After all the trials and tribulations, and losing some of the battles it seems like we have finally won the war. Our hair algae problem seems to have been resolved. It has taken months but we feel we have won!!

So, what did it? Tough to put my finger on any single action but here is my guess:

1. Weekly water changes of about 20 percent.

2. The addition of a GFO reactor with media changes every 6 weeks.

3. Addition of a large cleanup crew (75 – blue legged hermits, 6 – mexican turbo snails, 6 – turbo snails, 3 – emerald crabs).

4. People told us not to do this last one but I feel it helped. We put a fine filter floss at the entrance to the sump and then used a toothbrush to scrub off the long pieces of hair algae. At the same time we swept a net through the tank to scoop up the longs pieces. After an hour or so we removed the filter floss and cleaned it. We did this every 3 days or so for a couple of weeks. It seemed to get the algae down to a manageable level for the CUC to maintain.

There a still a couple of very small patches in the back but I think they will be gone shortly. Considering we were about to tear the tank down and start over, we feel elated about its current condition.

I will say this, it took time, patience and effort to fix the problem. As they say, bad things can happen overnight in a saltwater tank but it can take a long time to correct those same issues, patience is key.

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