# Cyano/Purple Hair Algae



## Fish_Man (Apr 9, 2010)

My tank is starting to get filled with this purple hair algae type of thing.

It mostly on the walls and and rocks. 

What should I do besides siphoning/scrubbing, water changes, and less feeding.

Thanks


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## explor3r (Mar 14, 2010)

Maybe reduce the lighting time a bit and increase flow, cyano is known for not liking flow.
If the hair algae grows too much I guess u could use your fingers to pull them out carefully or any tool that makes it easier


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## Fish_Man (Apr 9, 2010)

explor3r said:


> Maybe reduce the lighting time a bit and increase flow, cyano is known for not liking flow.
> If the hair algae grows too much I guess u could use your fingers to pull them out carefully or any tool that makes it easier


Thanks. I will decrease the light time and put the powerhead back in.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

explor3r said:


> Maybe reduce the lighting time a bit and increase flow, cyano is known for not liking flow.
> If the hair algae grows too much I guess u could use your fingers to pull them out carefully or any tool that makes it easier


My sand is getting covered with green cyano, so I added a powerhead, but it hasn't made any improvements and it's been 2 weeks...


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## Fish_Man (Apr 9, 2010)

So I did a 20% water change yesterday, decrease the duration of light on during the day and added a powerhead.

So far so good.


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## explor3r (Mar 14, 2010)

solarz said:


> My sand is getting covered with green cyano, so I added a powerhead, but it hasn't made any improvements and it's been 2 weeks...


It can take longer than that untill u find what's causing it, plus if is a new tank is normal to go tru algae cycles till the tank mature
please correct me someone if I'm wrong,also a good cleaning crew helps.


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## Yami (May 1, 2011)

I have green cyano too... added flow but no help, zero PO4 and nitrate, possible silicate?


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## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

Yami said:


> I have green cyano too... added flow but no help, zero PO4 and nitrate, possible silicate?


More likely that your reading 0 Phos (what test kit?) because the algae is using it up. Your kit will artificially read low because of it.

Any time you get algae, that is a symptom of a problem. Solve the problem, the symptom goes away.

Cyno is actually a bacterial growth, and not algae. Treating it with chemicals will actually make it become immune to the treatment. Sure EM tablets will work to get rid of it... but it will keep coming back untill the cause has been removed.

Poor quality food, lack of food, bad/old lights, poor water circulation, used/bad live rock (filled with phos that will leak out) and lack of filtration/water quality. These are all causes of cyno/hair algae. In most cases fixing the above, will over time rid the tank of the algae.

Nothing good happens fast in this hobby. It will take time to get rid of the algae. It will need to starve itself. So, remove the food, and it will go away.


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## carmenh (Dec 20, 2009)

I had a horrible red slime problem in my softie/puffer tank. I tried everything, but finally caved and used this stuff...
http://www.aquariumsupplies.ca/adva...um532ooi980&osCsid=i1obssuoev63vrium532ooi980
It worked wonders! 2 doses 3 weeks ago and so far, no even the slightest hint of returning cyano. Fair warning though..."skimmer adjustment may be neccessary" does not even begin to describe it! I had to do quite a few water changes before I could turn the SWC HOB skimmer back on because it was erupting so fast it would blow the lid off! Dan at MOPS said the skimmer WOULD remove it, so I focussed on getting it up and running, but it took a lot of dilution before I could put it to work.


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## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

carmenh said:


> I had a horrible red slime problem in my softie/puffer tank. I tried everything, but finally caved and used this stuff...
> http://www.aquariumsupplies.ca/adva...um532ooi980&osCsid=i1obssuoev63vrium532ooi980
> It worked wonders! 2 doses 3 weeks ago and so far, no even the slightest hint of returning cyano. Fair warning though..."skimmer adjustment may be neccessary" does not even begin to describe it! I had to do quite a few water changes before I could turn the SWC HOB skimmer back on because it was erupting so fast it would blow the lid off! Dan at MOPS said the skimmer WOULD remove it, so I focussed on getting it up and running, but it took a lot of dilution before I could put it to work.


Products like these are a double edge sword.... Yep, it killed the bacteria (cyno) but how much of the benificial bacteria that we have in our tanks did it wipe out?

I would recomend doing a few extra water changes. Your tanks not going to be able to handle the bio load as it used to. It will need some time to recolonize the benificial bacteria. The extra water changes will keep the nutrients, etc from building up.


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## carmenh (Dec 20, 2009)

It's an oxidizer, not an antibiotic, and is safe for nitrifying bacteria. I've been testing since treating and have had no issues 



J_T said:


> Products like these are a double edge sword.... Yep, it killed the bacteria (cyno) but how much of the benificial bacteria that we have in our tanks did it wipe out?
> 
> I would recomend doing a few extra water changes. Your tanks not going to be able to handle the bio load as it used to. It will need some time to recolonize the benificial bacteria. The extra water changes will keep the nutrients, etc from building up.


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

I had this problem with the previews tank and more snails + sand sniffing goby finished it fast.
I never seen cyano is back, since I replaced tank with the bigger one 
Do it also and forget about the problem.

here is just one problem with this goby. It covers all corals which are sitting on the bottom with the sand

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## mr_brixs (Jun 18, 2009)

I have massive algea on my tank.. my tank has overload of LR so its hard to have good flow (reason #1) lack of P-head (reason #2) not enough water change (reason #3)

now i remove half of the LR and i have 4 P-head and i did 50% water change and i harvest as much hair algea that i can.. so far so good slow decrease..

important tip.. if you dont harvest the algea its not going to go away, even though you have some algea eating machine, if the algea have a good spot they will able to locked nitrate inside and store food so they can survive and reproduce...


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## goffebeans (Jul 23, 2007)

My tank is full of Cyano as well lol, it's ridiculous.

I added bryopsis into my tank not realizing what it was and it quickly gained a foothold. To get rid of the bryopsis I started dosing M Tech, but as the bryopsis started to die, the cyano took up the excess nutrients and has been spreading insanely.

Once the bryopsis is gone, ill start addressing the cyano and see how it goes.


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## Holidays (Apr 18, 2010)

I found lots of cheato is a great way to control algae (not sure about cyano, haven't seen it yet). I used to take out about half of the cheato every 2 - 3 weeks in an 8 gal refugium (15 gal main tank) but now I take out only a little bit maybe 10-15% every week and still keep the fuge full of cheato, and the result is alot less algae in the main tank. I have seen your tank Cyrus, don't know if there is a way to inject a bigger refugium...those cheato are amazing


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## kies1 (Oct 8, 2009)

What is M-tech?


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## goffebeans (Jul 23, 2007)

kies1 said:


> What is M-tech?


Kent Marine M-Tech Magnesium supplement. It's a supplement that people have used to eliminate bryopsis.


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## kies1 (Oct 8, 2009)

goffebeans said:


> Kent Marine M-Tech Magnesium supplement. It's a supplement that people have used to eliminate bryopsis.


How do you do this?


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## adrenaline (Jan 17, 2011)

Emerald Crabs!!!!! I put 2 in my tank. cleaned off almost all of it. they devour hair algae. only problem is i had 1 in my quarentime tank, which had a massive clump aof macro aglae... they like the taste of that too lol


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