Hair Algae

[DJM28064212]

I have a serious algae problem and would like to know what will eat it. I would like to avoid a yellow tang as long as I can. I want to get like a powder blue sometime, should I just get one and try that? or are there other things that will destroy that stuff.
Thanks
Doug

 

[laurentb]

it seem like you've got plenty of light. don't run the MH more than 7 hours/day. Then cut down on the food. make sure the phosphate is close to 0. but first remove as much as you can by hand. water change once a week.

 

[NANOFOOL]

lkawnmowerblenny will take care of it

 

[DJM28064212]

yea i have a blenny, that doesnt work, also i dont run lights for long, feeding 1 time a day, all levels are normal and my Phosphates i hope are around zero, but i cannot check them. i quess i will try more frequent water changes.
Doug

 

[manderx]

i have a hanna colorimeter to test the po4. you (and anyone else) can borrow it anytime you want. though it was crazy expensive and the reagents aren't cheap either so i gotta ask $1 per test. i would say people could bring water samples, but i would be afraid that whatever you bring the water over in could contaminate the sample.

i personally think you can have algae even with 'prefect' water, so don't go too crazy on water changes till we get some numbers on the water (it would have to be really bad and your makeup water really good for it to matter imo, otherwise you could just be feeding the algae with fresh micro-nutrients). if there are enough nutrients for corals/coralline to live then there are enough nutrients for algae to live, it's just a matter of having enough happy 'good' stuff in the tank to outcompete the 'bad' stuff. remember that nutrients in water are constantly being generated and consumed, so don't think of it as 'my nitrates are 20' think of it as 'my tank is consuming/exporting less nitrate than it's producing, giving me a right-now-snapshot equilibrium of 20 nitrate'.

so, my theory is that you need to get the hair algae out as best you can, either by hand/scrubbing or by a critter. queen conchs are really good on most hair algae. then without the mass of aglae sucking down what it wants, dominating the system and keeping everything else in the tank suppressed and from being able to compete, those nutrients (and by nutrient i mean the whole range, not just the 'bad' things we test for like nitrate/phosphate,...) will then be available to the other good stuff (corals, clams, macro,...) and then with a little time they can take charge and become dominant and suck down nutrients faster than the hair algae and outcompete it. it's really cool when you hit that breakpoint, all the algae in your tank just dissapears practically overnight.

 

[surfnvb7]

since your tank is relatively new, it may just be those new tank growing pains.

i've gotten the hair algae outbreaks for a couple months every time i move/switch to a new/bigger tank. and my NO3 and PO4 are always zero (even with the salifert and hanna tests).

i've focused on clean water, NO3 and detectable PO4 always zero. i think if those 2 levels are zero then you should be ok with skimming and feeding.

the only snails i've found to eat it reliably are fighting conchs, and queen conchs. turbos and trochus may touch it if its very short, meaning you may have to hand pick it to get it short enough for them to eat. no snail will touch it if its too long and stringy.

if you can get ahold of a lettuce nudibranch i've heard those sometimes work ok also. if you get very desperate, theres always a sea hare but you run the risk of funking up your water when it dies.

several rocks i lost the battle with i stuck in a bucket for several months with no light, 2 snails, a small pump for circulation and a heater and that seemed to do the trick.