hair algae biocube

[Simona586]

I recieved this tank from my cousin and he had some hair algae on the rock and back wall. i thought i got rid of it all but it literally just took over my tank this weekend! what can i do to get rid of this stuff quick?!? please help!

[Sun357]

My emerald crab destroyed all the hair and bubble algae i've had. Some people don't like crabs though and others say they won't touch theirs.

Lower the light period and water changes and such help.

~Fred

[MizTanks]

Starve it out! Take away it's nutrient source. Could you post more info on the tank please?


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[Simona586]

Have you done water changes, get new lights, and get rid of the yellow tang yet? Also, what do you have for clean up crew, and are you running carbon/ gfo at all?

I have not done a water change yet. and by new lights you mean bulbs?? and yes i actually got rid of the fish my cousin had and started over. i just bought about 30 blue legged crabs and about 6 snails. i do run the oceanic biocue fliter pads that have carbon in it. I probably sound dumb but whats "gfo" haha

[Simona586]

Starve it out! Take away it's nutrient source. Could you post more info on the tank please?


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Its a 29 gal bicube with factory lights and one strip of leds. i have the uv sterlizer and protien skimmer made for the oceanic bio cube. i need a new bulb which i buying tm for it and i dont have the skimmer up yet. i have 3 chromis 2 clows a yellow head goby 2 cleaner shrimp a star fish and about 30 crabs and 6 snails. Im getting hair algae on the back wall like crazy! i need it gone soon. im leaving for vegas on thursday and im kinda nervous if i dont get it under control by then when i get home im going to be SOL. is it possible that hair algae can never go away?

[BCTate]

GFO is Granulated Ferris Oxide. It is a product degigned to remove the phosphates from your system! The green hair algea in your tank is thriving most likely due to high nutrients (phosphates and nitrates). Removing these nutrients (or significantly reducing them) is the remedy to your problem!

I would get that skimmer going asap with that bioload. The skimmer is another key component to getting these unwanted nutrients out!

Good luck,

Keith

[Simona586]

GFO is Granulated Ferris Oxide. It is a product degigned to remove the phosphates from your system! The green hair algea in your tank is thriving most likely due to high nutrients (phosphates and nitrates). Removing these nutrients (or significantly reducing them) is the remedy to your problem!

I would get that skimmer going asap with that bioload. The skimmer is another key component to getting these unwanted nutrients out!

Good luck,

Keith

its gotta be my phosphates! im going to go pick some GFO asap and hook up that skimmer! once i get all of this stuff working will the existing hair algae disapear or do i still have to pick it out?

[MizTanks]

Get the 11oz bag of Chemipure Elite and throw it in your second chamber. It's a great product used for removing excess nutrients and phosphates.

While doing your water change, while scraping, siphon out as much of the algae as possible. Make sure all flow is off.

Lower your feedings down to 1x daily and only the amount the fish will eat within 3 minutes. How long are you going to be gone? Do you have any corals? Reason I'm asking is that it wouldn't hurt to go with lights out for 3-5 days.

What you want to accomplish is to starve the algae out. Take away it's food source. Nutrients, phosphates and light. Are you using tap water? If so, stop!


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[Simona586]

Get the 11oz bag of Chemipure Elite and throw it in your second chamber. It's a great product used for removing excess nutrients and phosphates.

While doing your water change, while scraping, siphon out as much of the algae as possible. Make sure all flow is off.

Lower your feedings down to 1x daily and only the amount the fish will eat within 3 minutes. How long are you going to be gone? Do you have any corals? Reason I'm asking is that it wouldn't hurt to go with lights out for 3-5 days.

What you want to accomplish is to starve the algae out. Take away it's food source. Nutrients, phosphates and light. Are you using tap water? If so, stop!


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I will deff go and pick some of that up! I only feed once a day right now because of the problem im having! i have one plate coral right now. ill be away from the tank thursday till sunday but i have timers on my lights that have them stay on for about 12 hours a day... is that too much? and when i first got the tank i didnt have enough buckets to take all of the water and i got the tank late at night so i had no choice but to use tap water and i havent done a water change yet...

---------- Post added at 02:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:55 PM ----------

one more thing would it hurt my tank or make the tank cycle again if i take all the rock out and scrub it with a tooth brush to get some hair algae off? and its mostly on the back of my tank where its hard to get to because my rock work is there.

[jimsflies]

Taking out the rock and scrubbing it won't really take care of the problem The algae will come back in force. IME water changes won't really help...in theory they should but in practice they don't. Small skimmers are all junk too.

Nothing good happens fast in this hobby. However, if you load up a media sock with some GFO (many of our sponsors carry it please try to purchase from them if possible :), Bulk Reef Supply is probably the cheapest), you will see an improvement. Then I would make sure you have a few snails to deal with the issue. I recently had a some hair algae growing on the sides of my tank. I added two small turbo snails to my 29 biocube and within a week, the algae was completely gone. I didn't do anything else.


A few other questions for you:

How long have you had this tank? Sounds like you got it already setup and moved it? Did you reuse the substrate? If so what is the substrate. What size biocube is it? How many fish are in there? How often and what do you feed?

[Simona586]

Taking out the rock and scrubbing it won't really take care of the problem The algae will come back in force. IME water changes won't really help...in theory they should but in practice they don't. Small skimmers are all junk too.

Nothing good happens fast in this hobby. However, if you load up a media sock with some GFO (many of our sponsors carry it please try to purchase from them if possible :), Bulk Reef Supply is probably the cheapest), you will see an improvement. Then I would make sure you have a few snails to deal with the issue. I recently had a some hair algae growing on the sides of my tank. I added two small turbo snails to my 29 biocube and within a week, the algae was completely gone. I didn't do anything else.


A few other questions for you:

How long have you had this tank? Sounds like you got it already setup and moved it? Did you reuse the substrate? If so what is the substrate. What size biocube is it? How many fish are in there? How often and what do you feed?

Ive had the tank since 3-2-12. yes my cousin had sand in it so i just kept it in... is this bad? its a 29 gallon reg bicube not the hqi. i have two small small clowns, three chromis, yellow headed goby, two cleaner shirmp, star fish, 30 or so crabs, and about 6 or 7 snails. right now i feel once a day with frozen mysis shrimp. i will take a pic tonight when i get home from work but the back wall is getting pretty bad IMO. i use to have a 120gal saltwater tank and ive never had this problem so i def need some help. I am going to stingray bay tm to get some replacement bulbs fans and other stuff so i will pick up som GFO and people have been telling me to get a sea hare.

[Simona586]

one more thing my cousin had live rock where the bioballs were supposed to be is that fine? should i take that out and rinse that out? and clean the chamber out?

[demonclownfish]

Water change, leave the LR in the back as bioballs are useless, more waterchanges, add the chemipure, you could also get an algae blenny to destroy it and if its long enough you can take your fingers and swirl it in small circles and the algae will bunch up and you can rip it right off the rock with your hand in large chunks. also turbo snails and a royal urchin will help.

[dlhirst]

I feed my fish 2 - 3 times a week. They still grow and have great color and look as happy as I can imagine a fish looking.

I used to feed every day, and I had a major GHA bloom on my first tank, right after the big cycle was over. I went out of town for eight days, and never fed the fish the entire time. Turned the lights down to a 4 hour cycle to prevent the water from evaporating... when I returned, ALL of the GHA was gone - literally gone. Since then, I have always figured hungry fish might just have to eat algae every now and then, but I was damned if I was gonna feed the algae.

If you don't pull the rocks out for too long - read minute, not even minutes - you can scrub them and get them back in without too much concern for die off. But. remember - you are gonna starve the algae, so it WILL die off (and possibly feed other algae), so any algae you can remove takes some future nutrients out of the tank.

Start doing daily water changes if you can - RODI maybe 5 gallons a day until you leave. And stop feeding the fish. Really, they can even make it until you return next Sunday. Its hard to completely remove what you put in with that emergency late night tap water addition. Likely phosphates. Unfortunately, you don't get to pick and choose which water gets removed. So, dilute it dilute it dilute it with water changes.

[MizTanks]

12hrs is to long. 8-10 is plenty. Again harvest as much of the algae you can by hand. Chemipure elite, use ro/di water only, reduce lighting for a period of days.


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[Simona586]

even with this one coral that i have could i put the lights on for like 4 a day while im on vacation?

[MizTanks]

Your fish can go lightless without issues. Could you house the coral with a friend or LFS? You really want to go without light. Remember your trying to starve the algae out. But if you have to have light. 4hrs is fine.


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