Hair Algae

[lletellier]

I know this question gets answered about once a month but it was never an issue in my last tank so I never read about it. I've had my tank running for about 3 weeks now and my only sign of cycle was an outbreak of hair algae. So obviously I want to know what options I have to get rid of it. I scraped it off the front and reached what I could on the sides but it is still on pumps and hard to clean areas. My crabs are doing a great job since there is absolutly no sign of it on any of my rocks but they are having some trouble with places that are higher up. Will my Nas snails eat it? is there a nano fish that I could buy that would eat it? Should I turn the lights out for a day or two? let me know what has worked for you.

[jason the filter freak]

Bi-color blenny possibly (how small is nano)?

[dshnarw]

I know this question gets answered about once a month but it was never an issue in my last tank so I never read about it. I've had my tank running for about 3 weeks now and my only sign of cycle was an outbreak of hair algae. So obviously I want to know what options I have to get rid of it. I scraped it off the front and reached what I could on the sides but it is still on pumps and hard to clean areas. My crabs are doing a great job since there is absolutly no sign of it on any of my rocks but they are having some trouble with places that are higher up. Will my Nas snails eat it? is there a nano fish that I could buy that would eat it? Should I turn the lights out for a day or two? let me know what has worked for you.

 

 

nassarius won't eat it. They're predatory snails (watch close - they pop up and stalk food rolling along the sand. pretty funny)

 

I'd try cutting the lights off for a few days, limiting light after that to ~5 hrs a day until it's gone. If you have a place for a refugium, I'd recommend that with some chaetomorph and a 24/7 lighting cycle on the fuge. And get out some tweezers and pull it

 

I wouldn't get a fish to eat it - it's not dealing with the problem's source, so it'll continue to grow. Also, you'll add more nutrients to the tank for the algae to use by adding a fish.

[zotzer]

Trochus snails will eat it.

Also, a small algae-eating blennie that is great in a nano is the Tailspot Blennie.

 

Tracy

[extreme_tooth_decay]

See Old Thread

[YBeNormal]

nassarius won't eat it. They're predatory snails (watch close - they pop up and stalk food rolling along the sand. pretty funny)

 

Huh? They are not predators--they are scavangers and great to have in a reef tank. You're right that they will not eat the algae, but they will eat any scraps of food that hit the bottom.

[dshnarw]

Huh? They are not predators--they are scavangers and great to have in a reef tank. You're right that they will not eat the algae, but they will eat any scraps of food that hit the bottom.

 

doh!! Meant to say "carrion eating".

[YBeNormal]

Ah, much better!

[lancer99]

Lance,

My 40G is about the same age as yours, and started to get some hair algae...I added about 30 Astreas and 6 Turbos from our Reeftopia order, and they took care of it. The glass stays clean all the time now.

 

-R

[Grav]

Crabs (rocks) Turbos (glass)

+

filtration

+

less light / new bulbs

=

less algae

[zotzer]

I'm no expert, which is probably a good thing, as I thought the hair algae bloom I had when my tank was new was a normal occurance. Here's a pic...notice it didn't grow on rocks, just smooth things like the powerheads and fuge return. I never had any on the rocks, but the hair everywhere else only lasted maybe a week or two.

 

 

I removed the powerheads and scrubbed them clean, and manually removed as much as I could from the fuge return pipe. Between that, chaeto in the fuge, religious weekly water changes, the snails, pygmy angel, and blennie, I've not seen it again.

 

Well, that's not entirely true....some came in on a zoa frag, but that was gone in a matter of days as well.

 

Good luck, Lance, and keep us posted!

 

tracy

[rsarvis]

Hey Lance,

 

I agree with zotzer re: Trochus snails. When I first started out, I had an algae bloom, and I got a bunch of trochus and margarita snails. They were both like lawnmowers, it was incredible; I would move them from spot to spot and they would mow it down. The trochuses were absolutely amazing at their HA-eating skills. The margarita snails were also pretty good, but they died out 'cause they couldn't turn themselves over when they fell onto their backs. I still have some of the original trochuses, which have grown pretty large, and it appears that I now have several babies as well, which is really cool.

 

-Rob

[jamesbuf]

Get a medium sized shell and cover the algae so it can't get any light. Howard bought some of those electric blue hermit crabs and said they worked really well on hair algae.

[bk_market]

im having the same problem with my tank. I do have a fuge but only run it at night when mainlight in display is off. should i run the light in the fuge all day 24/7 to promote algea grow in there?