Problem with green hair algae

[jnguyen4007]

My tank been having green hair algae that is rapidly getting out of control. I'm very tempted to follow the method shown in this month's reefkeeping magazine on dealing with them. Some of my rocks have corals on them and some of the corals are now covered with them. Is there anything that will eat green hair algae off of the corals?

[NightOwl]

Mexican dwarf hermit crabs will eat it. Also check your phospate levels. Green Hair algae seems to thrive at higher levels.

[Rascal]

For me the 10 week rock cooking process would be a last resort. I would try all of the other methods described in that article first. I do believe that rocks can become loaded with phosphate, and once this happens it can take some time to correct. A lot of it is just general good reefkeeping practices:

 

1) frequent water changes with good (0.0 tds) source water

2) good flow to keep detritus in suspension

3) blow off rocks to get detritus back in suspension

4) high quality skimmer working at max efficiencey

5) don't overfeed

6) aggressive removal of hair algae

7) growth and regular export of macro algae from a refugium (if feasible)

8) last but not least, I am a huge also a huge proponent of GFO.

As the author says,

I also now swear by phosphate reactors. I recently built a new filtration leg (pictured above) that consists of two phosphate reactors running granulated phosphate media non-stop. I change the media out bi-weekly on an alternating schedule.

After trying everything else above, that is what finally turned the tide of the HA battle for me. I used 500 ml in 2 reactors run in series, and alternated changing them out every week at first. It wasn't cheap, but it worked.

 

As far as herbivores. My experience is that they do a great job of keeping HA from coming back and gaining a foothold again, but are not always the solution to an existing problem. I am partial to lots-o-snails over crabs, and for fish nothing beats a few tangs (not practical for your size tank, but something to think about if you consider an upgrade).

 

Good luck.

Edited July 29, 2008 by Rascal

[guppychao]

lettuce nudibranch, (Bryopsis Eating Nudibranch)

 

good luck on finding the source of the hair algae

[jason the filter freak]

increase clean up crew, shorten light periods waaay back 4 hours a day or so until the problem is gone, increase flow, add phosphate remover.

 

3-4 years of using tap water and no Hair algea .

 

GOOD LUCK!

[treesprite]

emerald crabs will happily eat it, but sometimes emerald crabs take a liking to coral polyps

[Jon Lazar]

I've had good luck with foxface eating hair algae, but it seems that individual fish within a species vary with what they will eat. In other words, you may get one and find he won't touch the stuff.

 

Reducing light a lot and manual removal can help knock it back to a level where herbivores can finish it off.

 

Jon

[Clyde]

Is the problem how to remove but how to prevent it? I thought that it was caused by phosphate. And a buffer at every water change will stop the problem. It did for me.

[YBeNormal]

Is the problem how to remove but how to prevent it? I thought that it was caused by phosphate. And a buffer at every water change will stop the problem. It did for me.

 

Hair algae needs nitrates, phosphates, light and a few trace elements to live and it will thrive when these needs are available in high enough quantity. Take away one or more of these needs though and it will either grow much slower or dissipate entirely. Phosphates just happens to be one of the easiest issues to control (for most of us anyway).

[Lisa Julia Photography]

Not long after i first set up my tank, i had hair algae. I turned the rocks over so they got no light...that seemed to be the biggest help along with lots of water changes and blowing debris off the rock with a turkey baster

[steveoutlaw]

Orange spotted rabbitfish. I had a rock that was covered in the green hair algea......it looked like I let my lawn go without mowing it for a couple months. I put the rabbitfish in and within a week the rock was clean.......never saw hair algea in my tank again.

[mchippo]

For what it is worth, I have a Starry Night Blenny that continually works the rocks in my tank. I had traces of Hair Algae before putting him in...now nothing. Besides that, he is a really cool fish with a lot of personality.

 

Also, cutting back on feeding is a big help. Make the inhabitants of the tank do a little "yard" work in return for the care and feeding.

[jnguyen4007]

As far as feeding goes, i feed mine once every other day now for the past couple of weeks and I've been feeding them pellets. I need to increase my water change regiment though to perhaps something like every 3 days. Looks like I will have to pull out my phosphate reactor and see if that can help it as well.

 

I would like to put a foxface rabbit fish in the tank, but I don't think my 30 gal tank can support it.

 

Thanks again everyone for your input.

 

James