green hair algae

[stevestank]

Hey everyone. I went to Aquatic Interiors (sea cave) in Akron to look into a product to help wage war against hair algae. He sold me a bottle of UltraClear Marine SST. I saw results in just two days! The algae's receded (died off) and some of the thick brown algaes that were on my plumbing started peeling away and falling to the substrate. I looked this morning and noticed my tank looking really clear and the green hair algae is going away! I was skeptical. Now I'm a believer. Here's a link if anyone else has an algae prob. Steve who owns the store said "dose your tank with this SST and shorten your light cycle." Worked like a charm. My other corals and coralline algae seem to be doing just fine. http://ultraclear.com/ucss.html.

 

[bond007069]

Glad it worked for you, but you still need to correct your initial problem or your algea will come back.

 

[Burgman]

Hi All,

This brings up a good point, what successes have been acomplished with getting rid of hair algae? I would put Stevestank as one method. Does anyone else out in ciber land have any real fixes that they have personally tried that has reduced or eliminated hair algae? I hear lot's of people talk about flow, phosphates,ect. but what actually has worked?
Anyone want to add their success story?

Dave

 

[stevestank]

My cure employed several things at once.

1. shortened my metal halide light cycle to 5.5 hours
2. Used Marine SST
3. Dosed the tank with Kent PolyOX
4. Bought another handful of scarlet hermits and snails
5. Put phoszorb in my filter to take out phosphates
6. Had my RO water tested.
7. Added more live rock with quite a bit of coraline algae. I hear coraline algae takes nutrients from competing nuisance algae.
8. My next shock and awe in this war on algae is to buy some pulsing xenia to absorb some nitrates.

Finally, water changes with high quality RO water, salt, and Kent osmoprep along with being careful not to disturb my sand bed/oxygen free zones for denitrification.

Anyone else know of anoter bullet for my clip?

Steve

 

[MJAnderson]

TLF reactor + 6 mexican turbo snails + 10% water changes weekly = bald rocks.

Now that it's all gone I'm going back to 15% changes monthly. We'll see if that's enough.

 

[bond007069]

a big arse protein skimmer

 

[ChickenCannoneer]

Or alot of biological filtration ie. DSB, macro, sponges, and lots of liverock.

 

[Thurge]

I got rid of my hair algae by getting the Ph back up where its supposed to be by adding an Air Pump (no skimmer).

Rabbit fish keeps any little bits that still appear in check.

 

[Burgman]

Hi All,

Good replies, I have been keeping a Marine tank for over ten years now & it's seems that hair algae comes and goes from time to time in my tank with no major equipment or livestock changes. I recently upgraded my skimmer to a ASM G3 and it's seems like it's reducing the amount of hair algae in my tank. I have heard that a Foxface fish is good for mowing down hair and Macro algae. Is that true? Some people say that regular water changes are also good. Are there any reefers that don't due water changes and still do not have algae problems?

Dave

 

[bond007069]

i added a Dolatius Rabbit fish, cool fish if you are looking for a rabbitfish but dont want the standard foxface coloring or size.

He really cleaned house on bubble algea.

 

[bond007069]

here is a link, the pic is nice

Dolatius

 

[Burgman]

Hi Bond,

Sounds good, might be buying one soon. Where did you buy yours?

Dave

 

[bond007069]

ReeferMaddness, the stores around here had no clue what it was

 

[ChickenCannoneer]

I dont do water changes and my tank is what I would consider algea free. Granted there is still a film on the glass every week but other than that nothing much. Thanks, Tim

 

[mntl]

I have always dark-curred my rocks for a couple months prior to putting them in the system. Skim with a decent skimmer (does not need to be overkill, just keep it cleaned and opperating properly). Set-up flow to not let crud accumulate on/around rocks. Keep-up on waterchanges. When i feed frozen i make sure i thaw and strain water prior to putting stuff in the system. I can add rocks/frags with algea present/covering them and within days it is gone. Lighting is high and does not seem to affect things, tank does get sunlight from windows. I have 1 scarlet hermit (funny shell so i bought it, does not seem to do much in the year+ years i have had it) and trochus snails.

inshort: properly cure all rocks (if you can put it in a bucket with a powerhead and a week later there is crud in the bottom of the bucket, it is not done)/skim/dont let crud accumulate once in tank.

-John-

 

[cbicop]

I took two phosban reactors and filled the first with sulphur pellets, the second with crushed coral to buffer. I used a small powerhead to push water into the system and a small plastic air line restrictor to regulate the product water to 3 drops a second. This is my design for a sulphur reactor (denitrator) and it will after about 3 weeks get established and eat up all the food in your tank that the algae needs to survive.

I was being overrun with algae. No matter what I did more algae would come... seemed as though algae would die off just to release more nitrates into the tank to help the other algae survive. No amount of water changes and pulling and scrubbing mattered. After 3 weeks I could take the reactor off othe tank... It leached the nitrates from the rocks sand and all.

I havent had any nuisance algae in six months now.

 

[MadSkillzMan]

I learned from freshwater, you never want to add a chemical to counteract your algae problems, rather just find the sorce.

I had tons of green hair algae. I turned my HOB filter into a fuge, and it cleared up within 3 days.

looks like youve got it figured out though