best way to deal with hair algae?

[travis_]

I would like to help someone I know deal with a huge hair algae outbreak in their tank. It is about 3 months old and totally covered with long, stringy hair algae. It came in on the rock they got from the LFS along with the aptasia. You can see both in the rock tanks at the LFS. The LFS also encouraged them to use tap water. The LFS says this is normal and should clear by October?? The rock they bought is totally devoid of any coralline. This is what I recommended so far: Any furhter suggestion or corrections on my recommendations?

• Large water changes
• Use RO water only
• Seed with coraline encrusted rock
• remove algae by hand and scrubbing
• reduce photoperiod as much as possible
• reduce natural light
• Use Carbon and Phosgard in sump
• build DSP in sump to 4" (currently <1")
• seed refugium with live sand, critters, live rock, and macro algae (diversity is good)
• Emerald crabs to eat algae
• remove some algae covered rock to sump (no light)
• consider curing some of the rock in a seperate, heated, circualted, dark tub to remove algae.

 

[roscoe]

Have you reccomended your friend to visit this site? Maybe he/she can come here and do some reading and research on what he/she might have so they know what exactly what they are looking at. Just a thought.

 

[returnofsid]

I would also suggest to your friend that they visit Reef Frontiers!! I wasn't aware that Hair Algae or Aiptasia had an expiration date of October....lol.

 

[DonW]

I would suggest cooking the rock and killing it, problem solved. Water changes and ro water are always a plus. The need to seed is one of the biggest myths in the hobby. Seeding happens just by being a reef keeper and stocking a tank there is no reason to go out of your way to seed a tank.

Don

 

[Mopar Reefer]

Turbo snails for a temp fix and a phosphate reactor for a long term fix.

 

[jag3534]

We had a HUGE hair algae outbreak a while back, almost every part of every rock was covered. We pulled each rock out, and pulled off as much of the algae as we could, then rinsed in a bucket. We trimmed it with scissors. We had bunches of snails and crabs. We added a lawnmower blenny. We reduced feedings a TON. Reduced photoperiod to 8 hrs total. This took care of it within 2 months or so. Oh, and blow off the rocks weekly at the least, to get detritus off.

 

[akunochi]

I got one of the 20 for 20 deals at BR.....3 days later....no red slime....no hair algae....just purple coralline I didn't know was there.

 

[N9GUX]

The only other suggestion I would have that hasn't been mentioned is putting some macro algae in the sump. The idea behind this is the macroalgae uses up the nutrients that would other wise be consumed by nuisance algae.

 

[jamiehill]

The only other suggestion I would have that hasn't been mentioned is putting some macro algae in the sump. The idea behind this is the macroalgae uses up the nutrients that would other wise be consumed by nuisance algae.

Ditto on this. I would also remove the rock from the tank and scrub it in a bucket and rinse in another bucket. I dealt with this a few years back. You just have to stay on top of it and finally it will go away.

 

[G&NSalty425]

I have to agree with everyone above me. I think if it was me if the rocks were so coated it looked like they had a fur coat I think I would try to remove most of it by scrubbing and then try the boiling technique. Problem is you try to do anything like that doesn't help the problem. Some how it is being feed in the tank and that needs to be addressed immediately. It's probably the tap water. I know here in Sammamish our Phos. is high. I also made the mistake of using tap when I set up until I tested Phos and said heck no and went and bought a RO/DI unit. Everything now is doing good but to reverse the effects can take awhile. I think immediately starting with a refugium with some Macro, using some type of Phos removing product and some heavy water changes with RO/DI water is a good start. Adding a good clean up crew and maybe including a lawnmower Blenny (a tip is try to pick the youngest one they can get lazy as they age lol). Also a good cheap way to reintroduce and seed a tank is when picking out a cleaner crew look for snails covered in coraline and you can either leave them alone and just put in tank or if you have a little brush you can brush the shell gently and some of the coraline will come off.

 

[brandyrb]

We just went through a spat of green hair algae and killed it off with water changes (RO/DI water only), phosban reactor and running carbon.