Hair Algae in overflow.

[J8851]

Hey guys i have hair Algae in my overflow box only how would you suggest getting rid of that? Its no where eles. should i just leave it or what?

[Obi-dad]

You could scrape it with a razor blade. Or leave it be as it is absorbing nutrients from the water (a good thing). Odd that you are only seeing it in the overflow.

[J8851]

Ya, isnt that strange its not even in my fuge. Only my Overflow

[PITSTOP]

I have the same issue, no algae in my display, I don't even have a fuge (just a prop tank)...but I do have filamentous algae in my overflow box, just in the section that hangs inside the tank. Oh well, sometimes I pull out a chunk and feed it to my tangs, they munch it.

[bpd964]

turbo snails!.. they even clean algae off my tunze 6100 at full speed.

[kroe]

I get exactly the same thing. I just pull out gobs of it with big tweezers every once in a while.

[Qwiv]

The only way to solve that is to shade the overflow from light. I leave mine as it isn't doing any harm. The overflow is the perfect enviroment for it and the screening traps it there so it will just return later if removed.

[Triggerfish]

yup,,same thing here..just in the overflow box..loads of it..
i have decided to just harvest it out of there as it fills up.

[marilynrn711]

I have the same thing, but mine becomes so bad that it starts clogging up the strainer on the top of the stand pipe. I dont have it anywhere else in the tank either.

I think I will try to figure out how to block the light as am afraid it will cause an overflow some day.

[BigWaz]

I have it only around my return pipe, the part that is inside the tank. no where else. But not in the overflow box

[ctreefer]

I had read someone was actually using the area around their overflow to grow hair algae for nutrient export. I was trying to decide to do something similar to take advantage of the extra light. I think it might have been Paul B. If I recall he took some fiberglass screen and somehow applied a small coating of portland cement on its surface which HA likes to grow on and placed a rack in front of his overflow with this screen on top of it. The HA grew like crazy and if I'm not mistaken its better at scrubbing than the macros(don't recall for sure though).

[nemo g]

its probably doing well in the overflow because there are no "predators" for it.

whereas in the main display and refugium, there are most likely snails,fish, and the like having their fill.