Hair Algae

[Critter]

Besides nutrients in the water, what would be the biggest contributors to hair algae? Over the last month or so I've developed a hair algae bloom. of cource the po4 and n4 are at 0 but that can be missleading with the HA in the tank. I know I need more snails, but trying to figure out whats causing it. My lights were at 7 months old so I just replaced them. The only other thing I can think of is my temp is up from around 80 to 84 because of the heat wave we are in. Can the temp start a bloom? thanks for any insight.

 

[coralnut99]

Higher temp. is definitely another contributing factor. Keeping your rock clean helps too. Take a turkey baster to the rock work every so often so thet it gets into the water columnb and into your filter system. Are you running a refugium?

 

[rickyfins]

Can you give us some system description, livestock, critters, and any other related info. This will help some of us help you figure it out! But so far here is my .02 as a general rule of thumb. There is nothing like telling someone to stop feeding their fish when they don't have any! LOL Yes I did that once without knowing.

Feeding heavy isn't the only way, just feeding in general contributes to the problem or the occurence of a problem algae. I have recommended to some hobbyists to stop feeding the fish, all the fish, and wait it out. Do the RODI water changes and shorter lighting cycle. A good sump or fuge cleaning may help also. Depends on your setup. With crabs and herbivore fish its as simple as starving them to eat it. If they don't have T bones to eat, they eventually will be willing to eat ketchup sandwiches.

thanks,

Rick

 

[Critter]

its not a feeding issue.. i only feed every 2 days and for what they can eat in 3 to 5 minutes. 99% of it is on the glass heaters etc. Not much on the rock. I've really not done anything more or less to the system since last year. same fish, same food. only difference is lights getting older and temp going up. my parameters are what they usually are nothing chemicaly seems out of wack. I'm planning on doing a major scraping and then a 10% water change a week for the next few weeks. I'm probably fighting mother nature here but its worth a shot. It jsut seemed to really bloom mid June on. lol its even on one of my snails.. the darn thing looks like one of the trolls they use to see to put on the top of your pencile.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7856418#post7856418 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rickyfins
Can you give us some system description, livestock, critters, and any other related info. This will help some of us help you figure it out! But so far here is my .02 as a general rule of thumb. There is nothing like telling someone to stop feeding their fish when they don't have any! LOL Yes I did that once without knowing.

Feeding heavy isn't the only way, just feeding in general contributes to the problem or the occurence of a problem algae. I have recommended to some hobbyists to stop feeding the fish, all the fish, and wait it out. Do the RODI water changes and shorter lighting cycle. A good sump or fuge cleaning may help also. Depends on your setup. With crabs and herbivore fish its as simple as starving them to eat it. If they don't have T bones to eat, they eventually will be willing to eat ketchup sandwiches.

thanks,

Rick

 

[CarlC]

Maybe try scrubbing with a toothbrush attached to a syphon hose. Scrapping will only spread the problem to other area's where the algae settles.

What is your current water change schedule? Pump impeller's, are they clean? Loss of water flow will allow things to settle. Are you running a skimmer? RO filters, when was the last time they were changed. Your supply and or top off water could have a higher TDS with the extra heat.

The temp could be playing a role allowing things to break down quicker. If you do not have the life that uses the broken down nutrients it will get used by algae's. Have you tried refreshing your sandbed and changing out some rock? Just by simply adding a cup or two of live sand from another tank can do wonders to replenish the life that use's the nutrients. Adding some freshly cured rock will also add lots of new bacteria and life.

Do you have good to great coraline coverage? The is a great nutrient consumer that is nice to look at. This you want to scrape to allow seeding elseware in the tank.

Your problem is defineatly related to nutrients. The algae wouldn't be growing if it didn't have the nutrients to feed it. It is just a matter of finding what else has changed or been altered that is not keeping things in balance.


Carl

 

[bmac]

Are you runnin a CA reactor ? I know when I hooked up my reactor I got a bloom of hair algae....

 

[Critter]

nope, nuthen fancy.. AFter thinking about this some more, I think there are two more factors involved that I didn't initialy accout for. 1 being, at one point and I didn't make a note, I thouht that I had 1 of my maix stream mods running all the time and the other turned off with the lights... turned out that both were turning off with the lights so the only flow I had was from the sump. So I have both running 24/7 now. The other thing is we have had a few storms go through and the timmer that was controlling the lighting hours for the cheto was broken which would explaine the lack of growth i noticed. So I think what happend, is low flow, old lights, no cheto growth, warm temps and lack of snails. So, I just did a 10% water change, and will do another this weekend (and clean out the grunge in the sump). I'll be heading to something fish for snails. I just replaced the lights, put a new timmer on my cheto for the lighting, got the maix streams running 24/7 and have the room opend up with a fan blowing in on the tank/sump. The temp is down to 79 already. So I'll probably get a emerald crab as well. I'm also going to order a product called Marine SAT which i'm reading in the forums about combating the GHA. It might help me get back to normal quicker.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7864437#post7864437 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bmac
Are you runnin a CA reactor ? I know when I hooked up my reactor I got a bloom of hair algae....

 

[Critter]

Man, I started pulling out the things that have the GHA on them and good god that stuff doesn't want to come off... Does anybody have any tricks to getting GHA off pumps etc. Thanks

 

[coralnut99]

fwiw, I would stay away from "cures" and stick with eliminating the causes rather than spending money on SAT. The streams being out of commission are definitely part of the problem, but some settups will have the flow regulated to slow down during lights out periods. I would also stay away from emeralds. There are actually several species of Mithrax, that look very similar. Also all crabs eventually turn into omnivores. One crab won't doo much for you problem anyway. Scrubbing with a very stiff bristled brush is the best way to get it off of housings, etc. Dipping in a strong vinegar solution will help too. If your temp. is down to 79 now, I would say that's probably the biggest contributor, depending on hw much higher it was. Also more air circulating in the room will increase alkalinity, which will also help. hth

 

[CarlC]

Yep like coralnut suggested a good soak in vinegar will help. Also a great point about the crabs. They all, except porcelain type crabs, have the chance of turning on you and eatting or picking at the desirable things in our tanks.

Carl

 

[rickyfins]

YEA, tell me about it. Those darn buggers love(d) my monti cap and scolymia. NOT ANY MORE though, the tweezers and my foot got the best of them.

thanks,

Rick

 

[Critter]

good deal guys.. thanks for the info.. forgot about the vineger, i'll have to setup a bucket.

 

[coralnut99]

In cases where Hair algae becomes a problem, I think most folks will find that it also appreciates a spot where it can really grab hold. Like a lightly corallined powerhead, or return tubing, etc. It makes it doubly heard to get off. So you basically disolve it's base in those cases with a vinegar solution. Not sure there's a great danger in using red vinegar, but I've never seen anything other than white vinegar suggested. It's cheap, so the stronger the solution the faster and more complete a job it does.

I use only micro-sized blue legs in my tanks. Once they get to a size where you can really see all their features, some get banished to the sumps, and some go to the lfs for credit. Like it's been said above, the only totally safe crab, with no bad habits are porcelain crabs. It's tough enough to get rid of gorilla crabs that come in as tiny hitchikers, but it's even worse when you intentionally buy an "assasin". Besides, one Mithrax just wouldn't do much.

 

[Critter]

Was down at Something Fishy on Saturday... Seems that snails and the like are not as abundent this time of year.. I think its the heat. All my local places had none or next to none. I came away with a "Sea hare" I believe it was called. Looks like a giant snot. The kid there said it would do the work of 10 snails. So I got him and 5 snails with 5 small red leg hermit crabs. We talked about my now getting bigger bristle worm. I think i'm going to take it out, its got to be about a foot long now.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7880065#post7880065 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coralnut99
In cases where Hair algae becomes a problem, I think most folks will find that it also appreciates a spot where it can really grab hold. Like a lightly corallined powerhead, or return tubing, etc. It makes it doubly heard to get off. So you basically disolve it's base in those cases with a vinegar solution. Not sure there's a great danger in using red vinegar, but I've never seen anything other than white vinegar suggested. It's cheap, so the stronger the solution the faster and more complete a job it does.

I use only micro-sized blue legs in my tanks. Once they get to a size where you can really see all their features, some get banished to the sumps, and some go to the lfs for credit. Like it's been said above, the only totally safe crab, with no bad habits are porcelain crabs. It's tough enough to get rid of gorilla crabs that come in as tiny hitchikers, but it's even worse when you intentionally buy an "assasin". Besides, one Mithrax just wouldn't do much.

 

[coralnut99]

You know I totally forgot about sea hares. I've never had one, so I can't speak from experience, but all I've read makes them out to be hair algae mowers. If it were me I would have taken a shot at it too.
I don't know about hermits being seasonal or anything. But heat like we've had makes it a real nail-biter to ship any livestock. Those little cold packs don't last long at 100 degrees. Add the general "slacking off" of sales in the hobby this time of year, and that equals not much stuff available in general.
Keep us posted on the seahare. I'd be very curious to see how things go for you.
Uh, a foot long bristle worm? Dang that's big! I would've tried him as bait by now.

 

[coralnut99]

Just read your othet post on skimmer selection. A pretty good assumption may be that your skimmer can't keep up with your feeding regimen / biolad, and caused some of your hair algae problems.

 

[Tangster123]

Hair alage remover

1 tbs pickling lime
3 tbs water
heat 30 secs in microwave
squirt on hair with needle injet refill works fine

 

[Critter]

I havn't seen the hare in 3 days so not sure if your going to get an update :|

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7887788#post7887788 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coralnut99
You know I totally forgot about sea hares. I've never had one, so I can't speak from experience, but all I've read makes them out to be hair algae mowers. If it were me I would have taken a shot at it too.
I don't know about hermits being seasonal or anything. But heat like we've had makes it a real nail-biter to ship any livestock. Those little cold packs don't last long at 100 degrees. Add the general "slacking off" of sales in the hobby this time of year, and that equals not much stuff available in general.
Keep us posted on the seahare. I'd be very curious to see how things go for you.
Uh, a foot long bristle worm? Dang that's big! I would've tried him as bait by now.

 

[coralnut99]

Hmmm. Slugs, Nudibranchs, and snails are super sensitive to salinity swings. Even small ones. Everything I've read recommends acclimation times in excess of 2 hours. I don't have first-hand experience with seahares, but maybe this helps in case you decide to try again.

 

[Critter]

that little nugget would of been nice if the store employee would have offered it up. also I find this...

Caution: This fish secretes or releases toxins that may kill fish in the aquarium. The species may release toxic compounds when stressed, or release toxic compounds when it dies.

Looks like I might have to get in there and find it. Looks like the warm fuzzy feeling I had with something fishy is gone.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7899388#post7899388 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coralnut99
Hmmm. Slugs, Nudibranchs, and snails are super sensitive to salinity swings. Even small ones. Everything I've read recommends acclimation times in excess of 2 hours. I don't have first-hand experience with seahares, but maybe this helps in case you decide to try again.