Browsing don't pay!

[Dmitry]

Well, I've been browsing for a while because I've been either working looong hours or sleeping. And in the meantime hair algae has pretty much taken over my tank. :arg: It's managed to kill all my zoos, a couple of small SPS, shrooms. All that's managed to survive so far are frogspawn and a large ricordea. Plus a little bit of bubble coral. I think my attempts to get rid of it have been pretty feeble because it ain't workin'! I've kept up on my water-changes, cut down on feeding my fish to every other day. Shortened the main light cycle, but can't cut the light altogether for any serious period of time because I've got an RBTA. SO what are my other options here? An algae blenny? How common is it for them to take to prepared foods once the algae's gone? What else can I try?! :sigh:

 

[noodleman]

i've never seen my algae blenny even touch the hair algae :irked:

 

[aaron23]

emerald crabs possibly? Nothing is 100%.

 

[Psycho graphic]

Without knowing your support equipment I will give a few sipmle cheap suggestions. First I would put a phosban reactor on the system, I would also suggest a Sea Hare as they are excellent at algea removal. If your HA is beyong control you might want to scrub your rocks with a stiff brush to clean them off first. If your H.A. is Bryopsis a Lettuce Nudibrach will do quick work of it as this is the only algae they eat, I have read sometimes they will stop eating and live off the algea cells in there body, but never had this happen personally.

Do you have any kind of clean-up crew?

What are your water parameters?

What is your bio-load?

What lighting are you using, photo period and how old are your bulbs?

 

[michael stern]

http://www.nyaquatic.com/servlet/the-159/Giant-Sea-Hare/Detail

nuff said

 

[marrone]

It's a crapshoot that Algae blennies will eat the hair algae. What you want to do is check your nitrates and Phosphates. If your Phosphates are high you then want to run Phosban in a reactor. Also try and remove as much of the hair algae as you can be hand, even take out the rocks and corals and scrub them in a bucket of saltwater, using water from your tank.

 

[nyfireman3097]

Mexican turbo snalis will destroy it

 

[e.muehlbauer]

There is only one animal that I have ever seen actively eating hair algae- the banded bullet goby AKA dragon sleeper, Amblygobius phalaena. I got one during the earlier years of my tank when I went through a 2 year hair algae outbreak (brought on by using Coral Vital....an unfortunate newbie mistake....). While the goby ate the algae all day long, it never made a noticeable dent...and it died after a few weeks, wasting away completely even as its belly remained full. I guess there are no real nutrients in hair algae...otherwise, more animals would eat it. It eventually disappeared in my tank, probably as it matured and became healthier...I also raised my alkalinity to above 4 meq....you can try doing that, just add a 2 parter like B-ionic so that the alk and Ca balance doesn't go out of whack....Take care, Eric

 

[nyfireman3097]

my tank was covered head to toe in HA and I put 24 turbo snails into my tank and I swear in 24 hours tank was spotless

 

[NYreefNoob]

algea

get the sea hair sp ? as micheal said. it cleaned my main tank of it and my ref. then took it back for credit to the store

 

[noodleman]

is there a difference between the reg sea hare and the dwarf one, besides their size and species? The regular one sure gets pretty huge.

 

[jackson6745]

It's a crapshoot that Algae blennies will eat the hair algae. What you want to do is check your nitrates and Phosphates. If your Phosphates are high you then want to run Phosban in a reactor. Also try and remove as much of the hair algae as you can be hand, even take out the rocks and corals and scrub them in a bucket of saltwater, using water from your tank.

Agreed!

Instead of finding stuff to eat the algae ask yourself why you have it in the first place. The reason is because you have high phosphates from feeding, bioload etc...(many reasons)
Run a phosban reactor before you do anything.

Test your water for nitrates + phosphates.

 

[reefman]

i dont think cutting lighting a few days will hurt much as long as ur water par is stable.

 

[Dmitry]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. My only reservation about getting an animal that eats hair algae (except for the snails) is what do you do with them once it's all gone? Will they survive on anything else?

I have a 72gallon running for a year and a half. In it I have a Yellow Tang, a Hippo Tang (about 3-4 inches - I'd like to get rid of it before it gets too big for my tank, but how does one catch it?!), a GSM Clown, PJ Cardinal, Valentini Puffer (small), Flameback Angel (2 inches), Purple Pseudo, and a Marine Betta. I added a hundred astrae snails a few weeks back (my population had died out over time), have a few hermits, and 2 cleaner shrimp.

My water goes through an RO/DI filter, but I've just ordered new replacements for all the cartirdges, including the membrane, in case that's already in bad shape.

As I said I've started feeding my fish every other day. I used to have to clean my glass every day because it would start getting algae on it. Since I've started feeding less a scrub once a week is all it needs. Hopefully something will work!

 

[cb747]

Sea Hare as was suggested. They work wonders!

 

[jackson6745]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. My only reservation about getting an animal that eats hair algae (except for the snails) is what do you do with them once it's all gone? Will they survive on anything else?

I have a 72gallon running for a year and a half. In it I have a Yellow Tang, a Hippo Tang (about 3-4 inches - I'd like to get rid of it before it gets too big for my tank, but how does one catch it?!), a GSM Clown, PJ Cardinal, Valentini Puffer (small), Flameback Angel (2 inches), Purple Pseudo, and a Marine Betta. I added a hundred astrae snails a few weeks back (my population had died out over time), have a few hermits, and 2 cleaner shrimp.

My water goes through an RO/DI filter, but I've just ordered new replacements for all the cartirdges, including the membrane, in case that's already in bad shape.

As I said I've started feeding my fish every other day. I used to have to clean my glass every day because it would start getting algae on it. Since I've started feeding less a scrub once a week is all it needs. Hopefully something will work!

PHOSBAN!!!!!!

 

[R32Brightliner]

PHOSBAN!!!!!!

LOL!!! Yeah...:sleepy: