Hair algae

Lonelyreef · Jul 3, 2013

I know there are a million threads on combatting hair algae but here's another. I can't seem to kick this algae. I've never had hair algae before but now I do and it seems it doesn't want to leave. I think I got it when I put some new dry rock in my tank. It was cured but I think I should have cooked it off for sure. Besides the methods I know such as less light gfo carbon and good skimming. I know manual removal helps too. Are there any other things I can do such as carbon dosing or aka vodka dosing. I'm losing the battle any help would be appreciated guys thanks.

Nicholas41 · Jul 3, 2013

I had this issue a while back. Dosing Hydrogen peroxide into your tank can help eliminate the hair algae. It should be 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons. You can slowly increase it until it has gone away. I dosed with it for a while, and never had any ill effects on my sps, lps, polyps, fish or clean up crews.

Nicholas41 · Jul 3, 2013

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/ne...t-here/72877-hydrogen-peroxide-reef-tank.html

808jaymakoa · Jul 3, 2013

Will any fish or inverts eat hair algae as well?

Nicholas41 · Jul 3, 2013

I have had large mexican turbos eat it when the algae is short, as well as blue legs.

Lonelyreef · Jul 4, 2013

So peroxide will not damage any of my fish at all. I'm not really worried about sps because I only have a few ATM. Also should I be doing water changes while I dose peroxide and is this a daily or weekly dosing. I'm very interested in how this may work because it sounds like my best option at this point.

Nicholas41 · Jul 4, 2013

I did it daily, if you google it you can find other threads on it. I also did my weekly water change of around 15% while dosing it.

navila06 · Jul 4, 2013

when I had GHA bad, I scrubbed it off the rocks as much as I could during every water change, and I also vodka dosed until it was gone (about 2 months), it's been over 6 months and I have not seen a single strand (knock on wood) in my tank.

Lonelyreef · Jul 4, 2013

So will it harm any fish at all. I seem to have it on my sand bed a little also. I can manual get it off most of my rocks and then I plan on buyn a tooth brush and really going after this problem. I had been tryn and doing water changes but obviously not enuff. I'm at a crossroads here between vodka dosing, peroxide dosing, and the Red Sea nitrate phosphate remover.

navila06 · Jul 4, 2013

I can't speak of peroxide or redsea no3: p04x methods, cause I have not tried them, vodka did work for me. I followed this method:

Vodka Dosing by 'Genetics' and 'Stony_Corals' - Reefkeeping.com

carolinareefguy · Jul 4, 2013

Put in a sea hare. It will devour it in no time.

Lonelyreef · Jul 4, 2013

Will my wrasses or other fish try to eat the sea hair and also what kind of sea hair. I always thought they were kind of poisonous unless I'm thinking of the wrong one.

mike007 · Jul 4, 2013

Excessive nutrients in water column. Overfeeding of fish foods, coral foods and phosphates main cause. Get these in check and hair algae will go away.