Got Hair Algae? Get Rid Of It!

Got Hair Algae? Heres an easy way to get it out of your hair!

Green Hair Algae (abbreviated as GHA for this article) - Derbesia - is a form of algae that looks like its name. It is usually dark green, grows quite long if left unattended and spreads across your tank rapidly. Once this problem has begun, it can get out of hand in a matter of weeks. And soon you start to look at your tank in disgust, thinking “Why me? What did I do to deserve this plague?”

A number of things may have contributed to it getting a foothold in your system. Your nitrates might be too high, your phosphates may be too high (.03 or less is the goal), your lighting has recently been replaced or perhaps your bulbs are so old that the spectrum of light has shifted, fueling algae growth.
First things first. You need to get your water parameters to Natural Sea Water levels:

pH     8.0 - 8.3 Ammonia   0 Nitrites   0 Nitrates  10ppm or less

Alkalinity    8 - 11dKH Specific Gravity 1.026 Calcium       400 - 450 Phosphate    .03 or less

A lot of these are affected by the water quality you use before you even begin to mix your saltwater. If you use tap water, you might be adding nitrates or phosphates to your tank on a daily or weekly basis. RO/DI water is your best and most pure option. If your phosphates are high, you can use products like Kent’s Phosphate Sponge (white granules) that fit in a filter area that will reduce them from 2.0 to .2 in 48 hours.

Okay, so your water is great. To get rid of the algae, you are going to have to prune it back manually. Fortunately, you can get some help from ocean dwellers, but like anything, when you have too much of something, you have to get radical to bring it within manageable levels. Nothing good ever happens quickly, right? This is going to take some specific attention on your part for a few weeks, but you can overcome it.

Get a container of fresh water (tap is fine) and put it near your tank. I like to have it on the top edge of the tank. If you can clip it to keep it in place, even better. Reach into your tank, and pinch off a clump of the stuff. Pull your hand out still pinching the GHA so none of it gets released into your tank, and dip/rinse your fingers off in the water. Repeat this a hundred times.

The reason you rinse your hand after each pinch is to prevent the filaments from floating around in your tank and reattaching elsewhere, just spreading your problem further!

When your hand gets tired, switch to the other hand. Take your container and dump it out, rinse it well and put more water in it and get back to work. Try to remove as much as you can see and reach, working at this daily. By ripping it out in bulk, you prevent it from spreading, and you give your hermit crabs and snails something they can actually keep up with. Buy more snails to help with the battle. I prefer Turbo snails.

Whenever you see a snail that is not working on the GHA, pull it off the glass/powerhead/plumbing and put it on an area of algae. They work for you.

Clean your skimmer completely. Clean the pump/powerhead thoroughly, make sure your air intake is clear. Clean your collection cup often, so you don’t have slime buildup hindering it. You want to skim out as much of the Dissolved Organic Compounds (DOCs) before they can break down in your tank and add to the A-N-N cycle. Remember nitrates fuel algae growth. You want 10ppm or less to avoid feeding GHA. If your skimmer is underpowered for your tank, seriously consider upgrading to a better unit.

If you’ll keep up with this process for a few weeks, you’ll see less and less in your tank, until one day, your tank is pristine again. If you come to visit, you’ll see my little reef is re-vitalized, but it did take time and effort. There are other things you can try, such as putting your live rock in a covered dark container for a month, trying fish (foxface, lawnmower blenny, yellow tang), or invertebrates (diadema urchin), but this system works well and allows you to beat GHA. After all, it is merely algae, right?

In conclusion, with a little hard work and a couple snails you can get rid of Hair Algae in a short time. It takes getting your hands dirty, pruny and I promise you will be tired by the time the process is finished. If you dont have that kind of time on your hands, which I understand completely, check out some of AquaViki's algae cleaning and water quality services. I would love to come help you with your tank.

Vodka Dosing for Reducing Nitrates in a Reef Aquarium

Aquaviki’s Monthly “Service Inspirations” Update:  Awesome, Fast, Effective Method for reducing Nitrates in the reef aquarium

Vodka Dosing

Before   |   After 

Pictured above is miwoodar's tank. This aquarium successfully used vodka to lower nitrates and phosphates. His setup utilizes a skimmer but does not utilize ozone. After reduction, continued growth and coloration was observed amongst SPS and LPS corals.

Because it is a source of organic carbon, Vodka addition results in bacterial growth and reproduction which in turn causes NO3 and PO4 levels detectable by most test kits to drop quickly. The increased biomass of the bacteria leads to a notable increase in skimmate production therefore a good skimmer is a must if you are thinking about Vodka dosing.

Vodka is used in comparison to other spirits such as whiskey, gin, or brandy because it is more pure in composition than most other spirits due to the process of distillation.  For this reason vodka is a safer addition than other spirits by eliminating the possibility of adding other organic molecules that may act negatively within the reef environment.

These instructions will focus solely on using 80 proof vodka:

As an example, let us assume that your setup contains 100 Net Gallons.

1. The starting dosage is 0.1ml of vodka per 25 gallons daily continued for three days. For 100 Net Gallons, your dosage would be 0.4ml daily during this period.
2. Days 4-7, double the daily dosage to 0.2ml of vodka per 25 gallons. Your example dosage would be 0.8ml daily during this period.
3. Each subsequent week add an additional 0.5ml of vodka regardless of aquaria volume. At this point your example dosage during week two would be 1.3ml daily.
4. When your NO3 and PO4 levels start to drop maintain the current dose. For example, if you were on week two when NO3 start to fall on 100 Net Water Volume you would add 1.3mL daily at this time for the continuing weeks until the NO3 becomes undetectable.
5. When your NO3 and PO4 levels drop near undetectable with your test kits cut your current dose in half.
6. Continue to test for NO3 and PO4. If levels become detectable in the future increase your daily dose by 0.1ml increments per week until the levels start to decrease. If you maintain that dose the levels will eventually drop back to undetectable. This would become your new maintenance dose.

In summation... Vodka can be used to get some fresh looking water in your fish tank, or maybe you could hire someone to clean your aquarium. AquaViki has tons of experience and does fish tank wonders in the tri-state area. Check out some of AquaViki's available services.

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Test Post #1 For AquaViki blog.