Hair algae removal HELP

[mexxedm]

Hi everyone,
I have a lot of hair algae in my tank. I have protein skimmer and UV sterilizer. They don't help much. The algae keeps growing very fast in my tank. I wonder if sea hare will help or any other fish will help to eliminate this?
Thanks in advance.

[saltyair]

A few questions first :-)

how old is your tank? what type of lighting? have you tested for PO4 and NO3?
how long are your lights on?
what is the bio load?

Simple answer yes a sea hair will eat GHA. I would suggest renting one not purchasing. this would be a quick fix.

A few helpful tips to get GHA under control

#1 use ro water
#2 weekly or bi weekly WC
#3 using carbon and GFO
#4 refugiums help a ton once established
#5 if using T5's they should be changed out every 9 to 10 months.

[Ian]

To add to what has been said. how long have you been fighting with this? If it has been a while it is very possible that your live rock will be a resevoir and continue to feed the hair algae for some time. Until these nutrients are used up the hair algae will come back even when your parameters tell you all is good.

Good luck

[mexxedm]

I had my tank for more than a year. I moved. All the stocks are gone. I started over again with the same live rocks and sand. I did not have those algae before. I have radion at low lighting. Do I need to turn it to high to eliminate this?
Thanks.

[monocus]

you need to bring your nitrates and phosphates down.phosdown drops work great to bring the phosphate down and then use a phos ban reactor to keep it stabilized,build yourself a nitrate reactor to bring your nitrates down.look into your feeding habits and your bio-load for other problems

[saltyair]

Originally Posted by mexxedm

I had my tank for more than a year. I moved. All the stocks are gone. I started over again with the same live rocks and sand. I did not have those algae before. I have radion at low lighting. Do I need to turn it to high to eliminate this?
Thanks.

Just being helpful :-) but more questions

When you moved your tank and started over did you dry the rock or did you keep it wet? Did you keep your old sand?

I have had friends that have moved tanks and had algae issues after, mostly due to not rinsing the old sand and just put the old stuff back in.

Other issues could be die off from the old rocks - nor cuc to keep algae under control ect.

If you don't have live stock in your tank - don't turn on the lights.
this is the long way around but trust me the long term solution.

Set up a refugium and get yourself some carbon and gfo.
insure high flow to keep the detritus from accumulating in the GHA (feeds off it) .

If you can take some rocks with GHA on it tooth brush it off before WC.

Use RO water and do water changes 5 to 10% per week for about two months.

If you did use your old sand I would suggest you take it out and replace it with new sand.

once it's under control it will be easy to keep it out (LEDs will help a lot)

[mexxedm]

Originally Posted by saltyair

Just being helpful :-) but more questions

When you moved your tank and started over did you dry the rock or did you keep it wet? Did you keep your old sand?

I have had friends that have moved tanks and had algae issues after, mostly due to not rinsing the old sand and just put the old stuff back in.

Other issues could be die off from the old rocks - nor cuc to keep algae under control ect.

If you don't have live stock in your tank - don't turn on the lights.
this is the long way around but trust me the long term solution.

Set up a refugium and get yourself some carbon and gfo.
insure high flow to keep the detritus from accumulating in the GHA (feeds off it) .

If you can take some rocks with GHA on it tooth brush it off before WC.

Use RO water and do water changes 5 to 10% per week for about two months.

If you did use your old sand I would suggest you take it out and replace it with new sand.

once it's under control it will be easy to keep it out (LEDs will help a lot)

I kept the rock wet with the existing water.
I used the old sand. Errr... is this the problem?
What is gfo?
What is gha?
What is WC?
==> Sorry, I am kind dumb
I do change water every week.

[Dearth]

Gfo=Granular Ferric Oxide
Gha=Green Hair Algae
Wc=Water Change

[saltyair]

Originally Posted by mexxedm

I kept the rock wet with the existing water.
I used the old sand. Errr... is this the problem?
What is gfo?
What is gha?
What is WC?
==> Sorry, I am kind dumb
I do change water every week.

WC is water change
gha- green hair algae
gfo -Granular Ferric Oxyde Phosphate (removes phosphates from the water)

Yes your old sand would be a major factor. Have u tested NO3?

if you can remove it and rinse it or replace it it will help big time. the old sand probably had a big die off and had ammonia and nitrite the bacteria was working on.