Hair algea- How do I get rid of it?

[Ryan Jansen]

My phosphate levels are abit higher then they should be, but no since I'm getting that under control, how do I get rid of the existing hair algae?

 

[egdevilboy]

nitrates and Phosphates are algae food. If it is in the tank, the algae will grow. Get rid of phosphates (check nitrates).

Do a 20% h2o change. 8-10 hour lighting cycle.

 

[poppin_fresh]

You will have to rip it out. I had a bad HA problem and yanked it like clumps of grass. Try not to let too many fibers get loose, they can turn into new patches.

If you keep on it, it should diminish over time if you are going after its food source (phosphates/nitrates). It sucks, I know, but diligence is key here.

 

[whiteshark]

Turbo snails mow the stuff down like champs!

 

[DMK]

not 4 me.

 

[sean48183]

Refugium. You need algae to scrub the water just not in your main tank. Took care of my problem in a months time. No critters will eat so do not waste money on it. I tried them all.

 

[Snausages01]

What worked for me:

• Manual removal
  Urchin
  Large Turbo Snails
  Lawnmower Blenny

 

[Alaskan Reefer]

Manual removal, to include good blowing out of LR afterward. Might take a while depending on how much is stored in your LR.

 

[brucoh]

Not really convenient for everyone, but I cooked my live rock. If you don't know what that is, it's putting your lr in a dark tub for 6 weeks and doing 100% water changes each week and scrubbing, dunking and swishing the rock in separate buckets of saltwater each time you do a water change in that 6 week period. It doesn't actually involve cooking your rock with heat. I'm not sure why it's called that. It's more like recuring it and making sure it's left totally in the dark. This process is supposed to rid your rock of phosphates. Downside is, it's a major pain in the a** and you really need an RO/DI unit to make sure you have high quality water for the water changes. You have to make a crapload of water. It came down to this for me because nothing else was getting rid of my hair algae problem. If I pulled it out, it would just grow back. My snails and crabs weren't eating it worth a crap and the lawn mower blenny wouldn't touch it either and ended up starving to death. Long term results, I don't know yet. My rock has only been back in my tank for a month and so far so good. People swear by this method though so I though I'd give it a try. I'd only do this as a last resort, if nothing else works keep this in the back of your mind. Good luck, hair algae problems can be enough to pack it in and get out of this hobby. It almost was for me.

Oh I forgot to add another suggestion, buy some ROWAphos phosphate remover. That's the best phosphate remover out there. Try this in addition to everyone else's suggestions. It might work out for you.

 

[Bathel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7011024#post7011024 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sean48183
Refugium. You need algae to scrub the water just not in your main tank. Took care of my problem in a months time. No critters will eat so do not waste money on it. I tried them all.

not true ... my black urchin eats the stuff like crazy. I have a thick patch of Hair Algee on my back wall in the corner and I don't bother cleaning it because it never get's out of control with the urchin munhing on it.