Wow - Angle Hair Explosion!!!

[Catspa]

Noticed a bit of angle hair a couple of weeks ago (2 patchs the size of a nickle), but thought my scarlet hermits would get around to it.

The angle hair didn't seem to be spreading, anyway, last week noticed a couple more patches, and now, after getting back from a 5 day holiday, its EVERY WHERE!!!

Ya, i know about the silicates and the Phos... So whats the best Reef Safe CHEEP critter that will munch through this stuff like a lawnmower??

 

I'm now flat broke, actually still a couple of grand in the hole, and schools starting soon... time for another loan...

[printerdown01]

Honestly the best method of hair algae removal (that I have found) isn't an algae eater! It comes in two parts and both are equaly important: 1) Get a hold of some Phosphate Sponge (think it is made by kent, but dont hold me to it) - I see that you know that phos. is a contributing factor, so you might have already done this. 2) Pull the stuff by hand... 2a) this will get rid of the aweful look of the green tuffs in your tank. 2b) Once it is cropped close the snails in your tank will start to graze over it. 2c) Once the hair algae begins to die off (thanks to part 1) it will begin to decay and polute the tank. Thus, the more decaying hair algae in the tank the more other algae spp are going to begin to take hold... This is the major reason that I reccomend keeping the algae trimmed. You would be surprised how effective starving algae it! Think about it like this, if you stop feeding a fish it would have a serious problem living too ! If the hand cropping is what you are trying to avoid, good luck!! Even if you try to use a lawnmower bleny (spelling?) or a regal tang you are going to have to clear by hand so that the little guys are even able to eat the stuff (it is really thick and chewy, you'll notice this when you start to pull it by hand - I hate this stuff, have fun, lol

 

**there is also a product called Phospho-X or something to this effect, I have never tried it since I had such great results with Phosphate Sponge, but am sure that it works just as well.

**also either you have a new tank (in its first 6 months, not brand new), you are feeding with something that contains a signifigant source of phosphates, or are topping off with tap water... if the later is true, consider changing over to RO or RO/DI water... I get mine from the grocery store, and only buy it when it is on sale for around $0.50 a gallon - it isn't expensive (especially when compaired to having to buy a phosphate remover to fix the problem . -Not saying that this is the case, it's just that I don't know what water you use to top off and this is a common problem with tap...

[Sahin]

Two weeks after my tank was setup, I started getting hair algae in a few places.

 

Printerdown01 is dead on about the need to manually pull it out/trim it so the critters can have a go at it.

 

I turned off all the pumps and started to pull the crap out. Alot start to float around the tank as well--I kept a very fine net handy and just scooped up stray hairs. Get out as much as you can.

 

Repeat every two days. the critters will start to eat it as well and attack fresh growth. Try to lower phosphates/nitrates etc, basically dont give the hair algae a chance to grow. Keep at it, or else it will really take over your tank and really bother the corals.

 

Good luck.

[Catspa]

Thanks for the replyes, yep started pulling it out yesterday... not fun. I think since i started using fresh seafood, is where i'm getting all my extra pho.'s - its the seafood "juice" thats probable doing it.

 

On a side note, I thought i new what Angle hair algea was, but now i'm not sure. The stuff i've encountered in the past was dark green, long, thick, and soft, just like human hair. I've got this stuff in my tank now, but this new stuff is much different, its very course, sponge like in consistency, more like green SOS pad. So whats this new stuff?