Hair Algae starting to grow.

[TheOneWhoIsThere]

My tank is about 2.5 months old. It is 20 gallon, I have a pair of clownfish, a diamond watchman goby, a cleaner shrimp, and various corals. Hair algae is starting to grow. What can I add/do to get rid of it? I know lawnmower blennies eat hair algae, but is my tank too small? Will it get along with the diamond watchman goby?

 

[Jmas4]

Instead of trying to get an animal to eat hair algae, let's try to find the root of the problem. Are you using rodi? What are your parameters? What test kit are you using? You can also manually remove it with a tooth brush. Also the tank being 2.5 months old means it is still pretty new. Perhaps this is just an ugly stage and all you can do is wait it out.

Good luck and Happy Reefing

 

[Rjukan]

I agree that it could be the ugly stages since your tank is only 2.5mo old. What type of rock did you use, live or dry?

 

[TheOneWhoIsThere]

I agree that it could be the ugly stages since your tank is only 2.5mo old. What type of rock did you use, live or dry?

I used mostly dry, with maybe 1/3 live.

 

[TheOneWhoIsThere]

Instead of trying to get an animal to eat hair algae, let's try to find the root of the problem. Are you using rodi? What are your parameters? What test kit are you using? You can also manually remove it with a tooth brush. Also the tank being 2.5 months old means it is still pretty new. Perhaps this is just an ugly stage and all you can do is wait it out.

Good luck and Happy Reefing

I’ve been using pre-made saltwater, my parameters are fine (Ph is on the lower side but fine) my test kit is the API one.

 

[KrisReef]

Food (phosphate and nitrate) and light are the keys to growing healthy hair algae. New tanks often have abundant supplies of these.

 

[SPR1968]

It’s probably being caused by raised nutrient levels, have you tested your nitrate and in particular phosphate levels? Phosphate could well show 0 as it’s being taken up by the algae as food though.

In a tank your size it should be easy to cure by removing excess algae and water changes, but you need to make sure the new saltwater is made from 0 TDS RODI water otherwise you could be reintroducing nutrients every time you do a water change and that will feed the algae