hair algae help

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member 24321
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Deleted member 24321

So I took the plunge today and bought a small sea hare. He immediately goes to the glass and starts eating there, even though there isn't any hair there. He just cleans it much like a snail does. When he finally gets to the rock he seems to manuver around the hair algae!! Anyone have any experience with these? Does it take a while before they will eat hair algae? In other hopes of getting rid of the hair I have
1. cut feedings to once a day
2. manual removal/water changes at least once a week. About 35 gallons on a 180
3. changed out all my bulbs
4. changed all my ro/di filters
5. currently raising mag. now at 1280
6. adding dkh buffer, now at 9
7. adding calc, now at 260
8. removed the heavily affected rocks and scrub them in the water change water. then discard
any other suggestions?
thanks,
mark
 
also bought a lawnmower blennie and he eats the tiny red macro in there and only seems to scrape the really small stuff
 
I had two...and they both ate hair algae. One has since returned to the LFS...the other is still there even though I've not had any hair algae in some time. I keep meaning to return the 2nd one to the store, but he hides during the day....

I can dispel the myth that sea hares starve when there is no hair algae.

My advice on hair algae is:
1) attack the nutrients it might be using (Nitrate/Phosphate)
2) give the algae some better place to grow (light a refugium 24/7)

My display tank is free of hair algae. 6 months ago, every surface of the display tank was green and hairy. My refugium, however, is a disgusting mix of cyano and hair algae. Since I am the only one who looks in my refugium, this works perfectly.
 
thanks guys that was one thing I forgot , i did add a reactor and run phosguard as well. I do also have a large fuge in my sump with about a basketball size mass of Cheato and some caulapera. I currently run the light about 10 hours a day. If I go 24/7 should I take out the caulapera? don't want it to go sexual on me
 
Get rid of the Phosguard and replace it with an iron based media. The ceramic media has a very short lifespan (a couple days). Iron based media lasts months and won't leach the Phosphate back into the water.

Keeping the caulerpa on 24/7 lighting will help keep it form going sexual.
 
thanks, is iron based media the same as gfo? where do i get it from?
 
nevermind found it on ebay, should I get the high capacity, pellets or granular?
 
I use granular in a fluidized reactor. You may need to change the GFO once a week untill it is under control, I did. Then you can run it for a couple months.
 
thanks,
do you fill the ractor all the way to the top or is a certain amount i should use?
 
Follow the manufactures guidelines. They are all different.

Many say to go half dose the first time. As to not shock, from the sudden drop of po4
 
well it's ordered, hopefully this will be the last thing I have to do. thanks all for the advice!
 
gfo is in the reactor and lights have been on in the fuge for 24/7 for 4 days now. If this doesn't work looks like I'm buying 4 gallons of tech m to get my mag up to 1600!
 
It'll take a few weeks to kill off the hair algae. I'd suggest putting in new media after about 3 or 4 weeks as it can get exhausted quickly during the initial knockdown phase. After that you can go a couple months between media changes. Be patient, it'll work.
 
The part I don't get is why does my Salifert phosphate test read zero? Is it residing in the live rock some how?
 
Phosphate is algae fuel so it's residing in the algae. It can also end up in the rocks, sand and other calcerous substrates. If you have hair algae, you have a Phosphate problem.
 
I had this same problem to distgusting proportions and after purchasign a tlf phosban reactor and some granular high capacity gfo my algae is 75% gone. I would like to know when I should change out my media though. If you have not yet ordered your gfo I strongly reccomend bulk reef supply. They have great prices. I got atleast 3x as much gfo for the same price as fosterandsmith. I hope all that don't like hair algae succeed in getting rid of it.

Mike
 
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