Green Hair Algae

[d2mini]

I just turned my lights off for 3 days and hair algae growth had halted.

Then once the lights were on it started back up again. :grumble:
My daylights are only on for 7 hours. Blues for an additional 3 hours.

This has been the best method for me to keep it under control (somewhat).
Follow the instructions here for pulling it out.
Green Hair Algae can be conquered!

 

[ltkenbo]

Yeah I'll keep doing that, it looks like I've got more coralline algae then before. So I would like to get a clownfish first, a false percula. Any tips before I add one?

 

[qxcontinuum]

This is a job for sea urchin

I have two in my fish tank and they are eating everything including a superficial coat of the rock. basicaly in 2-3 hours they are leaving entire rock white.
If they go somewhere else i just take them and put them back where the grass or algaes is. I have had the same problem in the beggining but now i am concern what i will feed them with soon because they ate everything.
Make sure you get the snow ball, not the one with sharp spins. The snow ball isn't powerfull enaugh to remove rocks

 

[bjohanson1234]

Coraline algea growth is a sign of a healthy tank. Coraline will help compete with the nusaince algeas. Also, I would add the clown last. They can be a bit agressive and territorial

 

[ltkenbo]

Well so can many popular saltwater fish, but clown fish are some that I really want, I mean other than that the next ones I'd want would be yellow tang and blue hippo tang which are more expensive and clownfish only cost $20 each.

 

[ltkenbo]

Wow so this is really annoying, hair algae is still growing, this doesn't make any sense, water changes don't seem to do anything.

 

[yote]

Thats the thing about hair algae.It'll take some time to get rid of it.
Just keep up the water changes and manual removal and you'll eventually beat it.
Hair is #2 on the worst of the algae list.

 

[ltkenbo]

What about getting one of those sea hares? I heard they eat algae like no other.

 

[yote]

The hares will help.But keep in mind,that what goes in one end of em,comes out the other end in rabbit turds(that what it really looks like).But one might help control it.

 

[ltkenbo]

Well despite the algae, here's one cool thing:

 

[yote]

Buttons are cool :D
When you feed your fish,give those buttons a shot of food.They'lll grow and spread quick.

 

[ltkenbo]

What do I feed them?

 

[dcantucson]

Mysis shrimp works well.

 

[ltkenbo]

How do I feed it to them?

 

[yote]

Just use a turkey baster and gently squirt some onto the polyps.

 

[andysgirl8800]

So, I'm following this thread and have decided to try turning off my lights for 3 days. The hair crap is starting to overrun the tank and none of my blennies live long enough to tackle it. I've dumped in more crabs and turbos, trim the effing stuff every stinking day and use the toothbrush. I've added more macro algae to the fuge, do 15% RO/DI WCs every friday, siphon it up, scrape it off, scoop it out, and still it is spreading! Starting to choke my corals. Soooooooo, maybe the lights-out method will help. We'll see.

 

[daugherty]

it will help but you also need to pull out as much as you can and get it out of the tank or when it dies it will release all that nutrient back into the tank just to start all over when the lights come back on.

 

[d2mini]

Yup, turning the lights off might halt the growth, but it just ramps back up again when the lights come back on.

I just picked up some Kent Tech-M. I hear that raising your magnesium levels up to around 1600 works and for some reason the Tech-M works where other methods of raising Mag like Epsom Salt doesn't work. We'll see....

 

[ltkenbo]

So I got my sump up and running and I put a bag of activated carbon where the water enters my sump and since doing so (or at least since adding the sump) the green algae has been turning all brown, even with the lights on every day so I guess whatever nutrients are in the water that is feeding the algae the carbon is soaking up??

 

[yote]

The carbon will soak up all it can,then it'll start leaching them back into the water.
As long as you change the carbon every 3 or 4 days you should be good.