Hair algae

I have had a massive outbreak of hair algae in my 90 gallon tank. I have traced it down to high nitrates and phosphates and I have cleaned out all my filters and I have done water changes will little to no success in dropping them. 

I would highly suggest putting a lot of time and study into Vodka dosing before you even think about implementing it. And maybe not even then either. I would also suggest slowing down on the water changes. How about some pictures and actual parameters?

here are just a few things to do while your researching the Vodka dosing. water changes don't decrease phosphates, your going to have to go get phosguard and run it in your tank. Remember to change it out every two days or it's in effective. The reason your snails and hermies wont touch it is because the algae is to long. the longer it is the less tasty it is. so here comes the gross part. get in there and pull as much off the rocks as you can. I constantly struggle with hair algae and this helps every time. you also might want to beef up your turbo snail crew as well. an extra 5 should help and not offset the balance of food availability. all snails will live after algae has gone in other words. something else to consider is your lighting. how old are your light? if it's getting close to a year that may be helping with the growth. 

Whats your cleaning crew like? Are you making new saltwater with ro water? How old are your filters in your ro system? For sure stop feeding the tank and black it out! Are you running any gfo?

I was also ready to throw in the towel before I found out how to control algae. The Ugly Green Haired Mermaid is the short story. Click here for the Sea Star article Saving a Reef which gives the technique that helped. Look below in the WMAS Reefkeeping Tips for the Tip Solving an Algae Problem as well as a few other Tips where we have helped hobbyists deal with algae.

There are some misconceptions about algae, nutrients and light. If you don't mind, may I give a little factual information that will help?

- Algae grows when it has three things: food, light and a lack of algae eaters (herbivores) to keep it under control.
- Tangs are great herbivorous fish as are Rabbitfish. I highly recommend them, though sometimes a fish may ignore the algae, so we cannot trust them. Lawnmower Blennies are just too small to quickly eat up a lot of algae in a 90.
- Snails are the most useful of any of the herbivores, but they have a hard time cleaning up when the algae has gotten out of control and as you have noticed, the algae may not taste good to them. The algae tastes better when it has started to die (see Darkening a tank below).
- One snail per gallon of water is a good rule of thumb. This means there are not enough snails for this 90 gal tank and when there is already an algae problem, double the snails (180), let them eat it up and sell or trade those that are no longer needed after the algae is back under control.
- Algae Food is actually water pollution. It's the Nitrogen compounds of Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate. It can come from many sources, the least of which is fresh water. Fish food is the major culprit.
- Light of almost any type or spectrum can grow algae, no matter how new or old the bulbs.
- Darkening the tank does not have to bother coral if the darkening is done properly. Actinic/blue light is what coral need the most but it's not so good at growing algae. Two days of darkness and then a day of Actinic light keeps coral okay but starts algae to dieing so that snails will eat it up.
- Carbon dosing with vodka, sugar, or extra invert food, etc., is rarely the answer to eliminating an algae problem, though its one complicated way to reduce algae growth after the algae bloom has been eliminated.

Please feel free to ask a lot of questions and let us know how quickly this helps.



Edited by Mark Peterson - June 24 2012 at 9:17pm

I actually agree with everything Mark said. That doesn't happen a lot

just looked through the pics. I definitely have hair algae.  

Sorry its been a while responding. the tank is 5 years old. I feed a small pinch of food about 1 flake per fish once a day. I don't have a uv, ozone or skimmer at the moment, but plan on getting one. I have turbos in there but they don't seem to want to touch it.

I do a complete cleaning of the tank once a year cleaning the substrate and rock.

I cleaned everything out using regular tap water. I didn't use any chemicals. I have been vodka dosing and so far everything is doing great. I am concerned about my bullseyes not extending the way they used to but, I figure they will be alright. I have been testing my water and my nitrates are down to 40 after being above 200 a month ago. I have not noticed any sludge buildup in my tank and got an urchin to help with algae and he has been slowly, but surly decimating the algae. I went and got a phosphate filter pad today to cut and put into my overflow and I will be getting my own test kits.