuc and carbon, just maybe a little phosgard but don't go crazy with it. Cut back on the feeding, most of us feed too much, I did.

 

[ricks49reef]

Blue legged hermits and a court jester goby took care of mine.

 

[Salty150]

Lawnmower Blenny?

 

[crocogator106]

Might try setting up an algae scrubber.

 

[Nick92515]

What's you bioload like, what fish, and how many gallon tank. What do you feed and how often?