Hair Algae

C

cg175

I have 175 gal BF with 200 lbs of Live Figi rock premium if that matters. Anyway the rock had some algae on it when i purchased the tank. When we moved the tank we brought 135 of the 175 gallons of water with it. After a water test at Franks 24 hours after we set the tank up everything test great! We bought three damsels home and added them. The fish have done very well but this algae appears to have gotten a little worse. I also notices some slight brown algae trying to appear in a few places on the sand. I took another water sample to Franks again today everything checks out. The only think we did not check was calcium and have did not know I needed to be adding that daily until today. How do I clear up the algae, light scrubbing of the rocks etc? I thought algae was normally only an issue when your water quality is bad? :?
 
Define "bad" water.

Did you test phoshates? Algae loves phosphates. Hair algea indicates some sort of nutrient problem. I had an SPS tank for 2 years that always had some hair algea and was in otherwise perfect shape, no detectable nitrates, phosphates, etc. etc. But something was fueling the growth. It won't grow without food!

Read Marc's article hear for a good way to deal with it.

http://www.melevsreef.com/gha.html
 
Well....what kind of skimmer do you have? How's it working? The brown algae could be considered normal for a new tank and should go away. How bad is the HA? You might consider adding a fish that will eat it, manually pull it off being careful to rinse your fingers in a separate bowl of water before you stick you hand back in your tank, add some turbo snails, add a phosban reactor, etc.
 
I have a Euro Reef protien skimmer. Acording to Frank, my nitrites, nitrates, amonia, ph etc looked great. I got a sand sifter today and he's doing great. Other that that I do not have any clean up crew. How many snails, hermits, shrimp etc should i start with. Would a yellow and regal tank be good choices to clean up some of my algae issues. I scrubed a little on a few rocks and it appears to come off rather easy. i called it hair algae because it looks like hair strings but it's not very long. I looked at that article on posted and in Mark's 29 gallon I could see some of what I seem to have in his.
 
You should put your first name in your signature line, so we know how to address you, both here and at the meetings. :)

GHA is a real pest and you want to deal with it early on to keep it at bay. It is recommended one snail per gallon, but that seems like a lot to me. I tend to get one snail per 2 gallons. Turbos are the best at this job, but knock stuff over like bulldozers. Astreas are good at cleaning up what is left, and cause no harm but if they fall onto the substrate, they won't be able to get right side up and die. Always flip a snail over when you see one. Ceriths are good about cleaning the glass of the dark green algae along the substrate line, and are able to flip themselves over when necessary. Margarita snails are colder-water snails, and won't last too long in our tanks.
 
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