Hair Algae Got Me Wanting To Pull Out My Hair

Tylerismale · Oct 5, 2023

Hello everyone! I figured I'd post to the invert forum just because most of our inverts are clean-up crew. Anyway, I am having a big issue with hair algae and I want to know if anyone has recommendations for anything that will just destroy it all. My tank is 20 gal so I know that I am limited in stocking options but if anyone has recomendations I greatly appreciate it!!!

Lavey29 · Oct 5, 2023

The best cleaner for GHA is you.

Tylerismale · Oct 5, 2023

Lavey29 said:
Lavey29 said:

The best cleaner for GHA is you.

Click to expand...

I had a feeling that would be the case

Uncle99 · Oct 5, 2023

Tylerismale said:
Hello everyone! I figured I'd post to the invert forum just because most of our inverts are clean-up crew. Anyway, I am having a big issue with hair algae and I want to know if anyone has recommendations for anything that will just destroy it all. My tank is 20 gal so I know that I am limited in stocking options but if anyone has recomendations I greatly appreciate it!!!

Can we start with your parameters currently, and last tested?
Age and stability of the system?
A pic?

Water chemistry issues are great contributors to pest type stuff.

exnisstech · Oct 5, 2023

Tank shot under whites for reference? Sometimes what is an outbreak to some folks would be a blessing to me

Spare time · Oct 5, 2023

Try fluconazole. Otherwise, you just need to up the clean up crew and get things that really like to eat hair algae.

Black Dog Reefing · Oct 5, 2023

Urchins seem to mow GHA down extremely well for me. As long as your corals are firmly mounted i would say that’s your best bet as far as livestock goes.

Tylerismale · Oct 5, 2023

Uncle99 said:
Can we start with your parameters currently, and last tested?
Age and stability of the system?
A pic?

Last tested; today
Ammonia; 0, Nitrite; 0, Nitrate; 0, Ph; 8 (I know that is on the lower side but no matter how long I use Ph up it just stays at 8), Calcium; 400-500, Phosphate; 0.25
Age; over 3 months

tzabor10 · Oct 5, 2023

I had a similar problem. Got an army of turbo snails from Petco. It doesn’t come back in the display but there is a little in the Refugium.

Lavey29 · Oct 5, 2023

3 to 8 months is normal period for GHA to appear in new tanks. You will have various ugly phases over the course of the first year.

AydenLincoln · Oct 5, 2023

I love my urchin they do a great job at keeping it nonexistent.

exnisstech · Oct 5, 2023

Manual removal as fun as it is will be is needed. I've found nothing that will eat it when it's long like that. Tuxedo urchins didn't really do a lot for me. I've had decent luck with the large turbo snails maybe mixicans I'm not sure but not the astrea snails. Turbos can be bull dozers tho and the long stuff will still need to be removed manually. As @Lavey29 stated this is a normal phase. Personally I would just maybe add some cuc and keep up with manual removal. I'm apposed to chems in young tanks
It just seems to screw things up then it's one thing after another. Staying on top of things and letting the tank mature naturally is how I prefer to deal with it. Killing one thing with chems just seems to create new problems for me.

Balthazar · Oct 5, 2023

Reducing white light intensity, turbo snails, Fluconazole. If your are going to treat with Fluconazole you should run a skimmer to export the nutrients from the decay.
You can also type a search for peroxide treatment for gha and get your how to from there. I did this prior to learning about the Fluconazole.
Those are what worked for me to get it under control and eventually getting rid of it when parameters are in check.
I did lose a cleaner shrimp when i treated with peroxide and had no loss with using Fluconazole sold as Reef Flux.
You can get Reef Flux right on Amazon delivered to your door if you dont have a lfs nearby.
Hope this helps.
Btw Fluconazole is an antifungal medication used for humans as well.

exnisstech · Oct 5, 2023

Be careful with flucanizole. Not saying it doesn't work but sometime the results are worse than what you are trying to cure. When I used it it definately took care of the gha but then I had to battle cyano. One reason I prefer not to medicate, especially newer tanks. It can just lead to tail chasing with poor results in the long run. Not knocking the product or folks that use it just speaking from my experience.

brandon429 · Oct 5, 2023

GHA - Losing the battle

Hey all, I have been battling GHA since August of 2022. I feel like I am losing the battle here and do not really know what else to do. little info about my current tank: 25G Innovative Marine Nuvo - 2 clown fish - 1 pink spotted goby - 1 tuxedo urchin - 3 peppermint shrimp - 1 reef glass...

www.reef2reef.com

you need to rip clean that tank. if you add fluc in the invaded condition, expect 6-8 months of cyano and dinos capitalizing on the mass. see the thread, simple fix. your tank can be 100% fixed by tomorrow.

then you'd begin the new system by lowering your light levels, they're too bright for what's stocked, and the algae is feeding on that extra power competitively. nearly all gha issues are overlit tanks. but you don't change anything until the tank is ripped clean, all changes are made in the uninvaded condition. all meds, if any, are dosed in the totally clean condition as growback preventers, never as removers: or you'll get 6-9 mos of cyano and dinos.

brandon429 · Oct 5, 2023

if you are truly serious about fixing your nano we should engineer a live time rip clean right here

then you post the fixed tank pics tomorrow

and we will link your example to 3 big tank fix threads. the first step is apply all the moves we did above in that example link to your tank. the sand rinse, the 100% new water matching current temp and salinity, the rocks rasped clean with peroxide after step, the careful reassembly, the final pic of the clean tank

Dburr1014 · Oct 5, 2023

It doesn't look too bad really op.

I would agree manual removal and clean up crew is the best advice. Try all the different natural methods first is my advice.

I had a gha in my 9 yo system and tried everything I could for a year. It was starting to tick off some of my sps. So I did the fluconazole at a lower dose and it worked wonders. Small cyano outbreak in the sump only and that's all.