Animals that love hair algae?

[bigtank]

I have a 70 gallon reef with hair all over the substrate. This has been a problem for months and months. No matter what I do, skim, feed less, poly-filter, etc, etc, it won't go away. There is now a crapload of grape caulerpa growing fast. I harvest some frequently.

I need one or more animals that eat tons of hair algae. Must be reef safe, easy to keep, and all that good stuff. It also should leave macros alone.

Thank you very much.

 

[danmhippo]

Without getting flamed,

I must ask you these questions first: What else do you have in your tank? How many pound of LR? How long have you set it (tank) up? What other fishes do you have and what are the biggest fish you have? What equipment do you have? and Do you do Water Changes? What are your feeding schedule and what are the reading of your water chemistry.

What happened is the lush growth of algae, any algae, is an indication of excess available nutrients. Could be in some forms of nitrogen, phosphate, or silicate. We would better help you if you can provide us of the history of the tank.

The first fish that jumped into my mind is the yellow tang. But that depends on what you already have in your tank currently.

 

[Reeffreak]

bigtank,

The best overall creature I have used would be the scarlet-reef hermit crab. They can be a little more expensive than some of the other hermits but they do seem to leave the snails and coralline algae alone.

The best hair algae eater that I have had is the blue legged hermit crab. They do seem to pick at the coralline algae once the hair algae has been eradicated.

Here are some of the other creatures I have used to control hair algae that did not do the job:

Algae Blenny
Turbo Grazers
Astrea Snails
Yellow Tangs
Kole Tang

Steve

 

[bigtank]

danmhippo,

The tank has been up for 8 months.
80 pounds LR
~70 pounds aragonite
LPS corals, squamosa clam, BTA
few snails and hermits
biggest fish is maroon clown, also have coral beauty, green chromis, royal gramma, flame hawk

They are fed every 2 days or so with Prime Reef and Formula One flake, also sometimes table shrimp and frozen brine.
My tank is too small for a yellow tang. I traded mine back to the LFS.

2 150w HQI bulbs on 9 to 5
40w NO for dawn-dusk
Remora Pro skimmer w/ Mag 3
2 PH's

Reeffreak,

Thanks. I'll try some more scarlets and see what happens.

 

[2poor2reef]

The best critter to eat hair on your substrate is the queen conch, hands down.

 

[nick danger]

Let me say that it is POSSIBLE, though you would never know it to read this board, to feed virtually nothing, use RO water, do water changes, skim sufficiently, blah blah blah and STILL have tons and tons and tons of hair algae.

It is also POSSIBLE to have hermits that dont touch it, yellow tangs that dont touch it, foxfaces that dont touch it, even a damn sailfin that wont (but I still love my sailfin even if he only will eat nori).

The ONLY 100% surefire way to get rid of hair algea is to get in there and take it out physically.

Do a search on this topic. I remember seeing a link to a cute DIY contraption with a siphon tube and a toothbrush.

ND

 

[SnoopDog]

What I did was every week when I clean the glass was to pull out what I could by hand. Mainly from around my corals as it was creeping up them. I also purchased 10 Emerald for my tank (75 gallon). Eventually it is all gone. I can really say that I could watch the emerald eat it, even the long strands. So far they are still in there and causing no problems, for now.

 

[cyberpanther]

nudibranches too..,

 

[Jazzcat]

How deep is your substrate? Coarse or sugar-fine?

 

[Fish Head]

I have not sean my hermit crabs do much with my sand at all. You could buy a yellow headed sleeper gobie. The fish will pick up your sand clean it and drop sand on the lower part of your tank. OR you could scoop up sand with your net and put it in a bowl and rinse it with water from a water change. If you mix, rub and rinse a few times you will remove the hair and what they uased to grow. the bactitra should be ok. It takes a long time. If you lightly stur up the top of your sand often the hair wont have a chance to become visible.

 

[SeaView]

Hi,


I can simpathize with your algae problem. I had an ongoing hair algae problem in my 110 gallon reef for 1.5 yrs. I almost threw in the towel on the hobby. I tried everything. Fed very little (2-3 times per wk), added every critter ever recommended. Purchaced top of the line ETSS Skimmer, Spectrapure RO/DI unit. As well as Carbon, phosphate, various nitrate filter media. Nothing put a dent in the problem. I had 100+ pounds of LR and a 4" sand bed. Yet found dispite monthly water changes and all the other buzzes and bells my nitrates remained fairly high. Because of this I was affraid to add any fish that may consume the algae, thinking that might totally tip the scales and crash the tank completely. In a last ditch effort I purchaced another 50 lbs of live rock thinking this may boost my bio filter and reduce the nutrient level.

The long and the short of it. Nitrates started dropping and I started adding a few tangs to clean-up the rocks.

Now 6 months later, with the new rock and 5 more fish than I had before feeding 3-4 times a day, I now have zero nitrates and zero, none, not a strand of hair algae.

I wish I had added the rock 2 years ago I would have saved a fortune on creatures and gadgets.

I am not recommending or suggesting that uping your biological filter by adding more rock is the only cure-all solution for hair algae problems. But just something to concider in the grand scheme of your reef. Think about it, one way or another you need to find balance of the nutrients in your system to resolve a hair algae problem.

Sorry for the long reply- But my story needed to be told,

Stevo

[ July 08, 2001: Message edited by: SeaView ]

 

[gazpep]

One of the most efficient algae grazers is the Urchin, Tripneustes Gratilla. I have one in my 120 gal setup and it never allows hair algae or film algae to build up. It works at night and each morning you can see the areas it has cleaned which are back to bare rock with just a little of the coralline or algae left behind which then re-grows and the cycle continues. This urchin has the shorter spines, doesn't bulldoze or cause rockslides. I have no snails or other algae eaters in this tank and the Urchin does the job by itself.

I would highly recommend it.