Hair algae....grrr....

odoprelude

odoprelude

New member
Okay, Boris' tank is getting overrun by hair algae... it's been so dag-gone long since I have been through this.....how the heck do I get rid of it? I've been running just actinics over the weekends.. Boris will tolerate snails for a bit, but gets bored/hungry..besides.. I have yet to see a snail do anything for hair algae.. I have decreased my photoperiod, I use the water from the culligan machine at Wal-Mart (surprisingly low TDS according to my TDS probe) The water is probably overskimmed..as I run a Prizm Pro (supposed to be good for over 100 gallons) on a 20 high.... What to do? Prolly can't add any animals, though he doesn't seem to bother the cuke I have in there now.. I guess I can take the rock out piece by piece and toothbrush it.. I do have a bunch of cup caulerpa in there as well... HELP????
 
hows your phosphates?

are you growing marco in a sump? or such... besides caulerpa in the main part of the tank... ie, more farming in a remote spot...

will boris tolerate an urchin?

no lights could take ages to kill it off...

after the stuff above, and snails... n crabs id be stuck...
 
Bring the pH up to 8.4-8.5 for a while. This will sometimes get briopsis under control. I have been having some HA in my tank also I still have not gotten it under control. It started when I had a kalk incident and killed off almost all my stombelleta Spelling? snails. They are the ones that reproduce in the tank and usually come out at night. I think this is why mine started. If anyone has a couple dozen of these snails I would like to buy them from you please send me a PM., sorry if I hijacked your thread a little.
 
Don't have a phosphate test... never really needed one..
Tolerate an urchin...? I am sure Boris would love one over for dinner, heck you never can tell until you put something like that in.. these things are unpredictable at best..

I will try the toothbrush and urchin and let you all know...
 
I would love some of those stomatella snails as well.. let me and Phil know!!!

Ming (my N. Wenn. mantis) loves those things!!!
 
Have you treated Boris to emerald crab devine lately? I had a problem with it a while back. I got tired of the toothbrush routine and bought several emeralds and 2 scarlet hermit crabs. I still have a little bit but it is under control. Ended up with some huge emeralds! I got the regular guys and the big hairy dudes also.

Boris would have a feast! Toothbrush would be more affordable! Do you have another tank with tangs in it to swap rocks in and out after cleaned?
 
never thought about the tangs... I have a yellow tang in my main reef tank... do they eat hair algae? I haven't had any (hair algae that is) in so long I don't remember...(knocks on wood)
 
ohh.. sorry, emerald crabs....? I don't think he would let them live long enough, I just threw in some hermits (small ones, too) and he's whacking away at them as we speak...
 
Funny thing is that my other mantis tank (up and running for two years) never had a problem like this.. Just goes to show that no matter how similar the setup, each tank is TOTALLY different... hehe.. I mean, I use same water, same everything.. of course my other mantis tank is skimmerless...
 
Wait a minute. The skimmerless tank doesn't have hair algea and the skimmed tank does have it? That's backwards isn't it?
 
You'd think that... but the skimmerless tank never had any problem (knocks on wood) with algae.... High flow, 20 lbs of live rock and 20 lbs of live sand... low bioload as Ming is the only one in there with a small cuke and some green star polyps, a toadstool leather and some really small frogspawn polyps...

Though I do have 20 lbs live sand, probably over 30 lbs of live rock, and oversized skimmer on the 20 for Boris... water flow may be a problem, I only have one maxijet 1200 moving the water in there right now...
 
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