Algae growing on Halimeda

[pleasants9]

For the first time I have a tank that is quite successful at growing Halimeda plants. My only problem is I find myself often blasting them water to blow off gunk and algae that collects and grows on the leaves. Is this a common problem? Should I invest in a bigger clean up crew, and if so what would be best? I have a small algae blenny and tang in my 125 for algae eaters but i really only have one large hermit crab and a few snails. I used 3x black boxes and 2xT5 with Coral plus bulbs for my lighting.

 

[Newms118]

For the first time I have a tank that is quite successful at growing Halimeda plants. My only problem is I find myself often blasting them water to blow off gunk and algae that collects and grows on the leaves. Is this a common problem? Should I invest in a bigger clean up crew, and if so what would be best? I have a small algae blenny and tang in my 125 for algae eaters but i really only have one large hermit crab and a few snails. I used 3x black boxes and 2xT5 with Coral plus bulbs for my lighting.

If the algae is out of control, Id use fluconazole to get rid of it. It doesnt seem to hurt macroalgae (except red grape, it will kill this).

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Congrats on your success with halimeda! It's a challenging plant. What do you think was the key?

As for crew, I'd recommend getting rid of the large hermit and getting reproducing mini strombus snails. These are the only snails I've seen that are small enough to climb and thoroughly clean macros. According to taricha, Indo-Pacific Sea Farms sells them on their Facebook page, but not on their web site anymore.

 

[SaltySully]

That happens to them all the time. In the wild they are always covered in a few different kinds of algae.

Sent from my LGMS550 using Tapatalk

 

[pleasants9]

Ive caught my see munching on them from time to time so maybe he is helping the cause of keeping them clean.