Foxface is my best grazer.
Bryopsis is the filamentous algae that looks a bit like a fern-it is the most difficult to eradicate since most things don't like to eat it. Derbasia on the other hand is a favored food of many.
A sea hare will eat it all including bryopsis once you crop it down a bit,but a sea hare is likely to die in a reef tank within a month unless you set up a specialized environment and feeding.. Bryopsis,once it's there it can live pretty well even in low nutrient water with good lighting.Higher ph seems to discourage growth,ie 8.4 or so.
Lightless days 2-3 at a time can cause it to wane but I wouldn't recommend this be done very often if you have photosynthetic corals and would limit turning the lights off to 48 hours. Perhaps you can go 2-3 days actinic only.
If you can get a rock out you can place it in tank water with no light for 5days or so and the algae should die off.
Some have recommended using a heavy milky injection of kalk water into the bushes of algae. Careful though not to use too much for your tank overall.
Blowing off your rock and siphoning your bottom can also help alot. I use a small turkey baster to do this once or twice a week.The detrius raises into the water columns and a large percentage of it can thus be trapped in your filter or exported by your skimmer.
Frequent cleaning of any mechanical filter pad or sock you may use is important. Anything in your filter is really in your tank dissolving away and providing nutrients.
A diadema urchin ,the long spiny type is less of a bulldozer than most and a good grazer. In fact recent articles attribute much of the reef loss off the Florida coast to a plague in the diadema poulation and a consequent smothering of sections of the reef by filamentous algae.
I do ocassionally pluck algae from my sand bed tank and may try a mollie or two to see what it does. It would be an elegant easy and relatively inexpensive solution.
Good Luck
TOm
Bryopsis is the filamentous algae that looks a bit like a fern-it is the most difficult to eradicate since most things don't like to eat it. Derbasia on the other hand is a favored food of many.
A sea hare will eat it all including bryopsis once you crop it down a bit,but a sea hare is likely to die in a reef tank within a month unless you set up a specialized environment and feeding.. Bryopsis,once it's there it can live pretty well even in low nutrient water with good lighting.Higher ph seems to discourage growth,ie 8.4 or so.
Lightless days 2-3 at a time can cause it to wane but I wouldn't recommend this be done very often if you have photosynthetic corals and would limit turning the lights off to 48 hours. Perhaps you can go 2-3 days actinic only.
If you can get a rock out you can place it in tank water with no light for 5days or so and the algae should die off.
Some have recommended using a heavy milky injection of kalk water into the bushes of algae. Careful though not to use too much for your tank overall.
Blowing off your rock and siphoning your bottom can also help alot. I use a small turkey baster to do this once or twice a week.The detrius raises into the water columns and a large percentage of it can thus be trapped in your filter or exported by your skimmer.
Frequent cleaning of any mechanical filter pad or sock you may use is important. Anything in your filter is really in your tank dissolving away and providing nutrients.
A diadema urchin ,the long spiny type is less of a bulldozer than most and a good grazer. In fact recent articles attribute much of the reef loss off the Florida coast to a plague in the diadema poulation and a consequent smothering of sections of the reef by filamentous algae.
I do ocassionally pluck algae from my sand bed tank and may try a mollie or two to see what it does. It would be an elegant easy and relatively inexpensive solution.
Good Luck
TOm
