Goodbye green hair algae

[earman88]

So after a month or two of battling green hair algae with blackouts and water changes etc., I finally got rid of it in about 10 minutes.

All it took was a small wire brush. Just had to be careful not to poke any corals.
As I scrubbed, I had a 1/4" air tube rubber banded to my brush, siphoning out the algae as I went.

Anyone else tried this method?

 

[Bifferwine]

Manual removal is usually a temporary fix.

 

[earman88]

Manual removal is usually a temporary fix.

Yeah I've worried about this. I got rid of let's say, 95% of it. How are you supposed to kill it at the source? Eliminating all phosphates and nitrates, right? So pretty much buy phosguard?

 

[bjohanson1234]

Or quit putting nitrates and phosphates into your tank.
Eventually, the hair algae will use up what is there and die off as long as you don't reintroduce it. It can take months to combat it.

 

[earman88]

Or quit putting nitrates and phosphates into your tank.
Eventually, the hair algae will use up what is there and die off as long as you don't reintroduce it. It can take months to combat it.

So what are ways that I could be putting nitrates/phosphates into my tank? The only water I use is pre-mixed water from my LFS. It's a line they run for customers to come get refills from. It's the water they use for all their tanks. I tested it at 0ppm nitrates.

The only other water I use is some distilled water I buy from Walgreens. I just use a little of this to top off/bring the salt down as needed.

 

[bjohanson1234]

Over feeding is the main culprit. The phosphates and nutrients can also be leeching out of the rocks. That is why it takes a long time to get rid of the hair algae.

You also need to have a nutrient export. Manual removal of the hair algae will do this, so will setting up a fuge or algae scrubber.

 

[earman88]

Over feeding is the main culprit. The phosphates and nutrients can also be leeching out of the rocks. That is why it takes a long time to get rid of the hair algae.

You also need to have a nutrient export. Manual removal of the hair algae will do this, so will setting up a fuge or algae scrubber.

Yeah I was just reading the UAS thread. I am considering building a scrubber now, since all I need to buy is the mesh screen.