[ross]

My 100 gal reef tank has had hair algae out of control for a year now and I'm starting to lose good coral specimens that are getting smothered.

I have 2 175W MH bulbs and 2 110W VHO Actinics that run about 9 and 8 hours respectively. I have lots of live rock for filtration and run a turbofloater 1000 constantly. My water chemistry comes up negative (even for PH4). I have tried starving it by stopping all suppliment and using lots of activated carbon. That only help moderately. I'm out of ideas.

I have some clams and lots of coral so I do need a lot of light. The tank is 3-4 years and is very mature. I did not have this problem the 1st 2 years.

Help!

 

[Casey]

what type water do you use? ro?

 

[MontanaRocknReefer]

I put in two emerald crabs and they eliminated what hair algae I had!

 

[ross]

Yes, I did have one emerald crab a while ago and it didn't seem to make much difference. The store told me that sometimes they each algae and sometimes not. I guess it is worth a try to get 3 or 4 of them. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[MontanaRocknReefer]

The two emerald crabs I had ate the stuff constantly!! Probably with more they will get it under control!

 

[ross]

Yes, my RO filter has 4 additional carbon filter stages and a final deionizer stage (Kent).

 

[Alice]

Ross;

Welcome to TRT

Hair algae is the bane of many a reefer, unfortunately.

Some tank stats might help us figure out the source. How long has the tank been set up? What kind of substrate? How old are the lights? How old is the RO filter media? How many fish? What are you feeding and how much? Water params?

Crabs will (sometimes) go after the hair algae and some fish as well but they seem to like to graze on it when it's short, so you may have to manually remove the long hair algae and let the animals graze on the new stuff that starts growing back.

Alice

 

[Pirate]

Ross, I have been battling the dreaded hair for about 4 - 6 months now myself. Everything that I have read has been very disheartening. I believe that I finally have a handle on it, but man I have been so agravated. I have a 125 with a 100 gal sump which feeds into my basement. Water changes of approx 15 - 20% weekly, all the right cleanup crew, fish that should do the job you know the whole shot. Finally I kept after it with a toothbrush and added purigen to my sump. I also believe that drippin kalk helps in getting rid of this stuff. I keep my calc at 430 - 450 and my alk is a little high, but all looks good finally. Good luck and there are many links to this that should give you some good reading.

 

[Spanky]

Ross;

What kind of substrate?

Alice

Ross, this is more than likely the key.