Hair Algae Appeared Over The Weekend When I Was Away

[craigybaby37]

was away for the weekend from friday to tonight 16th december......and come home to find a heavy algae covering over all the glass i scraped it all off but all my live rock is hairy and i have a few bit patches of it.

one of my big snails was dead aswell which i wasnt happy about and also my zoo frag, green star polyp and leather coral were also completely dead an did they stink

would any of the above be the cause of this?? ive read on the internet that u can starve the algae by going lights out for a few days is this right???

 

[craigybaby37]

just got some pics taken so here they are

http/img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/cra...airalgea002.jpg

http/img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/cra...airalgea003.jpg

http/img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/cra...airalgea004.jpg

http/img.photobucket.com/albums/v337/cra...airalgea005.jpg

 

[tat2life]

dosnt look that bad, just scrape it off with a razor blade thats what i do lol

 

[chrissaysyes]

My LFS has those plastic razor scraper dealies for free right now as some promotional thing. Theyre supposed to be for coralline but yeah, something like that would be worth looking into for now and future scrub action.

 

[craigybaby37]

so theres nothing else i can realy do appart from scrub it all of then i take it???

 

[tat2life]

no i did read theres something you dip your rock into wich like burns it off.. but u can kill anything hiding in the rock doing it that way, is your tank near a window or have direct sunlight on it ? thats how my started because the only half of the tank wich gets any light is alot more matured than the other half of the tank lol up the other end no hair at all on any rocks, but the sunny side coverd in hair. it takes a while to grow back.. well 2 weeks ago i shaved my rock and its grown back a tiny bit, so say every 4 weeks you gotta do it not so bad. there must be a way to stop it though. i think some CUC members do eat it but i dont keep a CUC so not sure wich ones

 

[chrissaysyes]

There are too many nutrients in your water, that's what's feeding the algae bloom. There are a lot of things you can do, for one do water changes, only use RO water, use a phosphate remover, there are some chemical treatments although a lot of people dont recommend them, you can scrub and siphon it until it goes away, you can remove lighting from your tank for a few days, there's a lot you can do.

 

[1entra]

What CUC have you got in the tank? I also had a bit of hair algae when I started my tank but once I introduced some snails and hermits, they made quick work of it and I dont seem to get any more in the tank at all!

I would also advise to try and reduce your nutrients in the tank as this is what causes hair algae in the first place!

 

[tat2life]

how do you reduce nutrients ? not sure what they are lol

 

[chrissaysyes]

Green hair algae feeds on nitrates and phosphates. Nitrates are a natural occurrence in the aquarium do to the nitrogenous cycle that waste undergoes. Nitrates are something you want to have little of anyways, the best way is to do water changes. Phosphates can be removed with several different types of media, the brand of choice around here seems to be Rowaphos. They can also be prevented by using salt mix that is free of phosphates, and by using RO/DI water to mix your water for water changes.

 

[TammyLiz]

was away for the weekend from friday to tonight 16th december......and come home to find a heavy algae covering over all the glass i scraped it all off but all my live rock is hairy and i have a few bit patches of it.

one of my big snails was dead aswell which i wasnt happy about and also my zoo frag, green star polyp and leather coral were also completely dead an did they stink

would any of the above be the cause of this?? ive read on the internet that u can starve the algae by going lights out for a few days is this right???

As other posters already said the hair algae is coming from excess nutrients but it would be easier in this case to think of it as organic material, usually referred to as doc (dissolved organic compounds). Yours are probably through the roof because of all the stuff that died in your tank over the weekend. What in the heck happened? Why did everything die? Most of what you listed is fairly hardy. Do some water tests for nitrate, ammonia, nitrite, and see if your tank is fully cycled. Is this a new tank? Are these established corals? Did something out of the ordinary happen while you were gone? Find out why they died so it doesn't happen again.

The algae will probably go away when the dead coral issue is cleaned up if this is an established tank that has not had an algae issue before.

EDIT: Sorry for the "baby language" about the DOC in this post. I was thinking when I wrote it that the thread starter was the one that said they didn't know what nutrients were but I see it was someone else.

 

[TammyLiz]

OK I just saw your other post about the corals dying. Looks to me like they are not dead! Just stressed. I didn't see anything that didn't look like it would recover. According to what I read there the algae would be from the high nitrates you had, which would be the same reason why the inhabitants are having such a hard time. The algae will sort itself out as you sort out that problem and I wouldn't worry about it for now.

HTH.