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Euphyllia

Euphyllia

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I've been noticing bits of hair algae in my 34g! |( Whenever I see some, I scrub it with a toothbrush. It keeps growing back bit by bit and I don't want it to turn into what my 14g did. I need suggestions on everything everyone knows to reduce hair algae growth and how to get it to go away. I've thought of a few things to do to the tank to and need more info on them. I'd like to make a refugium in the middle back compartment left of the skimmer. I'll make a diagram of that for suggestions. I'm going to reduce the lighting time. I'll turn it on at 7:00AM and turn it off at 3:00PM which is eight hours. I'll try and reduce the feeding. My nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia levels are always very low. I currently don't have phosphate absorbers in the tank but I'll get some this weekend. I just don't understand how I keep getting hair algae if the nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia levels are always very low. Is there anything other than those and too much light that cause it? I have about 10 blue leg hermit crabs and 10 red leg hermit crabs in the tank. What type of hermit crab eats hair algae the most? I have four of the very common type of snails that they sell everywhere... I just forget the name. What type of snails eat hair algae the most? What other inverts (besides sea hares) eat a lot of hair algae? Any suggestions on what else to do?
Also, I've been told what I have is hair algae but I just want to be clear. It is green-dark green and is about 1/2" tall. It isn't the little, tiny, short fuzzy brown stuff that grows on the rock. It sometimes grows in clumps and is extremely invasive. Is that hair algae? - Just wanting to make sure. :)
 
I'm pretty sure scrubbing with a toothbrush spreads it more. That's what I was told anyways. when I was battling hair algae in my tank, I would turn off all flow, and pick out clumps being as careful as possible not to let any float around anywhere in the tank.
 
A toothbrush with a siphon hose attached to it draining into a filter sock in your sump can help.

Aggressive skimming water changes and GFO go a long way though, when you get it dialed in the hair algae will slough right off.
 
I fought hair algae for 6 mo. with no results and became pretty PO and was ready to through all my rock away . Instead I went to WAR with it . Jeremy is right on the method , it worked on my tank . The secret was to be diligent .

20% water change once a week
use the tip of the siphon tube to scrape/scrub the stuff off the rock
skim like crazy
swap out GFO at least every 2 weeks

When it looks like its gone , keep doing it for another few weeks .
 
it has been my experience that the more you mess with your system, the longer it will take to stabilize and reach a equilibrium, or maturity. For a all in one system like yours would recommend a basic plan:

1) One bag of Purigen (change or recharge every 4 months)
2) One bag of Chemipure
3) 10% water changes weekly (religiously!)

What it comes down to is consistency and patience.

Cheers,

Josh
 
I still have a little in my tank, after trying GFO, removing a few times a week, stopped feedings, etc... the final resolution was adding a 10 gallon sump to my system with a really big ball of chaeto.
 
Somebody is going to have to explain exactly what a
Gomer said:
Granular Ferric Oxide
Click to expand...
is because I have no clue what that even is. :D I'll go out either tomorrow or Sunday and get the phosphate removers,ammonia removers, and water to do a 20% water change. I'll leave the skimmer on permanently except at night because it is too noisy to sleep with in a small room. Will all these changes (if done properly) slowly get the hair algae and diatoms under control too?
 
GFO, or Granular Ferric Oxide is phosphate remover. It looks similar to carbon granules, except it is specifically for phosphate removal. You place it into a media reactor or a mesh bag and place it somewhere in your tank, usually the sump. :)
 
Recently, I developed a hair algae outbreak. I've had some luck removing the rocks one-by-one and scrubbing them with a toothbrush under fresh water. Scrubbing them with a toothbrush inside the display tank did not help.
 
Another option than using GFO. I switched to rodi water from a LFS. From there I picked the large clumps off each week when I did the 10% water change, I also added a refugium in the system and that is when the chaeto ball started pulling down the nitrates. At that time, over a month or more, the hair algae would come off in large clumps with the siphon exposing the rock, when it would only turn loose before with hand pulling.

If you cannot get the chaeto into a separate chamber like a refugium, Sherri keeps hers in the corner of her display. It brings down the nitrates which is the food source for the hair algae.

I thought I would never be rid of it, but it does go away when the nitrates go down, and no phosphates are introduced. I turn my protein skimmer off and on too.

Good luck,
 
I scrubbed all the hair algae in my 34g with a toothbrush and it hasn't grown back for a while now. The only little bit that is left that I scrub every day is at the filter intake. I also added a ammonia absorbing poly filter in place of the regular poly filter and I put in some $7 PhosGuard which worked better than a $30 RowaPhos that I've used in the past.
 
TTT.

This was an incredibly helpful post. I've been battling hair algae for a few months now. I was pulling it out 2-3 times a week and I didn't notice any difference over the long term. It seemed to be spreading around my tank despite my best efforts.

The toothbrush suggestion was perfect. I added GFO, turned up the skimmer, and hit every patch with a toothbrush. I also added 2 Mexican turbo snails. I would say about 70% of the HA is gone and I'm working on the balance. The improvement was rapid. Thanks for the ideas!
 
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