clean up crew for plastic egg crate racks

[homegrowncichlid]

So I have hair algae growing on the racks themselves, aside from tangs and rabbit fish, what invert can reach these suspended racks? hermit crabs get up there rarely. When they do, they usually fall off if someone scares it. Snails cant navigate the 90 and 180 degree turns of the egg crate, plus they are too big to fit into the 1/2 " spaces anyway.

 

[Spartanwarrior]

Manual removal is best in this case. Frags will be ok for the few hours while they soak in vinegar. Scrape what you can, soak and then really scrub them down to remove all the residue. Gently since it does crack easily.
You could also put them flat in the tank with a few mexican turbos and they'll make quick work.

 

[homegrowncichlid]

I used to do basic cleaning, but the algae grew back faster than I could clean. Every week, the algae would cover the frags, then I'd take the rack out, flush it off in the bath tub for a couple of minutes and use a tooth brush. I would say the algae growth would start to inhibit the frags within 3 days, so I would had have to do it twice a week. It was way too labor intensive, and with the constant moving in and out of water, the frag tips would die off, and eventually I stopped fragging. I would say the situation this time around is going to be similar. Right now I have a sailfin and a kole tang with the racks, they are eating well, but can't keep up with the algae growth. A rabbit fish would probably do the trick, but before I add it, I'm exploring other options.

One thing I was considering, would be to support an algae eating amphipod population, tiny omnivores, but of course they would be prey for all the other blennies and gobies I have, which would prevent the amphipods from having any real impact on the algae. All my amphipods died out to a dinoflagellate bloom last month, preceding my current hair algae bloom, which I introduced to successfully wipe out the dinoflagellates.

 

[Spartanwarrior]

Sounds like you need to get your nutrients under control if GHA takes over that quickly. I have nitrates at 10 and phos at .05 and I get zero GHA in a frag tank or main tank. I do have a lot of tangs and a quoyi but still. Do you use a RODI? Your silicates may be high if not.
Do you run a refugium? This could be an option. The chaeto will outcompete the hair algae for the nutrients. I swear by it. That or a macroalgae reactor.

 

[homegrowncichlid]

I've built my own upflow algae scrubber, which is working half the time, in that it doesn't work after I scrape off all the algae. Algae grows both in the scrubber and out of it. I just need herbivores to eat everything outside of it (main tank and frag sump), and encourage it to grow inside the scrubber. I've set up the system in the summer, and have cycled though many species of algae one after another seemed like a new one per month, starting with the red gracilaria, then green ulva, then something fuzzy, then dinoflagellates and now hair algae. I really wanted it to stay on the gracilaria, but oh well. My tank was a lush forest before the herbivores discovered each algae species and chowed down on it. Once the dinoflagellates dominated, I had reseeded my tank with a bag of sea weed from the ocean. I'm actively fertilizing Fe and K to promote growth and if my calculations are correct, I should be net exporting N and P now. As for using chaeto specifically, I'm not tied to that particular species of macro. I have 2 or 4 other species of macros in varying amounts at hard to reach spots, and I could always get another bag of gracilaria from the ocean.
I use unfiltered tap water, so yes silicates and other nutrient's are a concern, but in the past when I used a refugium to harvest macros, it was a non issue. This is the first time I'm using an upflow algae scrubber at this scales and I hope it works. As you can see hair algae is growing on my rack.

racilaria,