Green Hair Algae

I've got green hair algae taking over.. I've got phosguard in the sump, have a lawnmower blenny, added a sea hare, shut off lights for a couple days, trimmed the hair back, left the lights on the sump with macroalgae on 24/7, and still it's just getting worse. Up till this point, I haven't been running a skimmer as I can't get the one I have working. Someone has suggested that this could be contributing to the problem. I've been planning on picking up a new skimmer at the end of next week. Do you think that is contributing? I'm sure I'm low on snails, and will be purchasing some this week..

What else can I do to cut back on the algae and keep it from coming back?

ditto^

Turbo snails do wonders with some of this stuff also.

I'm sorry to hear of your algae issue.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Sea Hares are hit and miss. Half the time they die before doing any good.

Sounds like you already sensed it. SNAILS ARE THE KEY. The way to prevent nuisance algae in the first place is to ensure there are enough herbivores in the tank. Snails are major herbivores. Algae is all they eat. Having a sufficient number of snails is extremely important. I cannot overemphasize that point. The best snails are of three types:
Astrea
Cerith
Margarita
arthuriv here on the MB usually has snails for sale at a decent price.

In your tank there are two fish that are making it difficult. I wrote an article about this in one of the Sea Star Newsletters. The Hawkfish and the Wrasse eat Amphipods and Copepods. These little bugs eat algae when it is just a sprout, before you can see it. A tank with these fish needs special care to prevent algae problems and that's where the snails come in. Do I need to repeat? GET MORE SNAILS

There is more that can be done. Now that there is an out of control problem with hair algae, if you can please post a pic, we can tell you what steps are needed to more quickly eliminate the clumps of algae that would take too long for snails to eat. The snails mentioned above do not care too much for large clumps of hair algae. There are ways to speed it up but a pic would help us to see which direction to go.

You're not alone. Most new hobbyists encounter this problem. I had it in spades. You've probably read my story: http://garf.org/ugly.html


Edited by Mark Peterson - September 09 2011 at 10:45am

sorry I was too lazy to read your follow-up post until now....for modifications for my suggestions in your situation...

Edited by bur01014 - September 09 2011 at 12:02pm

I agree with pretty much everything that bur01014 and Bob said. Algae killers.  

+1 to that! ^

I've had major green hair algae problems since I first started my tank, but once I added my refugium, and got myself an appropriate CUC, the algae pretty much disappeared. Right now, though I am dealing with a bad cyano outbreak, but that is mainly because:

1) my skimmer (one of the crap nano cube ones) is no longer running...my doing
2) insufficient CUC until very recently
3) need to replace my bulb and
4) poor water flow in some areas of the tank

Now that these things have mostly been fixed, with the exception of replacing the light, the cyano is starting to die off, and coralline algae is coming back. Another thing that I noticed when I had bad hair algae, is that, as mostly everyone has said, the snails don't go for the large clumps and long strings of algae. They will eat the small sprouts that, if at all visible to you, are just the beginnings of algal growth. If you can, just tank your hand and rip off as much of the algae as you can, and discard it. Then, i would suggest scrubbing the rocks down, you can just take your hand and rub while applying a bit of pressure, if you can't take the rocks out of the tank. This is what I did, plus I got a TON of snails, and setup a refugium in the sump of my nano cube, which now has about 2-3lbs of live rock rubble, chaeto, caulerpa, ulva, and 5 red mangrove sprouts. Though the fuge hasn't been running long, nor have I had my snails for very long, but literally the algae sprouts and cyano had majorly decreased overnight.

Anyways, here are my main suggestions:
1) Get More SNAILS! (not hermits...they kill the snails, even if they are somewhat good on the algae)
2) Make sure your refugium is cleaned out, so that there isn't a large build up of detritus, or nuisance algae, so that the refugium will be as effective and efficient as possible
3) Do regular water changes, however don't do them too often as, while you are removing nitrates and phosphates, you are also restoring other elements and nutrients the algae will use...the macros should take care of most of your nitrates and phosphates, given the time
4) Be patient as none of these things will instantly make it disappear, but it should definitely help take care of the problem

Hope this helped, and of course, these are only things that I suggest from my own experience, and there may be other ways of doing things that are just as good, or better.

Mark Peterson wrote: Good stuff Ann_A I believe in this case though, Shad's tank does have an RDP Refugium working as it should.Once hair algae starts to bloom it's hard to stop it, in spite of all the proper filtration the tank may have. The hair algae simply steals the nutrients from the existing biofiltration. BTW, while manually brushing hair algae can be a useful exercise, I would rarely suggest removing more than a few pieces of LR from the water to brush it off. Removing it from the water allows air into the pores of the rock which has a hard time escaping from those pores. It begins a die and decay cycle. The resulting pollution feeds the algae you are trying to eliminate.This algae started small and may have surprised you upon realizing it was out of control. Patience is key to maintaining sanity while the algae decreases per your vigilant efforts.

Thanks. Well that pretty much covers it, I'd been dealing with my hair algae for about 7 months before my tank finally matured enough to have it start disappearing. I still get some, but I think it's because of my light...I need to replace the bulb.

Anyways, that is great advice, Mark...I never knew that taking the rock out could be so bad, but then again I haven't ever tried it...I'm too chicken to upset my reef that much. Lol

Let us know how things are turning out, and if there's anything else we can help with.

Are you running the Refugium light 24/7 and is the Refugium algae growing well enough to the point that you have harvested some of it? FYI, if the Refugium completely fills up with algae, it can't grow as well and that allows algae to grow better in the main tank.

My experience has been, when there are sufficient herbivores, algae should never be a problem no matter what light is illuminating the tank. I have powerful sunlight illuminating my tanks but I typically don't have algae problems because I watch the herbivores to make sure they are eating the algae. From time to time a spot of hair algae will seem to be missed. That's when manual attention is needed, even to the point of either turning the rock over or breaking off the part of the rock which the snails are avoiding.

I have noticed over the years that people with algae problems either did not know about the great need or simply neglected to add more snails to their tank. So at the same time that they add a lot of snails they also pay more attention to maintenance, including removing the algae, and they hear that it will help to change their lights.

My point is this: The idea that changing the lights made much difference was just a coincidence. I don't know if this makes sense to you but it does to me. I've seen it so many times. For my own tanks, or others that I have control over, I've never bothered changing lights during an algae "situation". It was never the lights. It was always the increase of herbivores. I'm not saying that lighting is never a factor. It's just a smaller factor than is generally realized.