Hair Algae Problem
- Thread starter fuy
- Start date
CUC except for urchins and sea hares, do very little if anything in controlling algae.
I find it quite ironic that stores sell these CUC packages, in which the death of those CUC members simply adds to the nutrients.
If you have GHA, then your nutrients are being managed to high, and/or your light is too intense, to long, or wrong colour spectrum.
GHA disappears of its own when nitrates are managed between 2-5ppm and phosphates between 0.02-0.04.
Urchins will clear the Alage but at the cost of coraline not to mention some knocking over of corals. Sea hare is great but once the algae is gone, the hare will die so must be re-homed.
The fact is that even if a CUC could do a great job removing GHA, if you don't manage the nutrients, it will just come back"
I found it easier to pull the stuff I see, use a toothbrush and keep nutrients in those stated ranges where GHA cannot survive. Took about 2 months keeping nutrients in the range with NOPox and a GFO, but then, it just turned translucent and disappeared.
It never returned.....
BTW I do keep some Astreas (polishers) and some Nars (turnover sand)...
I find it quite ironic that stores sell these CUC packages, in which the death of those CUC members simply adds to the nutrients.
If you have GHA, then your nutrients are being managed to high, and/or your light is too intense, to long, or wrong colour spectrum.
GHA disappears of its own when nitrates are managed between 2-5ppm and phosphates between 0.02-0.04.
Urchins will clear the Alage but at the cost of coraline not to mention some knocking over of corals. Sea hare is great but once the algae is gone, the hare will die so must be re-homed.
The fact is that even if a CUC could do a great job removing GHA, if you don't manage the nutrients, it will just come back"
I found it easier to pull the stuff I see, use a toothbrush and keep nutrients in those stated ranges where GHA cannot survive. Took about 2 months keeping nutrients in the range with NOPox and a GFO, but then, it just turned translucent and disappeared.
It never returned.....
BTW I do keep some Astreas (polishers) and some Nars (turnover sand)...
Last edited:
Reef noob_
New member
I just went through a huge hair algae outbreak after I moved all my rock to a dark sump and had the resulting die off dump tons of organics into my water.
Manual removal, water changes, and setting up a large refugium helped and the algae is already almost cleared up only ~1 month later.
Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk
Manual removal, water changes, and setting up a large refugium helped and the algae is already almost cleared up only ~1 month later.
Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk
Not to mention that the package always includes crabs that invariably prey on the snail population
