hair algae

jenajet · 08-17-2006, 02:35 AM

Will hair algae go away on it's own with reduced feeding? For a while I was adding extra food for my scooter(baby brine) Now with the refugi up and running and the fact he eats mysis I have quit adding the brine completely and feed the mysis and some pellets every three days. I have some snails and cleaner crabs that are slowly putting a dent into it. Will time and waterchanges take care of the rest?

Fly Guy · 08-17-2006, 02:50 AM

Yes, but youll be speeding up the process immensely by removing the worst rocks and scrubbing it off and trying to physically remove what you can if you have a lot of it......

Also, by doing that you can more closely monitor if indeed what you are doing to improve the situation is effective. Its hard to tell with it everywhere.......

jenajet · 08-17-2006, 02:53 AM

It's not everywhere, it just happens to be on the rock where the anemone is and didn't want to try removing him. He has been on that rock forever and I know if I take him off long enough to clean the rock, he'll go mobile on me!

Fly Guy · 08-17-2006, 02:56 AM

if that is the only place it is and its bugging you, just take a new toothbrush and scrape it off.........catching it with a net when it floats away wouldnt be a bad thing either, but not that important

three90s&125sump · 08-17-2006, 03:40 AM

Snap a shot of it and post it. Some people think that they have bad HA but it is not really that bad. You might be stressing over nothing. How long has the tank been running and how much is the HA progressing. If it is just small peices of HA that are just poping up here and there and your PO4 and NO3 are not noticable then it just may be purging some out of the rock and you may want to let it run its course.

skeety · 08-17-2006, 06:58 AM

I know with my anemone, there is always quite a bit of crap (detrius) underneath him. Maybe there's a good amount of gunk in the substrate where he was. Maybe (if it's not a DSB), give that area a good cleaning next time your doing your water change.

Hardhead Cat · 08-17-2006, 09:33 AM

You might also check your phosphate levels if you haven't already, high phoshpates can cause hair algae to thrive (I know by experience)!

Emerald crabs and Mexcan turbo snails also eat hair algae, if you don't have a lot of it.

HHC