View Full Version : Hair Algae in Reef tanks: Solved!!
John Karavias
04/18/2006, 04:17 PM
Hello folks,
A while ago there was a thread about controlling hair algae in reef tanks. Very aggressive methods like boiling live rock were mentiond. I too had the problem but kept my mouth shut.
The obvious:
Eliminate phosphate, and nitrate
The Cure:
I bought a Sea Hare. A gastropod, nudibranch relative, that mowed it down in 3 weeks.
Cost:
$45
Priceless............ Looks beautiful. I also have many soft corals and it left them alone.
Aquaman
2crazyreefers
04/18/2006, 06:32 PM
Yeh they work great. Too bad your not in Vt. our best LFS sells the good little ones for 15.99.
hhlhhl92
04/18/2006, 09:42 PM
I have been looking for a sea-hare for months, but nobody sells it in Ontario. I wonder how I can get hold of one. Any suggestions please?:rolleyes:
Fast Fred
04/18/2006, 09:44 PM
So how did you eliminate your nitrate and phosphate?
hhlhhl92
04/18/2006, 09:48 PM
I am still fighting with the hair algae. I am changing around 10 gallons of water weekly, scrub the rocks, less feeding, replaced my Seaclone skimmer, my lawn mower blenny didn't touch the algae and it died because of starvation. Emerald crabs seem to work but painfully small amount. I tried turbo snail, astrea snail, yellow tang, nothing works. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the new skimmer will do its job.
Johnson7
04/18/2006, 10:07 PM
a sea hare like this?
Sea Hare (http://liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=726&N=0)
hhlhhl92
04/19/2006, 10:51 AM
Yes, I guess.
I heard that some of them are toxic and harmful to the tank. I want one that is safe.
Do you have any idea where I can get one please? Thank you.
PoukieBear
04/19/2006, 11:17 AM
hhlhhl92...
I've never seen one in any of my LFS either. Where 'bouts in Ontario are you??
hhlhhl92
04/19/2006, 02:48 PM
I'm in Thornhill. I have asked the LFS to keep an eye out for me, but no luck up to now.;)
John Karavias
04/19/2006, 03:32 PM
Hey guys,
To answer some of the questions:
I fixed the nitrate and phosphate problems by updating to a 50 gallon sump. Believe it or not I was running the reef tank on a canister filter without a skimmer. I still do not have a skimmer or any fancy gadgets. Just a 360 watt balace light full spectrum and a marineland sump. I add trace elements weekly.. a squirt and add 3 cap fulls of DKH. Alkalinity is 120 and calcium is 430. Thats all folks. I have a 3 inch pink samoa bed with tons of biologic. The hydrogen sulfide is very evident. Maybe I am lucky or managed to get it right. The Sea Hare can be toxic mostly in defense of Anemones however is mostly harmless. I ordered it from my wholesaler. It took 3 months to get one. Te genus and species is Dolabella Auricularia. Not very pretty but very effective. I hace a call to him and am waiting a return call. If he ships them, I will post his # so anybody can get one.
hhlhhl92
04/19/2006, 08:10 PM
Thank you John. I wonder if the wholesalers ships live stock to Canada.
jun_celis
04/19/2006, 08:17 PM
I hate to break this news to everyone else but getting yourself a seahare will not lower your nitrates and phosphates. Hair algae will come back if you still have nutrients in your tank. Finding the source of Nitrates and phosphates and stopping would be the idea.
alanscott
04/19/2006, 09:45 PM
So what happens when the algae is all gone? What do they eat then?
Chads29
04/19/2006, 10:28 PM
I am guessing the hair algae will come back in a short amount of time, a refugium with some macro algae would help lower your nutrients in your tank and a good protien skimmer also works well for this purpose, water changes with ro/di water that you test to make sure you are using clean water is also important. And you don't have to worry about putting in a sea hare. It works for me.
jun_celis
04/19/2006, 10:33 PM
I fixed mine by incorporating phosphate reactor. My phosphate has always been undetectable but I still had hair algae, here and there. So, after about a month of having a phosphate reactor, hair algae is all gone!
Waxxiemann
04/20/2006, 12:08 AM
What we did for my buddy's nano was get the LFS to borrow us (him) the Sea Hare to destroy the algae and just before he had finished munching it all down, started running Phosban.
Viola! No more hair algea.... yet.
John Karavias
04/20/2006, 05:43 AM
Nobody said the Algae hare would solve the nitrate and phosphate problem. Also once the hair algae is gone it is a good idea to give back the organism. I will see if the wholesaler will ship to Canada!!!
Aquaman
ANNIESREEF
04/20/2006, 07:25 AM
I had a DOLABIFERA to hitch-hike in my tank. It is a wonderful algae eater, but it does little for the hair algae. Maybe if I had about 3 or 4 more....
I call my slug "Shrek"-he is great at keeping the brown algae under control. He has been in my tank for atleast a year and is still growing, a good 2 and half inches now. As long as there is algae-I plan to keep him.
NewSaltyReefer
04/20/2006, 11:28 AM
I have zero Nitrates and nearly zero Phosphates, which I double checked with my LFS on, and I still have hair algea. It is all over my snails and there is also a white fuze on all of my rock which the snails can't keep up with. So maybe Nitrate and Phosphates aren't always the key!!
New Salty you may have nitrates and phosphates but the algae is consuming it before your test kit. The best product I have seen is by Seachem. It is called De-Nitrate. I also use Purigen and Phosguard by Seachem. My hair algae is almost gone.
Bkndsdl
04/20/2006, 11:40 AM
I recently bought a 29g reef that had been neglected for my lil bro; the hair algae had taken over. When we got it home, we manually pulled off as much as we could from the inside of the tank, and pulled as much as possible from the rock before putting the rock back in the tank.
Throughout the next couple of days, he would pull out what he found floating in the tank. He then purchased about 6 Mexican Turbo snails; they wiped the rest of the hair algae out. He would sometimes place them on rocks that still had some algae, let them get it out, then move them to another rock, until all of it was gone. He's since been able to take 3 of the turbos out, and his tank is still doing great.
I would worry about the sea hare possibly toxifying the tank........
CarmieJo
04/20/2006, 11:50 AM
Down Under http://www.downundersaltwater.com/ near Raleigh NC has sea hares.
:fish1:
digitalchivalry
04/20/2006, 01:56 PM
I just picked up a sea hare from one of my salt vendors for the hair algae in one of our tanks in the office. It went from completely covered in hair algae, to completely devoid of hair algae in 7 days. We'll feed him in that tank if we need to, until we need to use him for another hair algae problem elsewhere.
Maybe I should run a "win our seahare" contest on our website, hahaha.
Alaskan Reefer
04/20/2006, 03:26 PM
You don't need a phosphate or nitrate test when you have hair algae. If you have it, you have high phosphate and possibly nitrate.
Bottom line, hair algae doesn't grow unless you have an imbalance in phosphate import vs. phosphate export. If you put too much in (unrinsed frozen foods, excess feeding in general, not using RO/DI or otherwise phosphate free water) and don't have enough to take it out (aggressive skimming, macroalgae in a refugium, chemical media), you'll eventually get enough stored in your LR and/or sand to fuel an outbreak.
Just like ich, the threat of hair algae is always present in every tank, it's just a matter of how you choose to deal with it. Copper for ich or sea hares for hair algae are good patches, but maintaining proper water conditions is the only cure.
John Karavias
04/20/2006, 04:18 PM
very well said Alaskan Reefer
Freed
04/20/2006, 04:35 PM
My Sea Hare is almost done with his chores in my 180 gallon tank. All things immobile were covered with hair algae up until 2-3 months ago. Introduce the Sea Hare. He/she has taken care of just about 95-99% of the hair algae so far. Another week and every nook and cranny should be munched thru. He/she will then go in my 75 for dessert.
MarkD40
05/03/2006, 01:02 PM
bump
hhlhhl92
05/03/2006, 07:58 PM
Sorry to ask, but what is 'bump'?
I saw a lot of these answers but I couldn't figure it out.
jun_celis
05/03/2006, 09:24 PM
Some people do this just to get the thread alive again! You know, to get in front of those hundreds and hundreds that comes in every minute in Reef Central.
jerehmy
05/03/2006, 10:06 PM
how do you get rid of bubble algea????????????????????????????????
AngeloM3
05/04/2006, 08:05 AM
just a FYI...
Royal Urchins will mow down hair algae too
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