want to get rid of hair algae

[KingConch]

my older brother is giving me his LR and sand from his 1.5 year old system the only problem is its all covered with hair algae, it does also have some decent growth o it though... its going to be another month before i take it from him, so the other day i put 5 hermits and 4 turban snails, the only clean up crew he had in there was 1 hermit and 1 cowrie. i also suspended some grape caulerpa is a filter basket right below the light, do you think this will help get rid of all this algae with time?
:devil:the algae must die


there is about 40lbs of lr in a 32g aquarium


Ill try to get pics next time im at that house

[GregAW]

Are you setting up a new tank? Can you test his tank? See what the parameters are and go from there.

[Robert04]

I'm not recommeding anything but I've been told its ok to lightly brush off the algae in a bin with the tankwater then let the snails do the rest..

[Robert04]

Are you setting up a new tank? Can you test his tank? See what the parameters are and go from there.



After cleaning the rock you might want to check your params like suggested.. I had a small cycle and it caused lots of algae blooms.. I just fixed my issue and got abunch of snails to clean upthe tank it worked great.. put 3 turbos ona rock and watch the magic..

[fsn77]

Depending on what kind of decent growth you're talking about being on the rock, you may want to consider "cooking" the rock for the next month or so. Despite the name, it doesn't involve heating the rock or anything like that. It's essentially re-curing the live rock. But, it's described as being effective for removing nuissance algae.

Here's a couple links about it, if you're interested:
One (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=485572)
Two (http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/general-marine-discussions/6927-cooking-live-rock.html)

[Devilish]

My original tank had algae problems so I decided to break it down. I took my LR and put it in a lightproof tub along with a heater and powerhead. I let this sit for 2-3 months (had time as I was planning my present tank). When my new tank was ready for the LR I took them out and all the algae was gone due to the lack of light. Gave it a good cleaning and voila into the new tank.

[KingConch]

i would like to try not to re-cure this rock, i wanna keep it alive. the algae is about 3/4 of a inch long and covers most of the rocks.

im going out there today so will bring back pics and get parameters

[Devilish]

You are going to have to cycle the tank when you set it up which does not require lighting, so you should be able to starve the algae on the rock during the cycle. Try and tear most of the algae off manually, aquascape and cycle in the dark.

[KingConch]

here are the pics of the tank.. also all the hermit crabs and 1 snail i bought are now dead, the only thing i think it could have been is a hitch hiking pistol shrimp (and yes i know for a fact its a pistol shrimp and not a mantis) is that possible? they where fairly small hermits


sorry have no other camera then my phone

sorry didn't have time to check the parameters i didn't even have time to clean of the glass

[GregAW]

Trap the shrimp and the do a 50% water change and add a phosphate sponge, turn out the lights and see what happens in a week. How soon do you have to move the rock?

[KingConch]

im probably not going to move it for another month or so

how should i go about trapping the shrimp? he lives in the small tunnles in my LR.. the little *******

[KingConch]

ill have to wait till the tank is at this house before i can leave the lights off for any extended period of time because i have a few corals in there who will need to be moved into the soon to be fuge

so ill just have to sit and wait............

[mcsassy]

Could you just turn out the lights on the fish tank for a while if you have no corals?

[GregAW]

Set up a temporary coral tank and move them over.

[mcsassy]

Could you just turn out the lights on the fish tank for a while if you have no corals?

Would it be bad to do this? I have hair algae too...

[ToeJam]

Would it be bad to do this? I have hair algae too...

Its fine but that isn't what i suggest you do first.

1. Clean off the rocks next water change save water in a bucket...get a nice stiff brush from a hardware store...and scrub the holy hell out of the rocks after hand pulling off what you can.

2. Do a very large water change and use Rophos or Phosban and keep a PH buffer on hand since that stuff impacts PH on initial use.

3. No corals a black out will be fine ...if corals cut back photo periods in half. Till you see stable water parameters and no more algae outbreaks.

Identify what caused this cause this only is initial clean up you just did.


Algae problems are caused by excess nutrients ...high nitrates which your tests will not show..because the algae present is eating it all. Poor water source...tap water is notorious for it. Change that water source. Over feeding ...if food is not gone from floating around in 5 min you over fed. Should be eaten and what settles in unseen areas your clean up crew will eat.


There is a reason to this madness ...you have to remove it..simply letting it die is only gona create another food source for bad algae...just get it out ..knock down the food sources with good water in the change...

You should keep an eye on Phosphates and Nitrates after all this...

This problem will come back if you do not identify the cause in the first place. Hair algae is not a favorite on the clean up crew list....and often I have found the snails ignoring it. Only my sea hair went after it.

Good luck...

remember clean....fix paramaters with media and changes...and identify source....for future prevention.

[Catpicklesdog]

I've been suffering with bad hair algae for quite a while due to high nitrates and phosphates - due to a high bio load (now reduced);)

Every time I do a water change, I pull as much algae off the rocks etc and now I'm starting to win. Just takes a little patience, plenty of water changes and a reduction in phosphates and nitrates:)