hair algae

evelyn80

evelyn80

Guru at procrastinating
Aug 10, 2008
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i have a huge hair algae out break. how do i get rid of this stuff it grows so fast i cant even remove without it all being back the next day! i dont have any inverts in the tank(10gallon). would turbo snails help? or is there a non animal purchasing method i could use?
 
The best thing to do would be to identify what's causing the hair algae, then take steps to correct the underlying issue. I've not personally had good luck with turbo snails eating hair algae, as they always seems to prefer some of the other algae growing in our tank (more of the algae that form a film).

What kind of water are you using for water changes / tank top-off? (tap, bottled, RO/DI, etc.)
How much are you feeding the tank?
What type of light is on the tank?
How long do you run the light per day?
What are the NO3 and PO4 values in the tank? (These could be at or very near 0 if there's enough algal growth.)
 
I can safely say FSN that I think dude has a huge Phosphate problem =). To grow back that quick only means there is Miracle Grow in there aka Phosphate.

Seahairs chomp on it but I think unnecessary to get one.

Evelyn just hand rip that stuff out... and get your hands on RO water and change out 80% of it. That will punch that nitrate phosphate in the mouth.

Identifying your initial cause of this outbreak will require you to answer FSN's questions. Sooner we help you find it the sooner you can avoid the mess again.

if you can use phosphate removing media..but 10 gallons are so touchy cause of volume....you will have to buffer your PH and watch it for a few days if you use a Phosphate remover.
 
i was using bottled water and i think another big contributer would be its in direct sunlight with 2 CFL screw in 3500k bulbs at 15 watts a peice... i think that may be the problem. ill get some RO water its its like 3$ for a 15 gallon jug at the super market in town
 
Vodka solved my algae problem in about 30 days.. never would have thought it was possible if I didn't see it with my own eyes, but I am now a strong believer in vodka treatments after first hand experience.
 
Vodka is a carbon dosing method. You can use sugar as well. On my tank, 75G, I started out at .25ml a day of vodka for the first week, then bumped it up to .5 the next week, then up to 1ml the 3rd week and then slowly backed off.

What this does in a tank is the carbon dosing provides extra food for bacteria in the tank, making the bacteria numbers explode. When you have more bacteria in the water it will consume the bad nitrates/phosphate in the water FASTER than the algae can consume it, essentially starving out the algae in the tank. I had to do it because I had a type of red algae (not cyano) that was taking over my tank and only turbo snails would touch it, and I am not a big fan of turbos, so I chose the Vodka method instead. There are many articles and threads on ReefCentral about vodka dosing, enough to show it is far beyond the "Fad" stage and now considered normal and acceptable practice in certain cases. For me, it worked soooo much better than I could have imagined, so well that I have no doubt it works, and works very well.
 
Ummm, I would suspect that may be a problem. Unfortunately my last FW experience was 15 years ago. I have no idea if vodka works or is acceptable to do on a FW tank, I only know how it works in a SW tank, although the theory sounds the same, I just don't want to tell anyone to try it on a FW tank without further research.
 
Certainly true. it is one very intriguing idea though. nice combination of science and voodoo I would say. And there is no way in Hades I am trying it with discus in my tank. i am going to check it out though b/c it sounds like some great reading
 
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