hair algea

[prmcneal]

what is the best way to get rid of hair algea. scrub it off or other. Thanks growing like crazy in overflow

[gman0526]

Manual removal at first. In the meantime you gotta figure out what's causing the algae in the first place. Ok my standard questions in this case would be: What, how much, how often are you feeding? What is the bioload in the tank? What kind of flow do you have in there? Salinity? Ammonia, nitrates? Can you test for phosphates? I know it's a lot of questions but they all relate to the hair algae issue.

[prmcneal]

Feed once a day-12fish-leather-sea serpent-5snails-6crabs,1.025 salinity, 0 ammonia, 20 nitrates, no test for phosphates.

[kg]

It's important to keep in mind what feeds hair algae in order to control it - phosphates, nitrates, and lighting. You have 12 fish in what size tank? Phosphates are in every living thing and one of the problems with testing is that we can only test for one type of phosphate. Also, if you have hair algae, you have high phosphates - no need to test. I'd research the root cause of the fuel and try your best to limit them. Some suggestions would be: be sure to use RO/DI or distilled water only, increase the amount and frequency you change water, turn up your skimmer so it produces a wet skimmate, ditch any flake or pellet food, reduce your feeding, rinse your frozen food really well with SW prior to feeding, reduce your lighting (even a few hours can make a big difference), and then as a last resort, put in a phosphate binder. Good luck!

KG

[Aquatic Realms]

what is the best way to get rid of hair algea. scrub it off or other. Thanks growing like crazy in overflow

Your Phosphates are high enough to promote the growth of the algae. This is your problem that you need to eliminate and your algae issues will stop.

Water changes with RO/DI water will help to lower them and slow the growth, but you need to eliminate the root probems.

1) Lower your feeding to every other day. You do not need to feed most marine life within your tank every day. Some fish and other livestock can go for 2-3 days easily w/o a manual feeding.

2) Q: What is your water flow like?
2a) If it is low, increasing your water flow will help to keep the particulate matter suspended in the water column and allow your filtration system the chance to remove it rather than letting it settle out of the water column to allow the algae to feed upon it.

3) Do you have a protein skimmer? If not, I recommend the AquaC line. Also, always...always...get a skimmer rated LARGER than your tank size. With a good protein skimmer, you could filter your entire tank with that alone.

4) What kind of filtration do you have? Canister? Sump? Hang-on?
4a) If canister, they are MAJOR detritus traps. Detritus is a major cause of phosphates within your tank.
4b) If a sump, make sure you do NOT have any Live Rock in it as it will only become a detritus trap. Also, siphon out any visible detritus that you can.
4c) If you have a hang on, clean any detritus in it out and clean/replace the filter pads at least every 4-7 days.

5) If you have green alage, then you also have elivated Nitrates. You may not detect them with your test kit for the following reasons:
5a) One, your kits are not percise enough or your reagents are old.
5b) Your algae is absorbing it before it can be registered as free form.

6) To reduce the Nitrates, lower feeding levels, raise water movement and do frequent water changes with RO/DI water and a well known brand of salt that is Nitrate and Phosphate FREE.

7) A refugium would also help with this problem as it is used to grow macro algae that competes for the same nutrients that the unwanted algae feeds off of in your tank. Use non sporulate macro algaes! It will cause MUCH less hedaches for you.

Hope this helps you some. :wink: