Anyone had any luck getting rid of hair algae?

[toxic111]

For me on my old 33 it was pulling rock right out & scrubbing it with a nail brush. The 10% water changes twice a week. Tried GFO, but never really worked for me, I moved to Probidio and that seemed to help. It did take me 6 months or more to beat it.

[hillegom]

You could try hydrogen peroxide. Read this

http://www.frozenocean.org/t1710-hai...rogen-peroxide

And this

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/26870...s-to-prove-it/

[ScubaSteve]

I know you said no to vodka dosing but when I had HA problems, that was the only think that got rid of it. And it disappeared really fast. I think within a week of vodka+MB7 dosing my HA had mostly melted away. Now I do 0.6 ml vodka daily and the tank is sparkling clean. Don't go the biopellets route. The more I see people having issues with them, the more I'm convinced they can do more harm than good. Vodka dosing gives you better control over the process.

Between that and a seahare you'll have the issue nicked in no time.

Originally Posted by hillegom

You could try hydrogen peroxide. Read this

http://www.frozenocean.org/t1710-hai...rogen-peroxide

And this

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/26870...s-to-prove-it/

Peroxide does work but I really need to stress that peroxide and living tissue is a seriously bad combo. I've read some horror stories of this trick going badly for some people. I work with peroxide and work and know first hand the damage it can do, especially in the presence of UV. If you run metal halides, only dose the peroxide after the halides go out otherwise you are making radical species which go all Chuck Norris on anything alive it comes in contact with.

[Werbo]

#1 tooth brush plus elbow grease. Do little every night.

Snails wont touch the long hair algae but they will keep it in check after the rock is scrubbed.

Gfo won't hurt and some say elevated Mg will help also.

[kien]

sounds like an nutrient spike causing the algae bloom. I had something similar when I reset my tank this past fall. All sorts of funky algaes, cyano, etc popping up where it never used to before. Then I decided to put my BioPellet reactor back on line to more aggressively attack nitrates even though it was already pretty low at <4ppm (certainly not Ultra Low, but I've never had algae problems with that kind of a nitrate reading in the past). Anyway, a few weeks of that and the algae started to die back. I also had to change GFO more frequently (like once a week!) because it was getting used up pretty quick. Probably due to phosphates leaching out of my old rocks. I' think I've sucked it all up now cuz I'm back to once a month replacement with the GFO.

[Aquattro]

I can probably get you a seahare on loan. Also have a reactor and pellets if you want to try that. We also have a foxface in town, IIRC.

[SanguinesDream]

I've used the ole elbow grease method of taking the rock out and scrubbing the pieces with a vegetable scrub brush. Works like a charm.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

As others have suggested, a sea hare is very good for eating up hair algae. While the sea hare is dealing with the symptom, hopefully you've figured out the root cause of the outbreak and deal with that. It may be as simple as outdated bulbs or bulbs with wrong wavelength.

[Delphinus]

I found that Foz-Down didn't really do a lot for my tank. PO4 would bounce back up within a day. I keep some onhand in case my 65g (which is FOWLR) needs it but I stick to hc-gfo in the reef. It sucks because it's expensive, but it's the only thing that seems to keep it at bay. I change out a cup every week or two. You should be able to get by with less though.

I like having a rabbitfish in the tank because the presence of competition for greens seem to encourage my tangs to eat algae. Without the rabbit in the tank they turn a blind eye to most of it. Personally I like Siganus doliatus because they stay smaller but probably any rabbitfish will do.

Good luck!

Another option instead of a seahare is an abalone. However, they're probably harder to source, not quite as effective as a seahare, and can take a while to acclimate to a tank (last few literally sat in one spot for weeks before waking up). But they're really cool creatures and unlike seahares can adapt to other foods so tend not to starve out once all the HA is gone..