Hair Algae

ecreel1

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Ok so I have had my tank up and going since June of this year..... I have hair algae in 4 different spots of my tank, I have been trying to remove as much as I can..... anybody have suggestions on what I can do to get rid of it completely?!

It is really getting annoying......
 
clean up crew - I have 2 Turbo snails, 4 hermit crabs and emerald crab and a fire line shrimp... you think I should add more?!
 
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Are you using Ro water? How often do you do water changes? How long do you run the lights?
 
Post a pic please. If the areas are not bad (even if they are), pull the rock and treat with peroxide. It will be gone in 3 days. Obviously we'll need to get to the bottom of why it's there and what's needed to fix the problem. But there is no sense on wasting time and efforts on something that may take hold and get out of control.
 
I do use RO water. and lights needs to be set up on a timer... but I turn blue lights on at 7am turn white light on at about 9am.... then turn white light off at about 7pm and then blue light goes off at about 9pm.....i do h20 changes every 2 weeks now....

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Fidofence;819622 wrote: I would reduce the light cycle to no more than 8 hours

+1 I reduced my light cycle for a total of 8 hour and my algae issue became much manageable. Peroxide helped tons too.
 
Peroxide does the trick. I had a ton of hair algae and we killed 99.9 % with a peroxide bath. I found a couple residual sections in the tank and used a syringe to target those remaining areas. Everything looks great after 3 weeks.

Gary
 
cut photo time to 6 hours for now. sounds low, but it's enough for corals, but cuts extra food from the algae without chemicals.

it took me 7 months of good maintenance to get rid of bad algae. (granted this was an established tank I bought and was working with). if you do too much or push too hard, it'll just cause more problems.
 
Better yet here is a vid of my tank taken a few minutes ago..... :D
Hope it helps..... And thanks again for all the input....:up:

When doing a peroxide treatment what is the step you take...?

Edit: http://youtu.be/kBB_3o-qEQs
 
before you start with peroxide, i would cut the light back to 6-8 hours like said before and do a 10% water change once a week using the RO water until you notice the GHA starting to disappear or die off (then it can be manually removed with a brush). Peroxide does work, but should be a last option IMHO. if the GHA isnt taking over the tank it easily managed by making sure your phosphates and Nitrates are low and keeping up on your water changes. GHA doesn't have an easy over night fix. yes using peroxide will kill it, but it will also kill all the beneficial bacteria and anything else growing on the live rock that the GHA is growing on. managing your phosphates and nitrates, excess food in your tank and your light times, will not only get rid of your GHA problem, but also eliminate all the factors contributing to its growth, preventing it from returning. peroxide will just kill it, but wont prevent it from coming back. if you aren't running phosgaurd or phosban i would start there and cut your lights back to 6-8 hours and keep up on water changes and levels of phosphates. adding more Clean up crew will help, astreia snails will keep the new GHA from growing back, not much will take care of the GHA that is already grown long. if your tank is large enough you could try a sea hare, but once the GHA is gone they tend to die, kind of a waste. good luck, i battled this problem for months, patience and diligence maintaining your levels and water changes is the only long term solution.
 
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