How Do I get rid of Green Hair Algae

Well first time ive been on here in a while and my tanks having a bit of a problem with green hair algae

Its pretty bad on the rocks and frag rack I took a couple out and am bleaching them while im gone but I obviously can't do that to all the effected rocks. I also thought of bleaching the frag rack but will it take off the paint?

Also recently added another koralia evo 1050 and Ive cut back on feeding the fish. Should I add another? noticeably more flow now and that helped a ton with the cyano problem I had.

Also recently got an auto top off so hopefully that will help since now the params will be more stable.

Im also going to stop being lazy on water changes.

I do have a 150w halide on this with stock bulb so that prob doesn't help much, should I try doing a black out or replace stock bulb with a phoenix?

I basically wanna get my tank all nice and cleaned up so I can start buying corals soon.

Ugh dreading going home cause tank is prob gonna look awful I hope I left enough top off water and nothing died

Thanks

 

Two things that did it for me was 1 - just reach in an pluck as much of the crap off as possible, comes off the sandbed like a carpet.
2 - stop being lazy with topping off with tap water and only use RO/DI water to reduce the phosphate levels.

Where are your phosphates at right now?

 

ill try that next wc

and I am using 5 stage ro/di with new filters and i have an auto top off now so how could i be anymore lazy ;D

im not sure since im not home and dont have a phosphate test kit but when i get home ill get a lfs to test it and post here

 

I have been in a war with Green hair for several months now and just now is it almost under control. I got mega lazy at the time and sort of stopped changing my water and putting in new filters. man did i learn an expensive lesson.

What I have done was, of course do water changes and feed the fish less. Plus I lowered the amount my lights where on during the day. But the thing that help the most was pulling the stuff out by hand and even pulling rock and brushing it off. What a pain in the butt I tell you, however it is working and I hope it will never come back. Good luck and I hopeI helped some.

 

Yea, but that's the good kind of lazy. My brand of lazy was "oh it's making noise and needs water so I'll just pour this glass from the fridge in there".

forgot to mention that I also purchased a light timer from home depot that gives me steady control of the number of hours my lighting is on.

 

Hair algae isn't the problem, its a symptom of the problem.

The first step in defeating hair algae is to limit its food - phosphates and realize that phosphates are the problem.

The second step is to get as much of the phosphates out of the system as possible. Remove as much algae manually as possible, then start removing the phosphates in the other places that its at. Your rocks, your sand (if you have sand), the food you feed, everywhere. By the time you see hair algae your rocks and sand are full of phosphates and its leaching out and back into the water column.
Cutting back on the lighting will help hold down the growth of the algae but personally I think its counterproductive. Yes, running the lights will cause the HA to grow but when it grows you see it and can remove it manually and thereby remove the underlying cause - phosphates - from the tank.
You can try getting some fish that eat hair algae but that won't solve the phosphate issue which is the true problem. Sure, it will remove the HA temporarily but what happens when they poop it out? Yep, all that phosphate goes right back into the water and continues the nasty cycle of hair algae.

A Phosban reactor can be added to the set up also.

In the end, the solution is to limit the import of phosphates, maximize the export of phosphates MIME - Minimize Import, Maximize Export.

Good luck with it.

 

thanks everyone I looked in to a phosphate reactor and it looks like it will be about a $100.00 for everything so I guess ill get one but first im going to try just pulling it all out

and get my phosphates checked

 

also just so you know I was looking at getting:

Would that be good?

Shopping Cart


BRS GFO and Carbon Reactor

Maxi-Jet Powerhead 1200 (295GPH)

1 Pound (453 Grams) Bulk GFO "Pellets" Ferric Oxide

 

Looks like you got your solution worked out but just wanted to add my 2 cents. I have a large turbo snail that literally mows down my hair algae when it pops up. Maybe one could help you not have to do so much manual removal while trying to get it under control.

 

thanks ill get a couple an see if it helps

turbo snails piss me off though cause they always turn themselves over and cant get back up