Green, long hair algae.

[eses]

(disclaimer) I searched for previous posts about this, but found none, hopefully this hasn't already been discussed to death.

I need to control the long-hair algae growing in my tank. It isn't the slime-film stuff, but the sort of stiff, bristle like stuff that looks like a lush carpet-cover. It was pretty to begin with, and I was happy that something was growing in the tank that wasn't brown..but now it is too healthy.

I only feed sparingly. Once a week typically. I've been doing weekly water changes, the PH is 8.4, Akl is 2.4-6 meq/l, Phosphates are generally low, but have spiked on occasion .. but not in about 2 months.

I also have about 1/4 of the tank covered in feather caulerpa. From what I have read, this algae mainly thrives on phosphates. Is this correct? I have been trying to lower the levels, and have also let the caulerpa get larger in the sump in hopes of out-competing the algae. This really hasn't slowed the growth down any.

Is there a small to medium sized fish, or invert that will take care of this stuff? My tank is small, 29gal with 20gal sump, so I can't get anything that will need ample free-swimming area.

Any suggestions?

[Steve]

There are snails and crabs that will control the hair algae. There are also some fish that help, but they don't do no where as good of a job as snails and crabs. Crabs can kill the snails for there shells if there are no other shells for them to switch to when they outgrow their current ones. Your best option is probably snails, but before you start getting those, what is your nitrates at? Caulerpa loves nitrates and so does hair algae. That and phosphates. Do you have the levels for those two items?

[eses]

I have snails and crabs. I have 3 astrea snails, and 6 turbo snails. I have three hermit crabs as well. The snails don't really do much of a cleaning job at all. The crabs kind of do, but they mainly stick to the rock and sand. My green emerald hermit picks at the hair aglae, but doesn't even begin to dent the growth.

My nitrate levels are 10ppm and less. Perhapes this is my problem as well, that and low phosphate must be feeding it.. I could cut back on my lighting too, its 4.4 watts/gallon and I run them 12-13 hours a day.

How many snails is typical for a 29 gallon tank?

[mastaJ]

The first thing I would do if you didn't have any corals would be cut back your lighting to as little as 4 hrs/day or so. Next, if you can take out the rock and scrub it off, you could do that (at least that is what I have to do ) HTH

[the_blue_tuna]

Scarlet reef hermits do a pretty good job on your hair algae. They also seem to be the most "reef desirable" of the hermit crabs . You can stock them at 1 per 2 gallons with no problems at all . My recommendation would be to first go in and manually remove as much hair as possible before introducing the crabs. They do a good job but cant do miracles,,,,they are mostly to maintain.Have you considered using a phosphate sponge also?

[eses]

First, what is a phosphate sponge?

Is it wise to pull the LR out and scrub it? I attempted to scrub some of it while it was in the tank, but the algae would not come off. The longer hairs would, but the tufts were rather firmly part of the rock.

I will try cleaning it up, cutting down the light, and getting some crabs. Anyone have a link to a picture so I know what I'm looking for? Our LFS does a very sketchy job at best labeling things correctly.

I did a nitrate and phosphate test yesterday, and both were unmeasurable. I'm assuming this is just because the algae is using it all up. I don't currently have corals, so cutting down the lighting won't hurt.

But the final question would be...what do I do once I get this under control again, and want to add corals? I want to eventually move into getting some of the easier-to-keep corals, and eventually run a full-on reef tank once I've learned enough to do so.

Thanks

[Bughead]

A while back after some deferred maintenance on the tank, I had one of the hairiest green aquariums in town. The algae growth was way too long to try to scrub it in the tank, so here's how I did it.

I got a stiff toothbrush and designated it as tank only. I do a water change, saving the old tank water in a few buckets, then take every rock possible and scrub it in a bucket. The rocks that cannot come out of the tank have to still get scrubbed in place. After scrubbing them, take another bucket or two of water out of the tank to get as many spores as you can.

Sure, you're going to scrub off some life, but most things are pretty tenacious and will stick to the rock. Now every two or three days, take your toothbrush and scrub the rocks in the tank. One added advantage is this increases the coraline growth. You'll have to keep on top of this for a couple of months, but you need to get it under control before your biological cleaners can keep it under control.

I'd test the phosphates before getting a phosphate sponge. Mine turned out to be real low, much to my surprise. Frequent scrubbings and water changes for a month or so, then an occasional brushing when you see a section getting green.

[eses]

Well, an update.

I went and purchased some snails and hermits. I basically got 1 per gallon in hermits (so I now have 32 hermit crabs) and I have 19 snails. So many snails in fact that I'm moving some of them to the sump. But anyway, after a few days of the new inhabitants, a miracle has indeed happened .. much of the smaller algae that is on the rocks has been removed. They are doing a good job, not good enough, I still need to scrub, but a good job by themselves.

Thanks four the suggestions. Today I'm going to try scrubbing off the rock .. I've just been busy building a new sump so I haven't gotten to it yet ... I'll share my new sump pictures for people once the film is developed.

[FISHme]

I had a hair problem a while back and I believe it was due to a faulty R/O/D/I .
I replaced the R/O unit and added a new D/I cartridge . I also removed a sand bed from the mangrove sump and then removed all the rock out of the tank and scrubbed it under the fresh water faucet (SOUND DRASTIC) , well yes it was because I was determined to win the battle. I placed all the rock into a 50 sterilite tub sump and kept it there , lightless for about a month. I placed a few pencil urchins in with it . This sump is connected to the main system so it was still being used as a bio filter.
Very little spike but nothing like I would have expected.
During the time the rock was left lightless the urchins munched on whatever and the coralline algae really started to spread.
I placed it back into the main tank and all is well.
Since then I added the 29 reef to the same system and it's been hair free since last December.Actually there are a few spots of it o a couple powerheads but it doesn't spread.
Look for yourself :

[eses]

Well...I tried srubbing yesterday, and it half worked. Tooth brush proved to be too soft, and I munched through about 8 scotch-bright pads. I finally gave up after a couple of hours of scrubbing just one rock, and am going to resort to either putting it in the dark for awhile or boiling the rock.

Do urchins eat the green algae? It might be worthwhile to get one or two and put them in my sump with the offending rocks.

I did manage to scrub enough off that I think the snails are going to take care of the rest. They must have been starved before I got them, as they have cleaned up much more than I imagined they would.