Hair Algae Solution That Worked For Me
- Thread starter devoman
- Start date
Husky_1
Premium Member
Well, You guys have convinced me. I am in the same boat as a lot of you guys. Use 0 TDS RODI, weekly water changes, feed moderately, switch out my filterbag every other day, etc. etc. In addition, I have been on Zeo for 6 months. I have this devil GHA that just will not quite. While I have always ready 0 nitrate and phosphate, this stuff keep on growing (yes I know it could be consuming it all). I have no other algae issues, and after I switched to KZ salt from NSW, I have no cyano problems.
I will be going to Petsmart tomorrow to pick this stuff up. Sucks, I was there today for dog food.
So let me make sure I get this right. Here are the steps
-Dose once every 3rd day, not every other day.
-Follow the instructions for dosage amounts
-Dont worry about turning off Carbon/Skimmer. Actually, I would be worried turning my skimmer off in case this stuff chews threw O2.
So one last question: Is there anyone else out there running zeo with this? I see that some guys were dosing carbon, but what about Zeoliths, Bacteria, CV?
Thanks everyone...I will have before and after pics. However please keep in mind that I will be pulling as much of the HA out by hand since I would prefer to not pollute my water.
-Dale
I will be going to Petsmart tomorrow to pick this stuff up. Sucks, I was there today for dog food.
So let me make sure I get this right. Here are the steps
-Dose once every 3rd day, not every other day.
-Follow the instructions for dosage amounts
-Dont worry about turning off Carbon/Skimmer. Actually, I would be worried turning my skimmer off in case this stuff chews threw O2.
So one last question: Is there anyone else out there running zeo with this? I see that some guys were dosing carbon, but what about Zeoliths, Bacteria, CV?
Thanks everyone...I will have before and after pics. However please keep in mind that I will be pulling as much of the HA out by hand since I would prefer to not pollute my water.
-Dale
III sickboy III
New member
I definitately would keep your skimmer running! Mine has gone crazy while I've been dosing this stuff!
I decided to give it a try after reading this thread as I have tried everything else. So far I'm on my 6th dose. At first I didn't think t was working at all, as it doesn't work anything like the freshwater version. But now, I can tell a difference. The GHA isn't gone, but its not growing back after I pull it out like it used to, so I am finally gaining the upper hand! It works on Byropsis as well and hasn't hurt the Macroalgae in my tank!
Thanks for the suggestion guys!:thumbsup:
I decided to give it a try after reading this thread as I have tried everything else. So far I'm on my 6th dose. At first I didn't think t was working at all, as it doesn't work anything like the freshwater version. But now, I can tell a difference. The GHA isn't gone, but its not growing back after I pull it out like it used to, so I am finally gaining the upper hand! It works on Byropsis as well and hasn't hurt the Macroalgae in my tank!
Thanks for the suggestion guys!:thumbsup:
saltydog64
New member
sickboy..........
Sounds good, what would be nice is some pics.........hopefully B/A showing the macros also.....
Sounds good, what would be nice is some pics.........hopefully B/A showing the macros also.....
Husky_1
Premium Member
I dosed my 2nd dose on Wednesday. I pulled out some hair algae last night and found it very easy to take off the rocks and the couple of hairy snails. I found that taking out caused a lot more crap in the water, so I would say that my stuff is disintegrating. Its also starting to less green, but the color thing could be the placebo affect as well 
.
I noticed a slight cloudiness in the water the day after dosing, but saw more PE on my corals and my fish remain as active as always during this period. I have no clams or anemones. I have continued utilizing zeovit and am still skimming.
So far, knock on wood, no ill effects to the tank.
.I noticed a slight cloudiness in the water the day after dosing, but saw more PE on my corals and my fish remain as active as always during this period. I have no clams or anemones. I have continued utilizing zeovit and am still skimming.
So far, knock on wood, no ill effects to the tank.
III sickboy III
New member
Unfortunately, I don't think I have before pics, I will double check the camera when I get home. If I do, I will definitely post them, but I was getting a little embarassed by my tank w/ algae every where and didn't take many. I could take some now though, and will take them and post them.
I think this stuff is mostly helping me not grow new algae, as I've been trying for months to do the normal things: decrease nutrients, less light, etc. 7 dose went into the tank today.
iamwrasseman
New member
i gotta tell ya ,on my third dose everything is falling off the rock .the algea is just about dead .i just removed a pound or so and the stuff was just barely strong enough not to fall off by itself .this stuff really works wonders ! a couple more doses and all will be gone .i have some rock that was cleaned off beford dosing the first time and absolutly none has started growing at all ,amazing . the only other thing i did was just before i started the algea fix i was raising my mag ,and it is at 1650 ppm also which is supposed to kill it off also . i dont know which is working but it has been stopped DEAD in its tracks .
Kissfan79
New member
I just dosed #6 tonight and after about 4 I noticed results. After the 5th....my hair algae is almost gone. I think number 6 may be my last dose on the 3 day schedule and I will go to once per week for maintinence as it suggests on the bottle. My tank hasn't looked this good in the 9 months it has been up and running (a 180....not the 75 in my sig 
). Awesome product that has done the job for me.
Jim
). Awesome product that has done the job for me.Jim
FYI....I used algae-fix for about 2 - 3 weeks....It does kill algae & did not hurt my cllam, sally lightfoots, emerald crabs or peppermint shrimp....Also have 3 chromis, tang, clownfish, sand sifting goby, lawnmower blenny, fighting conch turbo snails etc.....The only thing I did obeserve is that after a while the algae turned black, like charcoal color & even my skimmate was black....I stopped using the product, had a very slight diatom bloom but my live rock is actually starting to get coraline algae growing on it!!!! The black is slowly receeding but I couldn't wait & took out some of the rock & scrubbed them with a toothbrush....The water was NASTY in my scrub bucket. Some of the black is still on the rocks but I am pleased not to be looking at long green strands of HA!!!!! I have cheato in my fuge & it didn't grow during treatment & was being choked out from the black charcoal like stuff comming off the dying HA....I piched the cheato because I figured covered with the black stuff it wasen't getting much light...I bought more cheato since I stopped the treatment & can't believe how FAST it is growing!!!! I don't have many corals other than ricordia so I can't speak from experience how it would affect them but my clam had no problem!!!!
I think I'm going to discontinue dosing for a while. I've noticed some improvements, but a lot of my favorite pieces are looking stressed out. I've noticed a lot of bleaching, and my torch and frogspawn are pretty upset. Gonna get some water tested tomorrow (hopefully) and see if alk/calc/? is out of whack...
III sickboy III
New member
Most of my stuff seems to be doing better actually, but that is probably b/c they have light now and I have already taken drastic steps to decrease nutrients. If the HA died but the trate and phos problems were not addressed, I'm sure the corals would suffer. But I still get no reading on them even though the HA is not growing...which supports my hypothesis that I got the HA out of bad feeding practices and once there it kept growing regardless that I had cleaned-up my water. The only thing that has looked worse is my long tentacle plate, but he has been in slow decline anyway (it was a present, I wouldn't have bought it b/c of the high mortality rate)
I started using this product after reading this thread. I don’t have hair algae in the tank but an overgrowth of chaeto that originally went through the return pump from my sump. It had effectively overgrown most of the tank and killed several SPS colonies. The tank is 120G with a 30 G sump.
I put the 5th dose in last night. I am now getting the algae starting to fall apart and lots of small material suspended in the water. There are still areas where the chaeto looks a healthy green but most areas are lighter and are clearly responding to treatment.
I have been manually removing as much of the algae each night, getting a baseball sized amount for the past 3 nights. I had lots of chaeto in the tank.
I have added a wisper power filter to the tank and a filter sock to the sump. Both are removing lots of material. I had to change the pads in the wisper after 2 days.
I did a large water change today and cleaned the sump to control water quality as a large amount of the chaeto has died in the last 2 days.
I have 4 clams, lots of SPS, LPS and a long tentacle plate coral and all are doing well. The clams do tend to close up a bit for a few hours after each dose but look normal a few hours later.
If you have lots of algae and you are using this product, I would recommend that you monitor your water quality closely as I suspect that a lot of nutrients get released back into the water as the algae dies off.
As a side note I am also transitioning my tank to the zeovit method, and have been using the basic 4 for about 2 ½ weeks.
I am seeing improved polyp extension and a slight improvement in colors, nothing dramatic but overall the SPS corals are lighter in color and look good.
I don’t know how much effect is from the Algaefix Marine or the zeovit but the tank is definitely improving and I haven’t seen any negative effects from ether products in my tank.
The tank still has a long way to go and I am planning another water change in 2 or 3 days and suspect that more will be needed as the chaeto continues to die off.
I plan to continue to dose the tank every third day.
I put the 5th dose in last night. I am now getting the algae starting to fall apart and lots of small material suspended in the water. There are still areas where the chaeto looks a healthy green but most areas are lighter and are clearly responding to treatment.
I have been manually removing as much of the algae each night, getting a baseball sized amount for the past 3 nights. I had lots of chaeto in the tank.
I have added a wisper power filter to the tank and a filter sock to the sump. Both are removing lots of material. I had to change the pads in the wisper after 2 days.
I did a large water change today and cleaned the sump to control water quality as a large amount of the chaeto has died in the last 2 days.
I have 4 clams, lots of SPS, LPS and a long tentacle plate coral and all are doing well. The clams do tend to close up a bit for a few hours after each dose but look normal a few hours later.
If you have lots of algae and you are using this product, I would recommend that you monitor your water quality closely as I suspect that a lot of nutrients get released back into the water as the algae dies off.
As a side note I am also transitioning my tank to the zeovit method, and have been using the basic 4 for about 2 ½ weeks.
I am seeing improved polyp extension and a slight improvement in colors, nothing dramatic but overall the SPS corals are lighter in color and look good.
I don’t know how much effect is from the Algaefix Marine or the zeovit but the tank is definitely improving and I haven’t seen any negative effects from ether products in my tank.
The tank still has a long way to go and I am planning another water change in 2 or 3 days and suspect that more will be needed as the chaeto continues to die off.
I plan to continue to dose the tank every third day.
Matias Ilhabela
New member
you have used against derbesia and bryopsis?
would not be better hope that the algae are dying rather than expect them to go in the sump filter?
never had problems with algae in my reefs, I am looking for information to help some friends who are with this prague
would not be better hope that the algae are dying rather than expect them to go in the sump filter?
never had problems with algae in my reefs, I am looking for information to help some friends who are with this prague
Last edited:
