hair algae

Hello recently i started to get some hair algae growth in my tank and it hasnt gotten any better. whats a good way to get it under control? I try pulling it off but it can be stubborn sometimes.

The hair algae is using excess nutrients to grow. You must either get rid of them through more regular water changes, better skimmer and or phosphate removers and reduce feedings. Even if you test your phosphates and they come up at nearly undetectable that may be due to the algae using them up for energy as they become available so you must starve them out. You may also consider getting an animal that eats hair algae.

in my experience, there are hit or miss algae eaters. Nerites rarely, sea hair kind of but not really, emerald crabs meh, lawnmower blennie no. The best thing to do so far has been to brush the stuff off with a toothbrush, either with the rock out of your tank in some tank water in a bucket, or in your tank. If you do it in your tank, vacuum sand, run filters and try to siphone as much of it out as you can. Leave your lights off for a few days and do water changes also. Do get some scarlet hermits and red legs to help clean up what you can't get. also, get some caulerpa or chaeto and run that in your sump. If you dont have a sump, get a large HOB filter and get the filters out, put a small amount of sand in it and then add your macro in there with a light.

Edited by phys - December 16 2012 at 1:01pm

Runin some t5's with mh's. bulbs are 4-5 months old all around.