Hair Algae control before it gets carried away?

[phoenix20]

So in my 65gal tank that has been up for about 6 months, I noticed that some alge hair has started to form on the sand bed. Doing some reading through various forums, this can turn out to grow into a major issue.

It looks like some critters will eat the hair algae -- specifically -- lawnmower blennies, lettuce nudibranches, and the sea hare. I've seen "sea slug" interchangeable with sea hare -- are these the two same species?

I've also seen that lettuce nudibranches aren't really nudis at all -- they are sea slugs?

Anyways, what would you all recommend adding as an additional janitor to the tank? It seems that sea hares will starve if they don't have enough algae. I do feed nori seaweed on a daily basis -- and some of this seaweed ends up on the sandbed. Will the algae critters eat the seaweed once the hair algae is gone?

 

[parsonsaj]

A lawnmower blenny lived up to his name when I had the exact same problem in my 65. This is definitely something that you need to nip in the bud, though.

 

[phoenix20]

I have my lights on for 12 hours a day. I just ordered some LED moonlights, so I think i'm going to try to cut back to 10 hours a day with 2 hours of the LED moonlights before/after the main lights kick on.

I am using RODI water. I have a glass lid, so not too much water is lost to evaporation. I'm changing about 2 gallons of water a week.

I feed twice a day. The morning session, I alternate between "meat" flakes and "plant" flakes every other day. I make sure that I'm feeding so the flakes are gone within 3 mins. In the evening, I drop in half of a cube of frozen brine shrimp. I split a cube between my 65gal and 45gal tank.

In both tanks, I have a in-tank "lee's counter current skimmer" found http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/204173/product.web?gdftrk=xh23lc0p/7HDy%7Eg3JgKLc6JhamuKWaaDmqKPpwfiwkyn7K6e1hizQiJfGh6RDA%7E6E6EW0Kg1wcDRNMnLJgjDmzVfYVFvi8Rx9VcTSlbRxGmySHs0RMGmPb2pmS5c0M/4bU0d0iJXO0Yr7Vxv4k%7ExGh4lzRkYx3KfeAIwtl7xQj8_">here</a>. I drive both skimmers with a rena 400 air pump.

The critters I have in the 65gal with the hair algae are below:

Regal Tang (Hippo Tang)
4 green chromis
Royal Gramma
Bluestripe neon goby
2 peppermint shrimp
1 cleaner shrimp
~40 snails, ~40 assorted crabs
white bubbletip anemone
pulsing xenia
scooter blenny
feather duster
2 x harry green mushroom
2 x harry blue mushroom

 

[phoenix20]

Oh -- and I put a 3in piece of nori seaweed on a clip daily in both tanks.

 

[flyingarmy]

I would also cut back on your feeding. Looks like you might be adding too many phosphates from the food that promotes Hair Algae growth. Cutting back your lights will help also like you are doing. But if all else fails, I would go with a Lawnmower, then crabs then last resort Hare. Hares are great but once their food source is gone, remove and pass on to another needed reefer or back to the LFS for credit.

 

[fishguy56]

Crabs will mow it away then let someone use the crabs! Just keep a few after that. Example me, wife and baby went to the Phillipines almost a month got back back and tank was full of hair algae, I dropped about 100 crabs and 100 snails I bought from saltwaterfish.com and in about 10-14 days there was not one strain of any hair algae in the tank. We moved most crabs to my son's tank for safe keeping.
TF

 

[kwasniew]

And get a UV sterilizer to wipe out the algae spores so it won't come back once its gone.

 

[rhodan]

Also do more water changes....

 

[drnecropolis]

Your doing 2 gallons a week on a 65?? Thats the 1st place to start...I do about 35 a week on my 180 and it has knocked down the HA quite a bit...instead of dropping the lights to 10 hours go ahead and make it 7 hrs a day or so...

 

[tebriel]

DrNecropolis;214969 wrote: Your doing 2 gallons a week on a 65??

I was confused about this as well, only thing I could think of was that they needed 2 gallons of top off a week...

Also, I know nothing about that skimmer, but the fact that it's driven by an airstone makes me nervous, can anyone pitch in some advice on those? I was under the impression that they don't really do any good. So that could also be a factor.

 

[lenny]

I agree with these guys, you need to deal with the cause, not the result.
Bigger water changes, more frequently.
Cutting down on feeding.
Uv Sterilizer
Maybe a phosphate reactor
I like to use turbo snails as lawnmowers.

I have had big outbreaks of hair algae due to the nature of how much waste my seahorses make, and when I was first starting out I was overrun by it. by using the above methods I have been able to keep it under control. When I got really bad, I did bring in the sea hare and various larger snails, but once the algae is gone you need to pass them on to the next tank or like he said above... nukage. nukage is bad, lol. Also, are you making your own rodi water or buying it? either way, you might be getting water from a not-to-clean filter which allows more waste into the water, so you might want to check that out as well.

 

[drnecropolis]

I am familer with the lee skimmers..I would rather have a seaclone lol...

When it comes to skimmers this is not the area so skimp on..well I skimmed but had to do alot of mods and finally got my cheap skimmer working great...It took about 14 months but it works now...loooking back I should have just bought a nice skimmer...