green hair algae

[jnguyen4007]

I've been neglecting my tank a bit and I'm seeing green hair algae popping up around my tank. I know what I need to do to keep it from coming back. In the meantime, for the existing green hair algae, what's the best way of removing them? Use a pair of forceps and pull them out?

[wreck]

some tweezers can work to physically remove the algae, you can also cover the algae with a clamshell or something so it doesn't get any light and dies off.

wreck

 

I've been neglecting my tank a bit and I'm seeing green hair algae popping up around my tank. I know what I need to do to keep it from coming back. In the meantime, for the existing green hair algae, what's the best way of removing them? Use a pair of forceps and pull them out?

[jnguyen4007]

some tweezers can work to physically remove the algae, you can also cover the algae with a clamshell or something so it doesn't get any light and dies off.

wreck

 

good idea. thanks. looks like i'll be having clams for lunch this weekend. LOL My wife doesn't eat it so it's just me.

[lanman]

I've been neglecting my tank a bit and I'm seeing green hair algae popping up around my tank. I know what I need to do to keep it from coming back. In the meantime, for the existing green hair algae, what's the best way of removing them? Use a pair of forceps and pull them out?

 

63-degree temperatures in my nano killed off most of the green hair algae.

 

bob

[vaironman]

I took one by one pieces of rock out of the tank and scrubbed it niece and clean. Wash it with tank water, then re-aquascaping. Run carbon reactor with new carbon, less feeding for two weeks, clean out skimmer and change 5 gallon bucket of new mixed water every 4 days. After 3 weeks, things look good again.

 

Make sure your RO/DI has new filter replacements.

[funnyguy911]

I neglected my tank too, I used a turkey baster and airline tubing connected to ridged airline tubing to suck most of it out, I was looking for a huge plastic syringes to suck it up but no luck. I did water changes up the kazoo. My poor tank good luck alot of work ahead of you, like they say an once of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

[jnguyen4007]

I was pretty good at keeping things up until other things around the house got in the way.

[Rascal]

This is the easy way. It only works if you have an overflow and sump.

 

First remove any standpipes and filter screens on the intakes, but make sure you have filter socks on all of the outlets to the drains. Then remove as much of the HA as you can by hand, and dump each piece into your overflow. Whatever you can't get by hand, just scrub off with a tooth brush. If you have a lot of flow in your tank most of this should remain in suspension and get swept into the overflow and collected by the filter socks. You can help the process along by collecting as much as possible out of the water column with a net. It goes without saying that the most important step in all of this is to remove and clean out those filter socks when you are done, otherwise the algae will just rot and release its nutrients back into the water.

[jnguyen4007]

This is the easy way. It only works if you have an overflow and sump.

 

First remove any standpipes and filter screens on the intakes, but make sure you have filter socks on all of the outlets to the drains. Then remove as much of the HA as you can by hand, and dump each piece into your overflow. Whatever you can't get by hand, just scrub off with a tooth brush. If you have a lot of flow in your tank most of this should remain in suspension and get swept into the overflow and collected by the filter socks. You can help the process along by collecting as much as possible out of the water column with a net. It goes without saying that the most important step in all of this is to remove and clean out those filter socks when you are done, otherwise the algae will just rot and release its nutrients back into the water.

 

I didn't think about that one. Thanks!

[extreme_tooth_decay]

Tough problem.

 

Everyone has their own preferred method, none of which work perfectly or in all circumstances.

 

In my own experience, I tried a lot of things that failed. I found manual removal to be totally useless.

 

What worked for me in the end was getting a bunch of turbos and a small Hippo tang. Together they did clean it out fast. Especially that hippo...he decimated it. Your mileage may vary.

 

Once it was gone, it never came back. It was introduced on a price of LR from a LFS...I knew it was there but put it in anyway.

 

tim

Edited May 16, 2008 by extreme_tooth_decay