What eats hair algae
- Thread starter AstroCreep
- Start date
I honestly don't know if there is a magic # or what it would be. I guess it would base on how much you feed your fish and how much live rock you have in your tank. I have a 29 gallon setup (30+ lbs live rock) and I have 5 red legged hermits & 2 blue legged hermits. They all seem to be happy running around on my rocks and sand floor. Just make sure to get some extra shells for them as they grow they are going to need new homes. My LFS gave me the extra ones for free, I just had to ask for them.
I have had incredible success with hermits. As soon as I saw the hair starting to form I went and collected about 40 of them from a local rock pool...In 3 days they had flattened the hair algae. (325ga lightly stocked as it still being established...) I am now getting concerned about the ability of the tank to feed them so I am going to remove half over the next 2 weeks and loan them out to a friend with a perenial hair problem. (Tank in restaurant, exposed to lots of poor spectrum lightling.) IMO if you are going to fight the unsightly hair, you also need to replace it with a macro algae to remove the phosphates/ silicates that is causing it or you will never solve the problem.
I have seen them eating my snails. Not sure if the snails were already dead or dieing. IIRC one a few hermite are mostly safe. Crabs in general are opportunistic preditors. Hermits are better than others. If you are going to keep hermits make sure you have extra shells in the tank so they can swap them out from time to time. This should reduce the number of snail attacks. I have had tanks with and without hermits and did not notice a difference.
Its not terribly clear, but I have had+- 40 local hermits in my main tank for 6 days and one in the sump. The tank is a new one (5 months). 1300 liters (+- 350 GA). I only had one hermit in the sump as I didnt want it to eat my macro algae which I am trying to grow. What is not clear on the pics is that the main tank is clear of hair on the rocks and sand (Walls still showing traces) whilst the sump is drowning in it. I fully appreciate that the clean up crew is only treating the symptoms, but with macro algae growing, the problems should be dealt with in time. I put another 6 hermits into the sump tonight to deal with the hair outbreak. I have deliberately avoided snails to date as the algae (apparently(?)) is a normal process and all I am trying to prevent is it restricting my corraline growth (Rapid so far). The pics may post a bit disjointed.........
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Not at all! 
As far as I understand it, the hair (and all algae) is caused by phosphates or silicates in the water. I want the algae to remove as much of that out of the water as a natural process, just dont want the unsightly growth on my LR when I am starting to get rapid corraline growth. Snails will nuke all the algae on the back glass and the process will be delayed or stopped completely...
Besides, the hermits were easily available with little effort and I didnt see any snails !
As far as I understand it, the hair (and all algae) is caused by phosphates or silicates in the water. I want the algae to remove as much of that out of the water as a natural process, just dont want the unsightly growth on my LR when I am starting to get rapid corraline growth. Snails will nuke all the algae on the back glass and the process will be delayed or stopped completely...
Besides, the hermits were easily available with little effort and I didnt see any snails
!somebody on here recommended using macro algae....i have caulerpa but it seems to be slowly dieing...i have a HD curly light on it in my sump..its on for about 10hrs a day and its got decient water flow through the sump, i tried chateo but it just turned brown and died in a week, what am i doing wrong???
The macros will help by competing for the nutrients... provided you can get enough of them.
I had caulerpa in my sump (4 types) in the fuge for weeks with little or no growth- running my T5s for 12 hours. I have recently gone 24/7 on the lights and the growth has been astounding! Try that and see if it helps! Also, my skimmer is set up to draw water after it has passed thru the fuge, skim, and then return to the main tank. This enables any algae feeding nutrients in my water flow a chance to get to the caulerpa before being extracted by the skimmer. Just a thought and I am not really that clued up on how much difference that makes! :?
I had caulerpa in my sump (4 types) in the fuge for weeks with little or no growth- running my T5s for 12 hours. I have recently gone 24/7 on the lights and the growth has been astounding! Try that and see if it helps! Also, my skimmer is set up to draw water after it has passed thru the fuge, skim, and then return to the main tank. This enables any algae feeding nutrients in my water flow a chance to get to the caulerpa before being extracted by the skimmer. Just a thought and I am not really that clued up on how much difference that makes! :?
Dont stress too much about reconfiguring where your skimmer is.... it was just an observation on my behalf and I dont really know if it really makes any difference- or is bad for that matter..... rather wait and see if the longer photo period helps, you should see a material difference in 3-4 days. Also see if someone with more experience chips in on the skimmer placement, I am pretty new to this....
Have a great weekend and keep me posted about the caulerpa developments!
Have a great weekend and keep me posted about the caulerpa developments!
Astro - Lets take a step back here. While a skimmer and fugre will help reduce nitrates there has to be a reason for it.
How much do you feed?
How often do you do water changes?
Do you blast the LR with a powerhead or turkey baster to get the detritus suspended?
Source water - RO/DI - 0 TDS?
I battled the might hair algae for over 2 years and since redoing my tank I have increased my husbandry skills and the tank has been spotless for almost 6 months.
Any questions - fire away
_________________
blue moonshine photos
How much do you feed?
How often do you do water changes?
Do you blast the LR with a powerhead or turkey baster to get the detritus suspended?
Source water - RO/DI - 0 TDS?
I battled the might hair algae for over 2 years and since redoing my tank I have increased my husbandry skills and the tank has been spotless for almost 6 months.
Any questions - fire away
_________________
blue moonshine photos
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