Hair Algae in Reef tanks: Solved!!

[John Karavias]

Hello folks,

A while ago there was a thread about controlling hair algae in reef tanks. Very aggressive methods like boiling live rock were mentiond. I too had the problem but kept my mouth shut.

The obvious:
Eliminate phosphate, and nitrate

The Cure:
I bought a Sea Hare. A gastropod, nudibranch relative, that mowed it down in 3 weeks.

Cost:
$45

Priceless............ Looks beautiful. I also have many soft corals and it left them alone.

Aquaman

 

[2crazyreefers]

Yeh they work great. Too bad your not in Vt. our best LFS sells the good little ones for 15.99.

 

[hhlhhl92]

I have been looking for a sea-hare for months, but nobody sells it in Ontario. I wonder how I can get hold of one. Any suggestions please?

 

[Fast Fred]

So how did you eliminate your nitrate and phosphate?

 

[hhlhhl92]

I am still fighting with the hair algae. I am changing around 10 gallons of water weekly, scrub the rocks, less feeding, replaced my Seaclone skimmer, my lawn mower blenny didn't touch the algae and it died because of starvation. Emerald crabs seem to work but painfully small amount. I tried turbo snail, astrea snail, yellow tang, nothing works. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the new skimmer will do its job.

 

[Johnson7]

a sea hare like this?

Sea Hare

 

[hhlhhl92]

Yes, I guess.
I heard that some of them are toxic and harmful to the tank. I want one that is safe.
Do you have any idea where I can get one please? Thank you.

 

[PoukieBear]

hhlhhl92...

I've never seen one in any of my LFS either. Where 'bouts in Ontario are you??

 

[hhlhhl92]

I'm in Thornhill. I have asked the LFS to keep an eye out for me, but no luck up to now.

 

[John Karavias]

Hey guys,

To answer some of the questions:

I fixed the nitrate and phosphate problems by updating to a 50 gallon sump. Believe it or not I was running the reef tank on a canister filter without a skimmer. I still do not have a skimmer or any fancy gadgets. Just a 360 watt balace light full spectrum and a marineland sump. I add trace elements weekly.. a squirt and add 3 cap fulls of DKH. Alkalinity is 120 and calcium is 430. Thats all folks. I have a 3 inch pink samoa bed with tons of biologic. The hydrogen sulfide is very evident. Maybe I am lucky or managed to get it right. The Sea Hare can be toxic mostly in defense of Anemones however is mostly harmless. I ordered it from my wholesaler. It took 3 months to get one. Te genus and species is Dolabella Auricularia. Not very pretty but very effective. I hace a call to him and am waiting a return call. If he ships them, I will post his # so anybody can get one.

 

[hhlhhl92]

Thank you John. I wonder if the wholesalers ships live stock to Canada.

 

[jun_celis]

I hate to break this news to everyone else but getting yourself a seahare will not lower your nitrates and phosphates. Hair algae will come back if you still have nutrients in your tank. Finding the source of Nitrates and phosphates and stopping would be the idea.

 

[alanscott]

So what happens when the algae is all gone? What do they eat then?

 

[Chads29]

I am guessing the hair algae will come back in a short amount of time, a refugium with some macro algae would help lower your nutrients in your tank and a good protien skimmer also works well for this purpose, water changes with ro/di water that you test to make sure you are using clean water is also important. And you don't have to worry about putting in a sea hare. It works for me.

 

[jun_celis]

I fixed mine by incorporating phosphate reactor. My phosphate has always been undetectable but I still had hair algae, here and there. So, after about a month of having a phosphate reactor, hair algae is all gone!

 

[Waxxiemann]

What we did for my buddy's nano was get the LFS to borrow us (him) the Sea Hare to destroy the algae and just before he had finished munching it all down, started running Phosban.

Viola! No more hair algea.... yet.

 

[John Karavias]

Nobody said the Algae hare would solve the nitrate and phosphate problem. Also once the hair algae is gone it is a good idea to give back the organism. I will see if the wholesaler will ship to Canada!!!

Aquaman

 

[ANNIESREEF]

I had a DOLABIFERA to hitch-hike in my tank. It is a wonderful algae eater, but it does little for the hair algae. Maybe if I had about 3 or 4 more....
I call my slug "Shrek"-he is great at keeping the brown algae under control. He has been in my tank for atleast a year and is still growing, a good 2 and half inches now. As long as there is algae-I plan to keep him.

 

[NewSaltyReefer]

I have zero Nitrates and nearly zero Phosphates, which I double checked with my LFS on, and I still have hair algea. It is all over my snails and there is also a white fuze on all of my rock which the snails can't keep up with. So maybe Nitrate and Phosphates aren't always the key!!

 

[RBU1]

New Salty you may have nitrates and phosphates but the algae is consuming it before your test kit. The best product I have seen is by Seachem. It is called De-Nitrate. I also use Purigen and Phosguard by Seachem. My hair algae is almost gone.