Green hair algae

[Electric eel]

Is there an "If all else fail use this" method of getting rid of green hair algae?
I have it and I know why but how do I get rid of it? I had a sea hair for 2 nweeks then it died. Any help would be great.

[Canuckgod420]

My yellow tang loves the stuff...I took it out of my display and put it in my 40G frag tank....2 weeks later, everything was clean.

[HL649]

Yup, I tried the sea hare route to. On 2 separate occasions I had 2 of the little guys that cleaned up my 75 real nice and then starved to death. Needed another solution. I bought a hippo tang and my algae problem disappeared. My tank now looks like I don't even have algae growing in it, he keeps it that clean.

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by HL649

Yup, I tried the sea hare route to. On 2 separate occasions I had 2 of the little guys that cleaned up my 75 real nice and then starved to death. Needed another solution. I bought a hippo tang and my algae problem disappeared. My tank now looks like I don't even have algae growing in it, he keeps it that clean.

Hippo tangs arent the best bet for controlling algae. Some eat lots some dont as Regal Tangs are generally more of a shrimp eating tang than a Herbivore. Plus the fact they can get 12" puts a fish like a yellow tang a better option than a Regal.

[danny zubot]

I second the yellow tang approach personally. You might also consider a PO4 or Nitrate reactor.

[freddy]

I read about using a syringe of boiling water and squirt it into the algae,so I was doing a water change the other day and decided to try it.I didn't use a syringe but pulled a piece of rock out that had hair algae on it and scrubbed half of it with a toothbrush(in the water I had taken out) and the other half i poured boiling water on to,the half I scrubed,hair algae is growing back,the half I poured boiling water on is as clean as can be,no sighn of algae returning.Yellow tangs are very good at keeping it in check.

[fkshiu]

Green sea hare (dolabella auricularia)

Just remember to pass it on when you run out since it will die if you don't. I've got one mowing the lawn now as I type.

[BlueWorldAquatic]

Sea Hare and Scopus tang worked well in my personal tank. I also noticed my Brown Bar (Dragon) Goby was tearing it off quite readily.

Ken

[mr.wilson]

You need to eliminate the source of the hair algae problem which is usually excess nutrients arising from one or a combination of any of the following...

1) Frozen food isn't adequately rinsed to remove phosphate.
2) Algae is allowed to die off or strands are severed.
3) Substrate needs to be vacuumed.
4) Rock needs to be sprayed with powerhead or baster to remove detritus.
5) Source water is not zero TDS (add RO/DI unit).
6) Phosphate removal system is inadequate (add iron-based binder).
7) Not enough carbon used or allowing it to stay in the tank too long.
8) Over-feeding.
9) Not enough reef janitors (herbivores & detrivores).
10) Inadequate protein skimming.
11) Inadequate refugium nutrient export.
12) Not enough water changes.
13) Inadequate mechanical filtration.
14) Over-active biological filtration (remove wet/dry filtration if you have it).

After you have found and eliminated the sources, you can raise the magnesium (K level) in your tank to 1500 and the algae will die off in less than a month. If you don't keep on it, it will come back.

[Myka]

I agree to find the source of the nutrients instead of putting a bandaid on it by adding a fish to eat the algae. There is lots of easy to read information in the algae link in my signature. Lots of different approaches to lowering nutrients.