I'm tired of dark green hair algae...

[homegrowncichlid]

Hi all,
I'm tired of this dark green hair algae that seems to pop up in the cracks and crevices, where no tang, hermit crab or snail can get to. Plus I notice that once it does get bushy enough and starts to grow out of the crack, no one wants to eat it! It just spreads out and I have to manually remove it!
I'm sure this same species of algae is growing all over the tank on all exposed surfaces, where it's mowed down, but like vegetables, everyone wants to eat the delicious tender shoots, not the tough, grown-in, growth. (no one likes the broccoli stems right? just the crown).

I keep dwarf cerith, astrea, and banded turban snails, sea urchins and a whole lot of hermit crabs.
Solutions? Do I have to try tiny astrea snails?

 

[ReefnQueens]

If I can find my sea hare in my sump you can borrow him, he’s an algae vacuum!

 

[homegrowncichlid]

If I can find my sea hare in my sump you can borrow him, he’s an algae vacuum!

thanks, I don't have enough algae to support it, overall, my clean up crew keeps algae all in check, when they can reach it, that is. I just don't understand why the hermit crab can't just stick it's claws in there and scoop it out. heh. I can see how the snails and urchin can't get in, they need a flat surface.

But in regards to the sea hare, with its soft body, can it stick its head into the cracks and little spaces? or does it skim over? Thanks in advance

 

[ReefnQueens]

I have some live rock in my tank that looks like it was once a very large tabling type acro , just looks like rock now but there were a lot of crevices I was unsure if it would get to it and lemme tell you this thing got in there (I’ll keep it pg-13) like field mice crawling under your door , I also managed to get a smaller one like half the size of a hot dog , my buddy got a softball sized one and it knocks everything over in his tank

 

[Jazeel55]

Sea hare will Make short work of that


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[homegrowncichlid]

Alright so the sea hare seems to be the right "organism" for the job, so let me make sure were all talking about the right one. This is a tropical species that lives up to 6 years Dolabella auricularia. Also looking at the body mass and the amount of food it would eat, compared to snails, this giant, the smallest I've seen is 3 inch, but normally I see 4 inch, would have the same body mass as 10 marble sized turbo snails, maybe even 20, if one was to deduct the mass of the shells. Then looking at it compared to hermit crabs, one slug could be equal to 50 to 100 1-inch crabs. Is my train of thought correct?
So if my biomass math is correct, a 75 gallon tank could barely support just 1 slug, and no other snails, crabs or urchins? Then I'd probably starve out, and I'd still need to feed it dried seaweed, or move it around from tank to tank.

 

[vio]

What kind of live rocks you have ( display + refugium etc.)
Compare Live Rocks with Active Carbon , both , some how , accumulate DETRITUS (# 1 enemy in reef , my opinion).
I use for last few years Tonga, NOT so pores like Pukany etc. DETRITUS , just flow around , NOT precipitate or go around rocks , just export it OUT, mechanical filters, Berlin suck, Protein Skimmer, use snow coral,
Also , most of PO4 go inside the tank by food, rinse, or do your self home food.
I keep make it , all kind of tests, if you use flakes, pallets etc.
Put first in one cup ( RO/DI water) mix. for few min. test the water for PO4 , u gone be surprise ,
If you got lots of Hair Algae, NO snails , crabs, etc. will clean up.
Try to find up , who create the high PO4.
You may read very LOW PO 4 , because , the algae .......................use it.
Personally , i suspect ...........Rocks .........if is NO rocks.................food, some time ....over loud fish, to many, to big.
of cores , test your RO/DI first.

 

[Jazeel55]

Or get an Algae scrubber it does wonders for a reef tank


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[vio]

I build many Algae scrubber , last one i can use it for swimming pool ,lol 48" long, strip everything NO3 PO4 ( undetectable) and all good nutrition for corals , coral will surfer , lose color and grow, very hard to balance , just like chaetto, how much you have take OUT and how much stay IN , stability is the key, is NOT new, keeping NO3 and PO4 in control , also Alkalinity stabile , i prefer low Alk. keep Bacteria alive better. Also for ppl. who run Calcium Reactor i strongly suggest this:
Run a hose from outside on C.R.. intake air.
Do NOT run the effluent from C.R. direct to your Refuge or swamp , will drop the PH , some of CO2 gas will go in your tank , remember CO2 is great for plants ( including hair algae).
Run the effluent into one container , set the hose to the bottom , then run o cheap air pump , i place my air pump in one place were the fresh air coming in from outside. Make some how output of water ( 1 1/2 -2 gal. container) to go in your refuge or swamp, i place a PH probe in the container measure 7.8 PH into container in stand of 6.5-6.8 ( what ever your reactor is set).
Less CO2 into the tank , the better it is.
New York outside CO2 is around 435 ppm.
On Islands is 335ppm.
Inside the house or apartments is less then 600 ppm ( good #) up to 1,200 ppm ( very bad#).
Depend how much you open the windows to refresh the air , the worst is the Styrofoam insulating , NO air IN no air OUT.
Try to find up the source of PO4 , then you controlled ,

 

[homegrowncichlid]

Thanks for your feed back, I actually have built an up-flow algae scrubber into my system, which works pretty well, so my problem isn't really nutrient related. After I harvest the algae, ( I scrape everything off, and leave the screen in the main tank for the tangs, crabs and snails to clean off for an evening). I'm using the top down approach to algae control, basically, after the cleaning, it takes 5 or 6 days for the algae to grow back in the scrubber, but of course, algae grows in the scrubber and outside it. The algae that grows outside the scrubber, needs to be controlled by herbivores, hence the "top down" approach. The "bottom up control" is nutrient control, which I'm not really going for. Of the algae that grows outside the scrubber, the dark green hair algae, which grows in the cracks and along thin edges, seems to be avoided by my clean up crew, which is why I was interested in the sea hare. However, I believe I have too many cleaners already to support a sea hare, so I'm considering adding 1 or 2 hundred tiny astrea snails. They are smaller then a pea. These guys would be able to get into small spaces, in rocks and along my frag rack.

Snail, Golden Astrea (turbo) - Lithopoma americanum- 24, 50 and 100 Lots

Golden Snails, that are in fact Small Astrea Snails have become increasingly popular among coral growers and aquarium enthusiasts that maintain a reef and need to keep algae to a minimum. These herbivores are an important addition for controlling algae within a Reef Aquarium.

reeftopia.com

 

[vio]

May work , "1 or 2 hundred tiny astrea snails ."
make sure test they water , parameters , Alk, NO3, salinity, then acclimatized ( dripping water) for list 2 hours , if got forbid snails die , you end up in another mess.
I may order some next week , good deals,
Thank You.

 

[homegrowncichlid]

So I added a sea hare last week, 3 inches in size and today I found half of it, so I'm going to say it was an unsuccessful attempt. The first time I tried a sea hare, a few years ago, my butterfly fish picked it to death within 3 days. This time, After clearing a swatch of hair algae off 1 rock on the first day, which was promising, I believe my rogue mud crabs ate the sea hare. (I've been catching them out slowing since last summer, when I accidentally introduced a couple of dozen of them, with a local sponge cluster I introduced, but I figured these last 2... well). I know the mud crabs eat shellfish, small clams, mussels, snails, hermit crabs etc, little pea sized ones, by cracking their shells open. That's their normal diet, but I wonder if they'd even recognize a giant blob of sea hare meat, as food. Bah, back to the drawing board, while I trap these last 2 crabs.

NOTE: that was easy, caught the last 2 crabs using a 1 inch PVC pipe, with 1 end closed off, while posting this, heh.

 

[Juano908]

So I added a sea hare last week, 3 inches in size and today I found half of it, so I'm going to say it was an unsuccessful attempt. The first time I tried a sea hare, a few years ago, my butterfly fish picked it to death within 3 days. This time, After clearing a swatch of hair algae off 1 rock on the first day, which was promising, I believe my rogue mud crabs ate the sea hare. (I've been catching them out slowing since last summer, when I accidentally introduced a couple of dozen of them, with a local sponge cluster I introduced, but I figured these last 2... well). I know the mud crabs eat shellfish, small clams, mussels, snails, hermit crabs etc, little pea sized ones, by cracking their shells open. That's their normal diet, but I wonder if they'd even recognize a giant blob of sea hare meat, as food. Bah, back to the drawing board, while I trap these last 2 crabs.

NOTE: that was easy, caught the last 2 crabs using a 1 inch PVC pipe, with 1 end closed off, while posting this, heh.

Have you tried API Algaefix?
I had great results with it, I think it even helped me with my Red Turf Algae issue.

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[homegrowncichlid]

Thanks for the imput, 908, I have an algae scrubber, so that would conflict. I've used weak herbicides before, dinoX, which causes variations I'd like to avoid with my scrubber.