Based on personal experiences trying to keep a 29 gallon hair algae free...
- do at least 3 water changes, one every other day, up to 20% each time
- raise alkalinity and calcium to optimum levels
- add a poly-filter to a high flow area for at least a week
- check that your skimmer is clean and working efficiently
- manually prune and throw out hair algae every day
- try a partial, temporary switch to flake food, if feasible, as frozen is easily overfed
This should help to bring things back under control. I have not had much luck using turbo snails, as the phosphates just seem to recycle through them right back into the water. Actually, I added three large turbo snails to my tank in my first outbreak and within a week they had been killed and scavenged clean... did not affect my tank parameters... never figured out what did them in, either.
Even though your phosphates may not be measurable on a lower precision test kit, it could just be that your tank is "in balance" with the hair algae growing as fast as it can soak up the phosphates.
I have found that regular water changes and running a bag of carbon 3 days a month in my HOB skimmer outflow are a great preventative combination. The water changes really seem to be key, however, as filtering alone just does not do the job in my tank... which is also loaded with green gracillaria. I am currently monitoring an outbreak, which I have attributed to a lack of recent water changes. I am going to be following the above regimen, starting later in the week. Maybe I will put up before and after photos to see if this treatment is effective in a reproducible way.
Kent
