how to beat hair algae in a small reef

[docter tuttle]

I have had a reef growing for three years and its really grown in. Its in a 20g long with a mix of softies sps and lps. Recently hair algae has developed. I run a refugium, Ro, a small skimmer, I have an emerald crab who does graze on the algae and a nudibranch and i still can not seem to get rid of this algae completeley. There are also an assortment of different small snails from nerite to astreas. Does anyone know if magnesium really will kill hair algae and does anyone know of any reef safe critters for a small tank that could help naturally eat my algae away?

 

[stingythingy45]

I have had a reef growing for three years and its really grown in. Its in a 20g long with a mix of softies sps and lps. Recently hair algae has developed. I run a refugium, Ro, a small skimmer, I have an emerald crab who does graze on the algae and a nudibranch and i still can not seem to get rid of this algae completeley. There are also an assortment of different small snails from nerite to astreas. Does anyone know if magnesium really will kill hair algae and does anyone know of any reef safe critters for a small tank that could help naturally eat my algae away?

Have you tested for phosphate at all?
Small skimmer,what type?
I find that nutrient reduction works best.
High magnesium has only been attributed to killing bryopsis not HA.
It has to be maintained around 1500 ppm.

 

[docter tuttle]

no phosphates

 

[diverbh4]

you can try a lawnmower blenny...but they are hit or miss apparently

 

[JayM]

emerald crabs (small) and turbo snails, with increased nutrient export. 3 emerald crabs WIPED out the HA issue I had in my 40g frag tank in under a week

 

[ReferReefer]

My concern with going straight to animal control of a growing pest nuisance is whether:

a) original problem is being treated
b) what happens if/when you have more clean-up crew than you have nuisance to sustain.

a) either tends to result in recurrance which is annoying.

b) tends to result in either "thunderdome" for the clean up crew, or you end up having to supplement them by feeding the tank more, which can bring you right back to phosphates..

Just my 2 cents, still a newbie.

Lee

 

[MofoCorals]

The best way to get rid if hair algae is to shut of the linghts for about 3 days. This will have no affect on your corals. Then do two large water changes about 3 days apart. Scrub the rocks with a tooth brush and suction the hair alga with a hose as you do your water change. Feed you fish before you shut off the lights.
You should be doing about 10% water change once a week to keep the nutrice down. Also only feed you fish once every other day and very little. Also put you light on a timer and only leave them on for 8-10 hours a day. Replace your bulbs if they are 6-1 year old depending on what you have.
Hope this helps.

 

[frank180reef]

good advice

 

[stingythingy45]

I have shut light off on HA in a QT tank for 3 weeks.
Only to have it return again when the lighting cycle went back on.
I'm a firm believer in phosphates being locked up in live rock.
Very tough stuff to defeat.

 

[RiverReefer]

fill a specimen container or a bucket with water...stick your hand in the tank and start pulling and rinsing in the bucket of water till its pretty low...then get two big mexican turbos and plop them down on top of the HA and they will munch on it...then when they stray...pick em up again and put them on it...and every time you get a chance when walking by if you have clean hands pick em up and put em on it...skim wet, reduce phosphates and nutrients...if you eliminate the phos you'll eliminate the growth of the HA and the old stuff the turbos will eat.

 

[delta]

If you have a hair algea you have some sort of excess nutrients. Whether you can get a reading on a test kit doesn't matter. I would look at your top off and water change water. Make sure your DI is fresh and you're putting out zero TDS.
- Water changes should be 25% weekly until it starts dying back.
- Reduced feedings
- keep you skimmer in top condition.
- When doing water changes take a Powerhead and blow out in your LR, as well siphon of any detritus you can find in your system.

Lights out will help beat it back but if you take no measure to find the issue it wil only come back.

 

[too_tanked]

I had a severe HA problem in a 20g nano for over a year. The root of the problem was high phosphates from using tap water. I switched to RO, started running GFO, reduced feeding, reduced the light cycle, added mexican turbos, added an emerald crab, added an algae blenny, and manually removed as much algae as I could every week or so. After a few months I saw some improvement, but it wouldn't go away. Phosphates in the water were reading zero, but it was probably saturated in the rock and feeding the algae.

I finally broke down and used my last resort which was to use the AlgaeFix Marine chemical algaecide. That along with scrubbing the rock with a toothbrush completely eliminated the HA within a couple of weeks.

A few caveats though: I had no corals in this tank and I think I'd be much more cautious about using it if I did. And a few weeks after using it my skimmer went crazy and pulled 5 gallons of water out of my 20 gallon tank. I suspect the chemical additive had something to do with that.

But it does work.