Hair Algae

[rainbow_yoshi]

Hi! My biocube tank is about 9 months old. I have an infestation of hair algae I have been battling. I try to manually remove as much as I can but I am wondering would it be better to replace some of my live rock with new ones from my LFS, or will it likely just find its way onto the new ones? I don’t want to just do something that’s going to put a bandaid on the problem. I was also suggested to get some activated carbon which I have been using.

 

[Euphyllia97]

No, go for balanced values of nitrate vs phosphate 10/1 and keep nitrate around 5-10 ppm. Taking out the rocks will destabilize your microbiome and will only trigger more algae in the end. New rocks will go through cycle and end up the same way. Maybe you can put the most dirty rocks in your sump and put them in the dark for a couple of weeks. (If you have a sump of course)

 

[lapin]

Dipping Rocks in Peroxide to Fight Bubble Algae

Hello All - I have a 75 gallon tank that’s been running since late May of 2022. PO4 .08 Nitrates 0 Alk 8.8 ph 7.9 For the past few months (maybe longer) I’ve been dealing with bubble algae. Been scraping/siphoning, added emerald crabs, a one spot Foxface (yes, I realize I’ll likely need to...

www.reef2reef.com

They say in the thread it works on hair too

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Can we hear more about your system? Tank size, livestock, filtration, what do you have for water movement, water change schedule.... Hair algae is the result of too much nutrient import and not enough export, low flow often contributes to algae.

 

[kevgib67]

^ need to find the cause for a permanent fix but for a short term quick fix before identifying and correcting the cause nothing beats a sea hare. My son has a newer 55 gallon that was full of gha and he put a sea hare in and in three weeks not a spot. I had some patches so to keep it from starving he put it in mine. After nine days we had to return him back to my son’s tank.