hair algae

[leapinlizards]

I've got a lot of hair algae in my nano. What's the best way to get it under control?

[THEJRC]

first trick is going to be to get your nutrient intake that is feeding the algae down, watch your feeding and check the quality of your water change water and top off water. A lot of jugs and containers used will leech phosphates and such into this water. You may want to check your filters if you are running your own RO/DI system as well.

Theres a few questions in the middle of course dealing with how your system is set up, a big one is... are you running a macro algae in your sump? the purpose of the macro is to outcompete many other algaes to take up nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates. If not, you might look into it.

As far as getting ahold on it, your best bet is a mix of manual removal and natural means. Certain hermits will feed on it but I prefer to utilize sea hares. The big clumps you can simply pick out. a pretty good plan of attack would be as such:

1. Check that water that's going in and see if you can pinpoint your nutrient source
2. Cut back on some of the excess feeding, if your feeding frozen foods make sure and rinse the foods prior to adding
3. Add a sea hare
4. perform a few smaller water changes more often, if your doing 20 gallons a month shoot for 5-10 gallons a week for a little while, during these water changes manually pick out as much of the stuff as you can (this gets old fast so it's best done here and there). try as hard as you can to not let the algae float away. A good way to help avoid this is to get two dishes and fill them with warm fresh water, pick the algae out, plop it in the first dish then rinse fingers in the second, pick more out and repeat.

Unless you can remove the source of the nutrients (in many cases this is not always possible) or have some other means of removing the nutrients from the tank (macro algae) the hair algae will come back. In most cases a sea hare will be able to keep the smaller piles down and in check while a macro algae will reduce the nutrient availability, keeping the algae from coming back en masse.

[THEJRC]

heh it just dawned on me that it's a nano, which most likely means no macro algae in a sump... you might try adding a nice peice to the display though as there are a ton of decorative algaes out there that look great! Sea grasses do well in this type of instance.

[leapinlizards]

I already have a big ball of macro. The hair algae started before I had anything to feed so it's not from over feeding. That means it's the water. When I originally set up the tank I used my well water. From then on I have used RO water to top the tank off & water changes. Could the algae also be caused from too much light?
Wouldn't a sea hare be too big for my tank?

[CarmieJo]

It sounds to me like you started the tank out with nutrients by using the well water. I would follow Joe's suggestions. I think that there is one specie of sea hare that is only a couple inches long but it might still be too much for the nano.

[THEJRC]

there are big hares and small hares... (feel free to play with that one V, I know you will...)

Manual removal is still probably your best option. Most of the hair algae species out there are pretty set in, they will never really die off if you will (this is brilliance in mother natures design btw, and to be honest a VERY good thing). As you pick out the nuisance algae you will probably notice your macro begin to flourish much more. Remember... everything in our little glass boxes are in pure competition... for space, nutrients (whether good or bad nutrients), and yes... even Oxygen or Co2. While unsightly, your hair algae itself is providing a very very useful service to you... It's taking up nutrients that would otherwise cause a problem!

as you take steps to control the hair algae, your existing macro will begin to notice that it has more to grow on... and eventually over time the wonderful balance shall be restored!!

[leapinlizards]

Is hair algae also caused by the phosphate levels? The gut at work told me to add a pad that brings down the phosphate levels which will help cut down on the hair algae.
Another question that I have is what kind of stuff should I be adding to my tank to help with the corals. I have about five small soft corals. They all seem to be doing well but I want to make sure they stay that way. It would be nice if they were more noticeable but all I really see when looking at the tank is green! Damn algae!
By the way, I did start a bigger tank. Nothing really big, just a 29 gallon. Just big enough to have a few things that we're really interested in. It's still in cycle mode.

[rayme07]

Is hair algae also caused by the phosphate levels? The gut at work told me to add a pad that brings down the phosphate levels which will help cut down on the hair algae.
Another question that I have is what kind of stuff should I be adding to my tank to help with the corals. I have about five small soft corals. They all seem to be doing well but I want to make sure they stay that way. It would be nice if they were more noticeable but all I really see when looking at the tank is green! Damn algae!
By the way, I did start a bigger tank. Nothing really big, just a 29 gallon. Just big enough to have a few things that we're really interested in. It's still in cycle mode.

Yes Phosphates do cause hair algae but with RO water it should get rid of the phosphates. I have never heard of those pads but I have heard of phosband which gets rid of it. But I really don't think its needed if you have RO water. If your corals are doing fine the way you take care of the tank now, then keep doing it and your corals should stay looking good. All what your corals need are in the salt and each time you do a water change it will replace the minerals. Also congrats on your new tank.

[leapinlizards]

So, I don't need to add any supplements like calcium & iodine? Like I said, they all seem to being well so far but then again it's only been a couple weeks. I have a little toadstool leather that is beautiful, I wanna make sure it stays that way.
As for the RO water, I have some doubts about that. I've been getting it from work but I'm not sure when the filters were changed last. Plus some of the co-workers have forgotten to turn it off a few times & it ran all night. I don't think that system was made to run that much. I need to find another place to get it.
I bought an aqua pure, cut to fit, phosphate pad hoping that it helps with the hair algae. Time will tell. I did pick some algae out by hand yesterday ( what a pain ).

[SaltyDawg]

I wouldn't dose anything,test it before you add anything. Keep up on the manual removal. I have a patch of HA about the size of a baseball. Once a week,when doing a waterchange,I use a piece of airline tubing tied to a stainless rod that I set on top of the rock. I pull it out with a pair of tweezers and suck it out with the hose. It keeps coming back but it hasnt spread either. I can get it all in a 1 gallon water change. It sounds like yours is a little worse than mine but keep on it and try to locate the food source for the algae and you'll end up on the winning end of the battle.

[CarmieJo]

My rule is don't dose anything you don't test for. At this point in time with only softies I would expect that your water changes are providing everything you need.

Do you have a TDS meter? They are not expensive and tell you if the water you are making or buying is pure. Your own RO system would be a good purchase.

[leapinlizards]

Call me dumb but, what is a TDS?

[CarmieJo]

Total Dissolved Solids. This site is pretty helpful http://www.tdsmeter.com/.

[leapinlizards]

Well, I couldn't stand the hair algae any longer. My tank looked like a big green blob. Monday I actually took out the rock & scrubbed the algae off. Today is thursday & it's coming back with avengence. I have a phosphate removal pad in with the filter that doesn't seem to be helping. I have 6 little itty bitty crabs & 4 snails in there. My co worker told me to add 6 more crabs. Does this seem like a good idea? Any other suggestions? At this point I'm willing to try anything. He also told me to pick the hair algae out every night. I don't have the time or patience to do that. Not every night. If it comes down to that, the tank wil come down. Can you tell that I'm a little frustrated?

[THEJRC]

check the parameters of your water change water!!! You might be spinning your wheels if you continue to add bad water.

[leapinlizards]

I'm on line looking for a decent priced RO system right now.

[CarmieJo]

Try siphoning it when you do water changes. It won't hurt to do 5-10% twice a week.

[leapinlizards]

My honey bought me an RO system & is hopefully installing it tomorrow. I bought a phosphate test kit last night & tested that. My nano shows none & my 29 gallon which is almost done cycling shows just a trace. I figured this one would show because I used my well water to fill it, but like I said, just a trace. I bought a couple emerald hermits to help fight off the hair algae but I know there's too much for them to keep up with. Once my RO system is installed I'll start doing a water change twice a week & see if that helps. Any other suggestions?

[CarmieJo]

I'd run some phosban too.

[Malibu41]

I did water changes and added a Emerald Crab and mine looks much better now but I also have about 8 hermits as well as 10 snails. The RO system should be a big help.

[Missy]

Couldn't he use 1 turbo snail?