Green Hair Algae

T

tanyamikephil

New member
I wanted to ask what others have done that has successfully got rid of green hair algae.

Ive got it in my tank and I want to get rid of it because its starting to suffocate things. I believe it came into my tank when i bough a rock that had a zoanthid on it. Now it popping up everywhere. I have made sure that my phosphate level is good and I've tried treatments that are supposed to help with this but nothing is working so far. I am having to manually pluck it out but its getting worse!
 
What are you doing to reduce phosphates? You could be testing for phosphates and getting a zero result simply because the algae is absorbing all of it, which is almost certainly what is happening since algae needs phosphates to grow. What are your nitrate levels? What type of lighting are you using and how long do you leave the lights on? When did you last change the bulbs if you are using T-5 or metal halide lighting?
 
I ran GFO and let the GHA grow out really long and then I pulled it off the rocks. Then I scrubbed my rocks with a toothbrush. Kept repeating the process until eventually I got the upper hand on it and it started to die off. I dealt with it for close to a year. Now my tank looks great with no hair algae. Just takes time and patience.
 
lespaul339 said:
I ran GFO and let the GHA grow out really long and then I pulled it off the rocks. Then I scrubbed my rocks with a toothbrush. Kept repeating the process until eventually I got the upper hand on it and it started to die off. I dealt with it for close to a year. Now my tank looks great with no hair algae. Just takes time and patience.
Click to expand...

This ^
same thing here..
 
I also scrub my rocks during water changes. I have the beginnings of it, and so far, that is keeping it in the fizzy stage, not the long tendril stage.
 
i setup an algae scrubber, removed the algae manually during water change, and kept the nitrates and phosphates levels low. that's how i got rid of hair algae. good luck. :)
 
If it's a new tank the infestation may resolve itself with time.

GHA needs light & nutrients & light to survive & grow. That's it. Corals need light, so eliminating that isn't an option. So feed less, remove detritus, and employ techniques to reduce nitrates & most importantly phosphate. Removing GHA by hand is good but effects I'll be temporary until you are able to export excess nutrients somehow.
 
Battling it now in my 125. But slowly winning.
Scrubbing rocks with a toothbrush weekly and using my sand vac to suck the stuff into a filter sock. Then a nice 20g WC every week for the last 4 weeks. It grows back less each week.
 
tanyamikephil said:
I wanted to ask what others have done that has successfully got rid of green hair algae. Ive got it in my tank and I want to get rid of it because its starting to suffocate things. I believe it came into my tank when i bough a rock that had a zoanthid on it. Now it popping up everywhere. I have made sure that my phosphate level is good and I've tried treatments that are supposed to help with this but nothing is working so far. I am having to manually pluck it out but its getting worse!
Click to expand...


Are you using ro\di top off water? If you setup a tank correctly it will go away soon, if you are just winging it and haven't the slightest clue you are going to be scrubbing rocks with a tooth brush, instead of buying more junk to dump in your tank buy a good book to study.
 
Last edited:
Does it do any good to scrub with toothbrush if you can't actually pull any of it out of the tank? Doesn't it just spread it around if you just scrub and never actually remove? I'm new at this ....
 
I also am new to the hobby (40g fusion IM all in one tank), I kept doing water changes with ro/di water and using a toothbrush to get it off. It started to die after a while, and before I added coral, I rinsed it under my sink (well water) very briefly with a toothbrush. Seemed to do the trick for me as well as turning the lights off for a day or two. I still see a little bit in my tank but nothing alarming. I am also thinking about getting an algae scrubber. How do those things work? Is it like a refugium?


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I run a GFO reactor and a bag of chemipure blue - what little tufts of hair algae i do have do not seem to grow- I can grab most of it off with forceps during water changes.
 
so this thread has made me feel better, at least i'm not the only one fighting against some nasty hair algae at the moment.

here is what i'm doing:

1. manual removal during water changes
2. changed RODI filters, it was coming out 20 PPM, yuck!
3. rinsing frozen food
4. decreasing peak light time period
5. started fuge with chaeto
6. running some gfo in a media bag. i need to get off my lazy butt and fix my reactor
 
Why has nobody mentioned a Sea Hare? A Sea Hare (some call them Sea Slugs) will eat all of the algae in a week or so, which is much easier than manual removal, and then you can begin preventative maintenance/figure out what your ph4 is really at, etc... BUT, if you do this, be sure to return the Sea Hair to your LFS (most rent them out) or it will definitely run out of food and die (they are really ugly so you won't want to keep it anyway.) Just realize, although the ugly little guy will make all the algae disappear, this in no way solves your problem; you still have a nutrient problem that needs to be solved, or you'll be right back where you started with a tank full of algae in no time...
 
tanyamikephil said:
I wanted to ask what others have done that has successfully got rid of green hair algae.

Ive got it in my tank and I want to get rid of it because its starting to suffocate things. I believe it came into my tank when i bough a rock that had a zoanthid on it. Now it popping up everywhere. I have made sure that my phosphate level is good and I've tried treatments that are supposed to help with this but nothing is working so far. I am having to manually pluck it out but its getting worse!
Click to expand...

I had the same problem and bought a Sea Hare on advice from the owner of the LFS. It's been two weeks, all of my GHA is gone and the slug is happy eating dried seaweed.
 
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