Hair Algae

[TheCheat]

Fastest "natural" way to hair algae removal without fish?

Would it be to cut the lights out completely, then do a series of fairly large water changes, in addition to getting new filters in my RO/DI?

I've had my confidence shaken recently, and just want to get back on track the right way. What say you?

Thanks,
B

 

[DARKSILENTTYPE]

Whats in your tank ? Besides Hair Algea ........

 

[TheCheat]

Fair question!
A couple hundred lbs of live rock, a modest amount of sand, and there's just a few snails and crabs in there. And actually my oldest living critter, a golden coral banded shrimp, also calls it home.

 

[Shooter7]

Fastest way to get rid of it is to tear it out by hand. You export the nasties with it that way too. As far as the little bit that's left over afterwards, and to keep it from growing back, the usual husbandry stuff of light feeding, good flow, nutrient export through skimming, water changes, yadda yadda. The last bout of algae I battled took many months to finally beat it back. I had to keep my levels stable, it seems that the algae in my tank likes showing up when my alk and/or Mg is low. Not sure regarding the correlation there, but every time I've had algae starting to show up I've been low in one or the other. Also, running a reactor with phosphate removing media helps a lot too. All the above plus patience. It was very frustrating having the lower part of my tank looking like the field in the Edward Jones dome for months, but it finally went away. I started getting a little back recently, then realized I hadn't change out my phosphate remover in awhile and....Mg was low this time. Go figure.

 

[TheCheat]

Thanks Dave. I appreciate the insight and advice. I'll keep all that stuff in mind as I forge ahead to get back on the right path with my reef.
Later,
B