Aggressive fish and hair algea

TX..r33f

New member
So I have a 30g tank with some softies in it. Also 1 sixline wrasse. My sand bed and rocks are getting hair algea on it. All my parameters are good. What can I buy as far as clean up grew to keep it under comtrol? I don't wanna put a lawn mower blenny cause I don't want the 6 to attack it. What snails would do good to get rid of this.
 
Most people will tell you that adding livestock isn't effective in controlling algae. The common recommendations are:

-MUST use RO/DI water with good filters
-manual removal of the algae by hand/scrubbing rocks
-setup a phosphate reactor with phosban
-large water changes
-improve flow
-make sure you are not overfeeding the tank
-reduce lighting times

There are a few others, but these should be your first steps.
 
I am using rodi water & have pretty good flow on the tank. As of right now it's to short to cut and don't want to make my corals mad. The lights are on for 6 1/2 hours. & feeding is very low I make sure he eats all of it. What is a good clean up crew
Member for this?
 
From Reef Cleaners:

Clean Up Crew- Assorted Hermits, Blue Legs, Florida Ceriths, Chitons, Turbograzers, Sea Hares, Conchs, Emerald Crabs, Urchins and a few others. It is readily accepted by many herbivores, but because it grows quickly it may persist even in a tank with a fair amount of cleaners.

Why it Happened -An excess of available nutrients, particular the majors like phosphates and nitrates. Keep an eye on possible iron and potassium sources which may also help fuel hair algae. Hair algae spores and fragments are so abundant that keeping it out of the tank via quarantine is unlikely to be successful. Your best bet to preventing this algae from taking hold is to maintain a weekly water change regimen, maintain your filtration and perform manual/natural algae removal as it forms. Proper magnesium and alkalinity levels are thought to discourage the growth of many species of GHA.

Personally what worked for me was pulling it off the rocks and 1 dose of algea fix.
 
I'd say snails I good assortment but defintely a mexican turbo but you really do want to fix the algae source though because even a good cleanup crew is only going to do but so much and that 6line is definitely a jumper
 
I think you're referring to Kent's Tech M, which some people use to treat bryopsis... The thing is, your algae has to be getting its food from somewhere, so adding magnesium is probably not going to help. Something is making it grow, maybe your lights are on for too long or you're overfeeding, maybe your ro/di filters need changing (have you used a ppm meter on your fresh water?), but adding a cleanup crew is just going to mean a few of them will die and lots of them will poop, which probably won't make your algae grow any slower.

Personally I dose vodka for algae and think carbon dosing is one of the best things you can do for keeping your tank clean, but either way putting a cleanup crew in a tank that's having algae issues is like putting a band aid over a leak in your sump. Something is causing it, happy hunting :)
 
There is no short cut. You can use bandage methods but you need to test you water.

Possible run a phosphate reactor.
 
Most people will tell you that adding livestock isn't effective in controlling algae.

I must not be 'most people' then because I'd suggest that herbivores are actually a critical element of my master plan (evil scientist laugh) to avoid algae! No argument about maintaining excellent water quality, that's Step 1; but a variety of herbivores is most definately Step 2. Step 3 involves screaming at the algae, but that haven't proven to be very effective if the first two steps fail. Fortunately they rarely fail.

I maintain very good water quality through the use of a large skimmer, GAC and GFO ..... and an algal turf scrubber! Hang on, if excellent water quality is all that's necessary how can algae grow on the scrubber? Reality is that alage will grow in every system and you need herbivores to control what low nutrients allow to grow. I recently added a frag tank to my system same water, and got a ton of GHA. None in the display though! The difference, no herbivores.

Crappy water quality, with attendant high nutrient levels, will overwhelm even a good clean up crew, so that is the place to start. But, adding herbivores is essential once the water is under control.

I use and highly recommend the clean up crews from ReefCleaners, including hermits and emerald crabs. I also keep a number of Tangs, though tank size may mitigate that approach. King of the herbivores is the Sea Hare, but it is a temporary resident because it will starve once the algae is gone .... and it is a looping machine.
 
Okay thanks everyone! I know im short on a clean up crew so ill look into more. also yes, I think my RO filters need to be replaced. Also ill have to look into dosing.
 
Back
Top