How to remove hair algae easily

[Reeftanker3295]

O forgot to ask, what should i do about my sand? It has hair algae and thats the only place it still grows a tiny bit each day... Should i put new sand on top?

[bcrum51]

suck it out

[Reeftanker3295]

Should i replace my sand bed entirely? I didnt know anything about the hobby when i bought the crappy "live sand in a bag" haha if i do replace it will it cause a cycle or anything?

[bcrum51]

no just remove the little bit of algae and you'll be fine you have phosphate somewhere still get some stuff called phosbuster its a liquid we use it at the store and works great

[Newbie-Reefer]

Nothing bad to say about the sand in a bag. I bought the live stuff to get my tank going. Scoop the stuff out enough to remove the algae. You can win this battle!

[bcrum51]

live sand is just a bit of a rip off thats all because its typical not as live as it should be

[Newbie-Reefer]

true, but it is the bacteria that you need when starting up. Not a bad way to get a jump start especially in a small tank.

[bcrum51]

same bacteria is on the live rock you paid for and you can buy the bacteria in the bottle

[Newbie-Reefer]

I worked at a fish store and we had a large amount of old tufa rock and stuff that we no longer needed. I didnt pay a penny for my rock. A few months of adding supplements and seeding it with some coraline I had live rock. However, you are correct. buying rock that is cultured does the same boost to a system.

[motorslave]

Dont boil the rock. Even if there is coral on it its no big deal. Wha do you think happens to coral at low tide? A brief exposure to air wont kill it. When you do a water change save the old water in a bucket. Remove each piece and scrup the lgae off with a tooth brush and swish it good. then replace it. If needed have two buckets so you can place clean rock in the other untill you have room o restack the rock. This will prevent losing the bacteria and also prevent any type of mini cycle whcih would cause more damage than anything else as long as you are careful. I have dont this before and it works great.
A few moments of air is not death. Boiling is.
Maybe I missed it but how old is the tank? Is this just oart of new tank syndrome or is there a phosphaye issue? If so you need to address the problem and not the symptoms. Algae is a symptom phosphates are the problem.

[drew1092]

Originally Posted by Newbie-Reefer

There are several fish that will eat it. If a tang isnt a good fit just do some research. Turbo snails pretty much eat it all, but watch out for the bulldozer effect. They nock over my rocks all the time.

I just bought a turbo snail clean up crew. Think I got about 10 or 12 for my 30 gallon. I had a lot of hair algae developing on a couple rocks and they mowed it down like sea cows. I have no more hair algae. But I have another problem, it seems they are able to get at my coraline. Didn't think that was possible but I really think these pigs are doing it.

[MissInk]

Emerald Crabs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[quader94]

Originally Posted by MissInk

Emerald Crabs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mine ate my corals, its like a 50/50 with them, supposly you need a female or something?

[Reeftanker3295]

My turbo snails dont touch my hair algae. My scarlet hermit crab eats more HA then both my turbo snails combined

[random]

Don't know if this is like your situation, but the turbos we got didn't eat the HA until I managed to get one un-suctioned from the glass & set it down right on top of the algae... It was a pretty big turbo, though, and a relatively small patch of algae.