How to Rid Hair Algae Bloom???

[UCanDoIt]

I've been skimmerless for 3 weeks and waiting for a replacement as my upgrade skimmer came in damaged 3 weeks ago and nothing yet. Well, in the meantime, I've been doing partial water changes twice a week to keep the nitrates down. I'm using polyfilter pads to remove any phosphates that might exist. Also have been using both carbon and UV sterilizer. I have plenty of Emerald Crabs, Dwarf Blue Leg Hermits, Turbo Snails, but they don't seem to make much of a dent.

HELP!!! Can anyone suggest how to get rid of this nasty looking hair algae? I tried to brush it off the live rocks and the loose pieces that got away started growing whereever it landed, so have more now than when the bloom started.

[jimbo045]

Remove the live rock and blast them off with a garden hose. JD

[UCanDoIt]

Thanks for your response. Will that also kill the bacteria and the coraline algae that is also on the live rock?

[Heinz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7309525#post7309525 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jimbo045
Remove the live rock and blast them off with a garden hose. JD

what ever you do, dont do that, it will kill your LR

cut back on feeding and keep up with WC, your fish will be fine with less food untill you got your new skimmer

[dwdenny]

when you do get the skimmer I would skim wet to help control the algea as well. But I agree with Heinz here don't blast the LR with the hose. You could pull it out with you hands but you will be fighting a lossing battle. hth

[UCanDoIt]

Thanks for the advice. I've never experience any hair algae bloom before and this is the ugliest thing I've ever seen.

heinz, i did cut down from 3x daily feedings to 1x daily after i tried to brush off the hair algae and it got worst, so down by 2x feedings right now.

dwdenny, i do like to skim very wet, so i'll be sure to do that when i finally get my skimmer in.

what's been most frustrating is no word on my replacement skimmer, so have no idea how much longer it's going to be. importer said he shipped it 2 weeks ago, but must have mistaken my skimmer for someone else that was damaged. not a word to date, even though FedEx has already picked up my damage unit for inspection and return to original shipper/importer.

[wnutz]

cut you feeding down to about 1 every 2 days you fish will be fine

[UCanDoIt]

OK, I'll try and reduce to every other day feedings.

[BLockamon]

I would also recommend using Phosban to control phosphate. I don't know how well the polyfilters work, but Phosban worked wonders for me. About 9 months ago I had a hair algae tank. I started using Phosban and added some blue-leg hermits, and after a few months I found out that there was a reef in there after all.

Unfortunately, you heard correctly. It took probably 3 months to go away. I also took out the worst rocks and scrubbed them in salt water (heated as per a water change). Unfortunately, I lost two corals while moving the rocks. No, they didn't die...I LOST them. Must have really fallen into the rock work. You wouldn't think that an electric green favia would be hard to spot would you?

[Johnsteph10]

I agree - you have a nutrient import/export problem. What fish do you have in there?

[UCanDoIt]

yellow tang, royal gamma, maroon clown, cuban hog and a flame hawk. the tang doesn't touch the stuff. i'll look into phosban this weekend.

[Markarian421]

We had an outbreak of a strange hair algae . . . it looked just like the normal stuff but it was pink. Kind of pretty until it takes over the entire tank. We were doing weekly 20% water changed with a turkey baster on the end of a tube to suck out everything we could, and even took rocks out and scrubbed them with a toothbrush, to no effect. We also cut back the hours of lighting but that didn't help a lot. There were three things that seemed to matter and helped to eventually clean it up. First was that mithrax crab you saw me trying to give away -- it hitchhiked into our tank, and could reach algae in places that the hermits and snails couldn't. Second was changing where we were getting our water -- between those two the algae really cut back. Third and final was getting our (small) refugium well stocked with macro algae again -- it too had become overgrown with the pink stuff and all the macro algae had all died out, and we just hadn't bothered to try and keep that going. When we put the macro back in, the last of the hair algae in the main tank vanished within about 2 weeks. (I think there is still a little in the sump where the light it on 24 hrs a day).

[Sk8r]

Fighting conch will work on your sandbed. You'll have to watch the long stuff: it will clog things and cause floods: a toothbrush with a wind-and-yank technique gets that off so your algae eaters can get at the better-tasting stuff lower down.

[vanmo92]

I just rip chunks of it out. You can also ifll a small bucket w/ SW and use a (clean) toothbruch to scrub it off.

[UCanDoIt]

Well, I just did my water change this morning, I actually tried everything that was suggested. We first took out all the live rocks that was on top layer and scrub those within a saltwater tub. The live rocks lower in the tank, this time one person was scrubbing with a stiff brush & and another held the siphon right next to the hair algae as they loosen and was siphoned away. We ended up doing a 30% water change because of all the siphoning. We're going to do this again next week if the hair algae covers the entire tank again, but will use catalina water instead of mixed saltwater next time. The mistake last time we made was scrubbing off all the hair algae first, then assuming the overflow box would catch all the loose hair algae, but instead, hair algae was all over the tank within the week instead of just the few live rocks that it started on. I've also cut down the feedings to every other day for now. Hopefully everything will help.

I'm half thinking about the evil crab if you think it would attack the problem. I could sacrifice a royal gamma if the hair algae disappeared. On this tank, I only have a sump for returning water with no room for a refugium. Any macro algae I put into the tank is gone within the day.

[Markarian421]

I would try changing to Catalina water before getting my crab or any crab if it's likely to be a problem in your tank. That was what we switched to and it appeared to make a big dent in the problem. I also don't think a single crab will clean up the problem alone -- ours helped with difficult rocks but without the other stuff it would not have solved the problem. And I'm not crazy about encouraging someone to solve one problem by creating another!

[UCanDoIt]

Thanks, I believe my main problem is I am skimmerless because my Deltec APF600 came in 3 weeks ago damaged. I've been doing water changes twice a week and usually mixed water is no problem, but without a skimmer is bad. Hoping that Doug will wake up from the dead soon and let my local dealer, who I bought the skimmer from, know when my skimmer will be coming.

[Atlantis Aquariums]

IMO keep up with water changes and I'll help out if I can.

Marvin

[Alfinus]

Once you get the nutrient probelm solved, i recommend getting a Lawnmower Benny. I started having a hair aglae problems, I used phosban and got the benny. He will mow threw the algae like its nothing, mine got a big fat belly from it--little pig. Plus they are amusing to watch.

[ZURCSREEF]

chemi-clean, works like a charm..

[UCanDoIt]

Really? I didn't think any fish liked hair algae. Is this the same as an algae blenny?
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=94

As for chemi-clean, my aquarium tech brought some over and it didn't seem like it would do the trick, but I'm willing to try almost anything at this point. I'll look into chemi-clean. I just ordered some Phosban today.

[ZURCSREEF]

sorry, misread your title, thought it said red hair algae... sorry its late -_-

[Alfinus]

Yes the algae benny and lawnmower benny are one in the same, I watched him grab big chunks of hair algae and jerk them from the rocks. They may not eat much at first, but in a few days they go to plucking and pulling.

[sarai826]

Sorry if you already said this, but what size is your tank?

Like most others have said, things that have worked for me have been crabs (hermit and mithrax), a lawnmower blenny, and LOTS of waterchanges (~20% every day or two) with reduced feeding and photoperiods until things get under control. Good luck!