Hair algae... its driving me nuts.

[Coralmaniac21]

I have this green.brown hair algae in my tank and it keep growing on my rock and corsl skeletons... I have a bubble coral who receeded badly and its actually coming back now but hair algae is growing on the skeleton near thr bubbles and i have to use a tooth brush on it to clean the septa spikes... but i dont wanna keep doing that and iriates the bubbles..

My rockwork ssme thing hair algae all over. It comes off easy with a tooth brush.. but just come back later... snail ignore it.. sea urchin eats it but he tends to stay on the same rocks leaving others covered..

Phosphates used to be .50 but they are now near 0 nitrates are 0-20 depending on how much i feed but it goes down later.. what csn i do besides keep scrubbing and picking the algae off.

Also what are tjese clear.white tube things growing all over my rocks.. is this a sponge ??

 

[robmiller2]

I picked a lot of mine off and scrubbed some of the rocks to get as much of it off as I could. Then I dosed with fluconazole. Its been in my tank for about a month and its slowly dying off.

 

[Coralmaniac21]

Yea im scrubbing it all off now.. thus hair in the pics is like months worth of growth.. vacuuming my gravel abd the floating stuff up hopefully if u keep doing this is slowely goes away

 

[theMeat]

Add a bunch of turbo snails and do a 72 hour lights out.
72 hour lights out won’t get all the gha, but will knock it down a bunch, and it will/should continue to recede even after you uncover tank and put lights back on

 

[Jvesche20]

I used to have this issue but then I added a refug with chaeto in my sump. I keep a $7 light on it from home depot. The chaeto outgrows the algae. Hair algae grows in the sump but very slowly I dont see any algae in my DT. Try growing chaeto and removing all the algae by hand

 

[Neo Jeo]

I have the same issue just started using Vibrant Liquid Aquarium Cleaner - 8oz - Reef Blend

 

[Phi79]

I have the same issue just started using Vibrant Liquid Aquarium Cleaner - 8oz - Reef Blend

Please keep us updates on the Vibrant liquid

 

[Neo Jeo]

Please keep us updates on the Vibrant liquid

I will, I have had it in my tank for a week. Nothing yet, I scrape it with a tooth brush when doing water changes and let it get sucked up with the tube

 

[Jvesche20]

I will, I have had it in my tank for a week. Nothing yet, I scrape it with a tooth brush when doing water changes and let it get sucked up with the tube

I’ve tried to use something similar but it was no use. Used it for 2 weeks didn’t notice a single change so that’s when I got gfo and the chaeto and fixed all my issues

 

[hyla84]

I've been using vibrant in the past but no results in my experience

 

[Amateur Reefer]

Following. I'm battling some now. Just added cheto and dosed fluconazole.

 

[Hemmdog]

How big is your tank? Do you have any tangs or hermits?

 

[HB AL]

A bag of phosgaurd in the sump works really well.

 

[Redleg]

Fluconazole will most likely kill you chaeto, and any other macroalgae you may have.

 

[Mwhitedesigns]

How old is your tank?

I just went through a battle with hair algae. .5 is high. Ideally you want to be .03 or lower. I don't think you'll ever get to 0 and probably shouldn't. Your readings of 0 now are most likely false as the hair algae is absorbing the phosphates. I would remove as much as you can, wait a day then to a test to see what your levels really are. I also suggest a Hanna Checker. Any other test has too broad of a spectrum to really understand what your levels are.

Try to determine what is causing them. Over feeding, rock leeching etc? I noticed that there was always more algae on one of my rocks so I was led to believe it was leaching phosphates. Rocks can absorb phosphates when levels are high. Then when you finally lower your levels, the rock will start to release the phosphates it absorbed until its been depleted.

I broke down and use a fresh bag of GFO every weekly water change. I would also get some astreas or margarita snails as they will eat the GHA. However they won't touch it if its too long. Some chaeto or macroalgae (dragon blade, red bush, red grape etc.) will help outcompete and use up the phosphates before the GHA can get it.

Someone please correct me if I am mistaken. Just chiming in with information I have learned recently from my battle.

Patience is key.

 

[Neo Jeo]

I just read that REEF FLUX FLUCONAZOLE is Not effective against hair or other turf style algae.

Previously known as Algae Buster, Reef Flux is an aquarium fluconazole treatment that is effective against fungal fish infections. To avoid unintended nutrient spikes it should not be used in tanks with refugiums that have Caulerpa and Bryopsis.

 

[Coralmaniac21]

Add a bunch of turbo snails and do a 72 hour lights out.
72 hour lights out won’t get all the gha, but will knock it down a bunch, and it will/should continue to recede even after you uncover tank and put lights back on

Ligjt off does nothing to the hair algae ive had my lights off for a week once when i was dosing malachite green to test it on ich and it did ziltch to algae

 

[Coralmaniac21]

How big is your tank? Do you have any tangs or hermits?

I have onky two hermits they dont go after it from what i observed.. they do like eating coraline or other algae though i watched em eat all the colaline off my bubble corals skeleton once.

As for GFO i have a filter bag with 2 full cups of phosguard it brought my phosphtes to pretty much near 0 in a week or so and it hasnt affected this algae in the slightest lol... my readings arent false they were .50 then after i used phosguard went to 0.

Ill be honest here i dont think phosphates play as big of a roll with algae as some think.. IN fresh water which im more familier with 20 years exp i can have 10ppm phosphates and algae never grows. But thats just my observation lol.

Also those white tube things... is that a sponge can you guys check my last pic please ? It all over my rocks.. hasnt hurt anything so i guess its just a sponge ?

Tank is 60 gallons running for 4 or 5 months now


Ill try turbo snails i just heard they can become buldozing annoying snails. Honestly i have like 6 astrea snails and when algae like this first started in my tabk they would gobble it.. but once the aglae started these random bigger patchs they ignored it.

No i dont have any angelfish or tangs

 

[theMeat]

Ligjt off does nothing to the hair algae ive had my lights off for a week once when i was dosing malachite green to test it on ich and it did ziltch to algae

Hair algae has more structure than other algae, and will survive 72 hours lights out, but you can expect it to die off substantially, and what remains will be much more stringy and easier to remove. Even if you do nothing to remove it you will/should see further die off once lights come back on. It won’t rid a tank that it has a hold on, but helps big time and gets you going in the right direction

 

[BestMomEver]

I have the same issue in my 32. I pull it out by hand so the urchin can work on it. He’s slow...

In the 60 gallon, I tried growing some chaeto in the sump. What grows there is hair algae. Chaeto... not so much. Which is fine, because the hair algae stays out of the tank. I just scrape it out occasionally so it doesn’t get out of hand.