Hair Algae: The Best Way, The MANY Ways, To Get Rid Of It....

What have you found to be the best things/methods to beat hair algae? (choose all that apply)

  • Hydrogen peroxide

    Votes: 131 16.6%
  • Lawn Mower Blenny (or other fish)

    Votes: 169 21.5%
  • Manual Removal

    Votes: 363 46.1%
  • Rock Scrubbing

    Votes: 164 20.8%
  • Lowered Phosphates

    Votes: 175 22.2%
  • Tank Blackouts

    Votes: 46 5.8%
  • Urchins

    Votes: 152 19.3%
  • Fluconazole

    Votes: 90 11.4%
  • Granular Ferric Oxide (GFO)

    Votes: 75 9.5%
  • UV Sterilizer

    Votes: 72 9.1%
  • Refugium

    Votes: 179 22.7%
  • Algae Scrubber

    Votes: 63 8.0%
  • Clean Up Crew

    Votes: 326 41.4%
  • Lighting Change

    Votes: 61 7.8%
  • Sea Hare

    Votes: 59 7.5%
  • Vibrant

    Votes: 120 15.2%
  • Other (please explain in thread)

    Votes: 53 6.7%

  • Total voters
    787

mickeysreef <*))))<

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this is my smaller 29g tank. added lawnmower blenny, not enough. added a pretty big cuc. wasnt enough. lowered nitrates near zero still not enough. lowered phosphates near 0. still not enough. added 2" purple tang. done deal!
 

reefinatl

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My approach has always been turbos to knock it back and increased refugium lighting to pull the nutrients out before its fuels the regrowth. Essentially using the turbo poo to move the algae growth to the sump. I used to use GFO as well.
 
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reefinatl

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Should make a thread like this for briopsis... as far as green hair algae a good clean up crew has kept it in check for me.
I took a long break but I thought "we" had bryopsis whipped by jacking magnesium really high back in the mid '00s early '10s.
 

Nhjmc

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I've been struggling with this exact issue for a couple weeks now. Working on lowering my nitrates via water changes and nitrate reducer (instant ocean) as my phosphates are 1 or 2 per API test kit. I don't believe I'm over lighting my tank but not certain def. has me stumped. I've been gently scrubbing my LR with a soft toothbrush/pulling off little bits of it where can.
 

BOWHUNTER4250

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I personally think you should identify if it is actually GHA or Bryopsis as these do look very similar ... i thought i had GHA but it turned out to be bryopsis , took me almost 3 years of scrubbing rocks with a tooth brush , Flucon and Vibrant to get rid of it and today i am bryopsis free !! but HOLY MOTHER OF GAAAAAWD did it take a long time to get rid of it !!
 

BOWHUNTER4250

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I've been struggling with this exact issue for a couple weeks now. Working on lowering my nitrates via water changes and nitrate reducer (instant ocean) as my phosphates are 1 or 2 per API test kit. I don't believe I'm over lighting my tank but not certain def. has me stumped. I've been gently scrubbing my LR with a soft toothbrush/pulling off little bits of it where can.
Make sure it is in fact GHA and not bryopsis , you can google pictures of both and see the difference .
 

Trever

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Stop feeding with pellets. It seemed to be the cause and using frozen food only seemed to be the road back.
 

bulldogniner

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This is the nemesis I still battle. It is getting better, but still there. I have and am currently doing the following

1) Manual removal
2) Frequent water changes
3) Chemi pure
4) Sea hares - RIP
5) Astrea Snails
6) Kole and Sailfin tangs
7) Lawmower Blenny (RIP - thanks Kole tang)
8) Refugium
9) Crying a lot
 

BOWHUNTER4250

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This is the nemesis I still battle. It is getting better, but still there. I have and am currently doing the following

1) Manual removal
2) Frequent water changes
3) Chemi pure
4) Sea hares - RIP
5) Astrea Snails
6) Kole and Sailfin tangs
7) Lawmower Blenny (RIP - thanks Kole tang)
8) Refugium
9) Crying a lot
How old is your tank ?
 

Screwgunner

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Me and my friend started our 125s at the same time he used well water with a rafugium and I have city water with a ATS . He got it bad and is starting to subside after 2.5 months . I have not seen any gha yet. But I keep phosphates at .06
 

Captain K'nuckles

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I have no choice but to remove myself as my tangs and foxfaces won't touch the stuff. Snails won't either. Only prefer algae on the glass. Even my emerald crabs won't eat it unless it's really short. Resorted to roughed up ended ro tubing to scrub and remove myself. Ro doesn't empty a tank like the bigger stuff would. Can get a little more removed if it doesn't keep getting blocked all my cuc are useless.
 

sledge760

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Using Vibrant for 5 weeks or so for GHA. None of it going away so far. I thought I would see some improvement.
 

rlamos1

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Ugh. This was my Covid project. Neglected 20 year old tank. I did just about everything on this list. I started with nutrient export and moved on to Vibrant - these caused more problems than they solved for me. I (re)learned the hard way that tanks need bio diversity and some nutrients. Shout out to @brandon429 and his many posts on this topic.

Highest impact solutions for me:
1. Pull out old Live Rock, scrub with brushes then directly treat problem spots with H2O2 (did not "broadcast" H2O2 to tank). Had to do this a few times. Siphoned underneath the Live Rock while it was out of the tank each time.
2. Get Phosphate in check, i.e. not eliminated. Did this with GFO at first then brought Chaeto refugium back online. Running < 1.0 Phos with Hanna ULR and 0 Nitrate. Although I know Nitrate is in there b/c the Chaeto is growing like gang busters and there are tiny holdouts of GHA.
3. Blast Live Rock with a turkey baster when doing weekly water change. Would love to use a small pump instead to do this, maybe a future purchase. This is also the only time I run a filter sock.
4. Continue to siphon substrate during water changes.
5. A repopulated CuC mostly made up of trochus, astrea and cerith snails.

This took care of my bryopsis and turf in addition to gha.

Also of note, in past outbreaks I tried Tuxedo Urchins and Sea Hares. The Tuxedos seemed much more interested in my coraline than the green stuff. Sea Hares did put sizable dents in the stuff but they will die quickly if you run out so I wanted to avoid them this time around and go with a more "sustainable" CuC.
 
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castmich56

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Really, I just removed it by picking it all off the rocks to the point that my CUC could handle the rest. I've never seen the stuff again.
Some people are new to the hobby or don’t know the abbreviations
I have such a pet peeve with people using letters instead of explaining what it is they’re talking about
CUC
How about LOL that one is easier
 
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