hair algea problem

[blackthunda77]

ok ive posted b4, and i dont knwo what to do anymore. ive done water changes, phossphate sponges, reduced feeding, ammonia-0 nitrite-0 nitrate-0 calcium should be good, dosing regularly, phosphate is showingalil high but less than 1ppm, then again it could be 0 cuz ive heard the test kit i have by hagen is not that great. what should i do now??? its starting to grow on some of my polyps. 2 thigns i didnt try are as follows, load tank up with more hermits and snails.....should i do that?? somoe told me oto stock up on like 50 bluelegs in my 55 gal. also should i cut my lighting ??? its on like 10 hrs a day but i have plyps and mushrooms and a sebae anemone so i dont want to make a neg impact on the corals. any ideas that will work for me??

[OrionGirl]

Adding snails and hermits would probably help. They are really good at controling algae.

[Guy W]

emerald crabs, 2 of them, they mow down hair algea.

[BrianH]

Are you using RO water for top offs and water changes? If not, every time you add water to the tank you are adding more netrients for the algae.

Brian

[blackthunda77]

i do water changes with aged saltwater from the fish store, and when i i do top offs i usually add a gallon at a time which i use zepherhills cuz we usually have a bunck at home.

[aquastatt]

While my tank parameters were ok.And Bioload was ok.I also was having a problem wih hair algae.I kept the feeding to a minimum.And have always used RO water.And cut the lighting back to 8 hours on the halides for the winter months.I even stopped using my knopp reactor thinking it was a co2 problem.It wasnt untell I removed the glass top that I was able to get it under control.It was 1/4"thick and cloudy from salt spray. I use ozone and have a good skimmer ,And still had a problem.Keep lookin for the cause and will eventually find it.

[liquafaction]

The hard thing about finding the cause is the time it takes to notice a difference. The only thing I ever noticed is it seems when you mow it down yourself, it spreads twice as fast.

[swampfox25]

Some fish stores sell nudibranches (sea slug) u can get one they are awsome at getting rid of hair algee. But once the alge is gone you need to feed it romane lettuce 3-4 times weekly

[cybball]

My local fish supply told me that emerald crabs eat bubble algae. He said scarlet leg hermits do the trick on hair algae. Is that true? I suddenly have a hair algae outburst.

[M-pire]

[i].It wasn’t until I removed the glass top that I was able to get it under control. [/B]

I've got a similar problem Cybball...I have this algae that won't go away. I have my phosphates pretty low and it still keeps on growing. I think I just need to add some more critters maybe. Hope you don't mind if I ask for some clarification about some of the responses you got. :)

aquastatt: Removing the glass tops helped to get rid of the algae? Also, you said you use ozone...what does that mean?

[gbolton]

I just added 2 emerald crabs and 2 royal urchins to my tank in the past 2 weeks to work on the hair algea. So far it seems to be working they have really gone to wor.

[Dale W.]

What are your calcium levels? and how often do you do a water change?

[cybball]

Just put in five scarlet legs and two turbo snails. I'm going someplace else for the emerald crabs. I'm going to try a little of everything.