Hair algae

[Mast33]

I am fighting hair algae and have tried urchins, crabs and other clean ups. Im gonna start doing larger water changes what else can I do

 

[RedReefer]

What are you feeding and how frequent?

 

[Reffetsevla]

Few things that may help people make suggestions

Tank Size:
Tank Age:
Salinity:
NO3:
PO4:
Lighting (type and duration):

If you can post that info, that would help immensely. The clean up crew is good to tackle the algae but you have to address why it keeps growing first. They will eat it once it stop producing faster than they can maintain. I fought it myself recently for a couple months. If you can post your parameters that would help us in finding a way to help you

 

[Lavey29]

Ate you sure it's GHA and not briopsis? Manual removal and raising magnesium to 1500 will help too.

 

[Mast33]

Few things that may help people make suggestions

Tank Size:
Tank Age:
Salinity:
NO3:
PO4:
Lighting (type and duration):

If you can post that info, that would help immensely. The clean up crew is good to tackle the algae but you have to address why it keeps growing first. They will eat it once it stop producing faster than they can maintain. I fought it myself recently for a couple months. If you can post your parameters that would help us in finding a way to help you

.08 phos
10 nitrate
1.025 salinity
2 api primes blue lighting only I run 10 hrs it runs
A year old

 

[Mast33]

Ate you sure it's GHA and not briopsis? Manual removal and raising magnesium to 1500 will help too.

It could be they are similar aren't they? I've been removing it but there's alot. I'll raise magnesium

 

[Yeh]

I had the same problem a few weeks ago. A lot of water changes and some pretty in-depth manual removal with a toothbrush and turkey baster helped.

 

[Mast33]

What are you feeding and how frequent?

Frozen mysis once a day

 

[Dburr1014]

It could be they are similar aren't they? I've been removing it but there's alot. I'll raise magnesium

Rip some out and lay it on a paper towel and post a close-up picture. Try to lay it out like a fan.

 

[Mast33]

 

[Reffetsevla]

I think it's GHA but I'm not an expert lol Something to keep in mind, your CUC cannot eat it while it is long. I had to get a few scissors made for trimming freshwater plants and I would cut it down as short I could daily. Then I had 3 Mexican Turbo's, 9 Margaritas, 12 Astreas, 8 Cerith's in a 20g AIO to eat everything. I've since returned the turbos and reduced the others drastically. But the Turbos and Margaritas ate the GHA best for me. Has to be short for them to eat it though.

I also have 2x peppermint shrimp and 1x female emerald crab. They probably helped a little. The Cerith's did eat some GHA but not as much as the others.

 

[Chortanator]

Luckily my GHA was contained to one rock that didn't have any corals on it, I took it out of the water and scrubbed the spot that had it. I got most of it, but since my phosphates are low I don't foresee it coming back and it should starve. Are there any rocks you can take out of your tank and just scrub with a toothbrush to minimise the amount overall that you have?

 

[Reffetsevla]

.08 phos
10 nitrate
1.025 salinity
2 api primes blue lighting only I run 10 hrs it runs
A year old

Paramaters don't look bad honestly. Do you run a fuge at all? What size tank again?

 

[Yeh]

Frozen mysis once a day

What size tank? You could be over feeding you tank

 

[sixty_reefer]

Can I see a picture in the tank also?

 

[Dburr1014]

I'm pretty certain it's hair. Bryopsis has a "fern like" appearance.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thick mass of hair algae often too hard for cleaners to consume.
Pull as much as you can by hand and then allow cleaners to finish the rest. Carribean blue leg hermits, sea hare, astrea snails, turbo grazer snails and cerith snails will work and also chiton snails.

Is this tank at or near a window?
Also are you using RODI water or tap water from the faucet ?
Are you able to provide PHOSPHATE reading ?

 

[Dburr1014]

I would raise mag to 1500ish.
Pinch out what you can with your fingers dip in freshwater and let go. The hair will come right off your fingers and keep doing that until you get most of it. You're going to have to do this every 2 or 3 days. If you got some areas that are short but maybe hard to reach then you can use 3% peroxide. Don't use any more peroxide than 1 ml per 10 gallons of your tank volume. What I like to do is find a syringe that has 10 mL mark on it. So my water volume is 100 gallons, I won't use more than 10 mL of 3% peroxide per sitting. Remember, peroxide is an oxidizer so it can't hurt fish and corals, just use it cautiously.

 

[Dburr1014]

Thick mass of hair algae often too hard for cleaners to consume.
Pull as much as you can by hand and then allow cleaners to finish the rest. Carribean blue leg hermits, sea hare, astrea snails, turbo grazer snails and cerith snails will work and also chiton snails.

Is this tank at or near a window?
Also are you using RODI water or tap water from the faucet ?
Are you able to provide PHOSPHATE reading ?

It's up there^^

.08 phos
10 nitrate
1.025 salinity
2 api primes blue lighting only I run 10 hrs it runs
A year old

^^

 

[vetteguy53081]

.08 phos
10 nitrate
1.025 salinity
2 api primes blue lighting only I run 10 hrs it runs
A year old

Phos is slightly elevated. Adding Chemipure Blue in the sump will help keep it in check