What are the best hair algae eating snails to get?
- Thread starter basssnake
- Start date
ya asteas always have a huge die off rate...they eat the algae but not like the turbos...I would spend your money on the turbos getting less than buying more astreas for the same amount of money. Also if the hair algae is getting really bad next time you do a water change take some of the rocks out and really scrub them down. I found this really gives the snails a chance to catch up with the algae.
loof the doof
New member
just get a lawnmower blenny and forget about the hair algae forever
I've found Large Mexican turbo snails will eat a good amount of algae, but like most snails, hair algae is not their favorite and can be harder for them to eat. If you have other algae in the tank they may choose that over the hair. I've had an algae blenny for over four years, and never have seen him eating hair algae. They eat micro algae, and leave those cool little "lip" marks on the glass. I do like trochus snails and the black turbos, but most won't do much to hair algae. Sea hares are algae devouring machines, but can out eat their food source. Also if you have any tank mates that may irritate them, they can release an "ink" of sorts which can destroy your tank if you don't catch it in time.
If you remove as much of the hair algae as you can it will make life much easier for any "cleaner". The shorter( to the point of almost not even being able to see any) algae, is much more likely to get eaten.
You should also make sure your water quality is in order. Phosphates, silicates, and nitrates in excess can cause hair algae. Even if you get all of it out or have some creature eat all of it, the likely hood of it returning is great with excess of these compounds present.
If you remove as much of the hair algae as you can it will make life much easier for any "cleaner". The shorter( to the point of almost not even being able to see any) algae, is much more likely to get eaten.
You should also make sure your water quality is in order. Phosphates, silicates, and nitrates in excess can cause hair algae. Even if you get all of it out or have some creature eat all of it, the likely hood of it returning is great with excess of these compounds present.
I have one mexican turbo and he literally mows it over. If i had about 50 of them, it wouldn't be a problem. How can i manually remove it with the rock left in place? How do i get it out of the tank so it doesn't just end up lodging some where else to grow on a new spot? Please explain.
anyone know where to get Mexican turbo snails cheap??
anyone know where to get Mexican turbo snails cheap??
If you had 50, then once they ate all the algae you'd have some very hungry snails who if died would be little pollutant bombs.:eek2: Also if you had that many little bulldozers you'd probably find most of your corals tipped over(if not cemented).
So less may be more in this case.
Next time you do a water change, pull (if you can) or cut the algae off and siphon it out. its very tedious, but allot faster than waiting for it to get eaten. Make sure to remove as much as you can rather than letting it disperse through the tank. Also I think Marine Depot (or some other website?) has a neat little gadget that you attach to the end of your siphon tube. It's basically like tongs. When you pull the algae off, the tube is right in between the tongs to suck the algae out.
D to the P
New member
Well the main thing would be finding the problem that's giving your tank the algae symptoms.
Lights and nutrients
Make sure your lights aren't on for more than 8 hours, and make sure the bulbs don't need to be replaced. But, generally lights aren't the issue.
You obviously have a nitrate and/or phosphate problem in the aquarium if hair algae is growing. Test kits might not show it, but that's only because the algae is using it up as quickly as it is being released.
Make sure you're not over feeding the tank. If you're feeding frozen, make sure you're thawing the cubes outside of the aquarium and not introducing the water to the tank that you're using to thaw it out.
Make sure you have enough flow in the aquarium. If detritus is settling to the bottom, and falling all over the live rock, than you need to bump up the flow.
It's helpful to once a month take a turkey baster to the live rock and blast off the detritus from the live rock. You'd be surprise how much detritus can build up on the live rock, even in areas where water flow isn't an issue.
Make sure your source water is RO/DI. If it's not RO/DI theres a really good chance that you're adding nitrate and/or phosphate into the aquarium right off the bat. So no matter how many water changes you do, you'll just be fighting an uphill battle. If you're using RO/DI water, make sure that the catridges/membrane doesn't need to be changed. A TDS meter is a very helpful tool for that.
If you are using RO/DI water, make sure you're doing frequent water changes. Rarely is once a month enough. It's generally better to do 10%-20% weekly.
Usually aquarists' problems with algae lie within their husbandry. Once you've found the souce, it'll be easier to combat the algae.
It's generally cheaper and easier to find the problem, than it is to find algae eaters to solve the problem.
But any who, turbo snails, emerald crabs, hermit crabs, conchs, urchins, sea hares, and rabbitfish are all of the inhabitants that I've had/seen do a good job on hair algae.
Lights and nutrients
Make sure your lights aren't on for more than 8 hours, and make sure the bulbs don't need to be replaced. But, generally lights aren't the issue.
You obviously have a nitrate and/or phosphate problem in the aquarium if hair algae is growing. Test kits might not show it, but that's only because the algae is using it up as quickly as it is being released.
Make sure you're not over feeding the tank. If you're feeding frozen, make sure you're thawing the cubes outside of the aquarium and not introducing the water to the tank that you're using to thaw it out.
Make sure you have enough flow in the aquarium. If detritus is settling to the bottom, and falling all over the live rock, than you need to bump up the flow.
It's helpful to once a month take a turkey baster to the live rock and blast off the detritus from the live rock. You'd be surprise how much detritus can build up on the live rock, even in areas where water flow isn't an issue.
Make sure your source water is RO/DI. If it's not RO/DI theres a really good chance that you're adding nitrate and/or phosphate into the aquarium right off the bat. So no matter how many water changes you do, you'll just be fighting an uphill battle. If you're using RO/DI water, make sure that the catridges/membrane doesn't need to be changed. A TDS meter is a very helpful tool for that.
If you are using RO/DI water, make sure you're doing frequent water changes. Rarely is once a month enough. It's generally better to do 10%-20% weekly.
Usually aquarists' problems with algae lie within their husbandry. Once you've found the souce, it'll be easier to combat the algae.
It's generally cheaper and easier to find the problem, than it is to find algae eaters to solve the problem.
But any who, turbo snails, emerald crabs, hermit crabs, conchs, urchins, sea hares, and rabbitfish are all of the inhabitants that I've had/seen do a good job on hair algae.
buzzard one
New member
I like the turbos.
I agree with what D to the P is saying. I had a serious problem with hair algae not to long ago myself. You might want to try using a phosphate remover to get rid of the phosphate before the algae gets a chance to use it. I also picked up about 10 turbo and 5 trochus snails they seemed to eat the algae fairly well. About a week later, I picked up 2 emerald crabs and a lawnmower blenny and they ate the algae up. Add my 2 pencil urchins and my longspine urchin... The algae didn't stand a chance. And for those who said their lawnmowers didn't eat any... mine went to town on it.
Well, i am using RO/DI water and the unit is new and TDS is zero. I haven't done a water change yet at all and i am sure that is a big problem. I got to do it and i am thinking about doing about 40percent. When i set this system up, i didn't realize my RO unit was probably worn out and so the water may have not been to good. The TDS on the old unit was showing 16ppm(i didn't get a tester til my new unit, which came with one), but who knows how much nitrates and phosphates was in it. This system has about 250 gallons of water. I am not over feeding, i feed the two fish i have a few pellets every few days.
In regards to urchins, won't they eat all the coralline algae and munch on corals? Will the rabbitfishes eat on corals too?
In regards to urchins, won't they eat all the coralline algae and munch on corals? Will the rabbitfishes eat on corals too?
D to the P
New member
40% is way too much all at once. 20% will be sufficient. I would recommend 10% twice a week to keep the algae at bay.
Some urchins will eat coraline algae, but usually not if there is other algae to eat. They won't attack the corals though. And usually the amount of coraline they actually eat is barely even noticeable.
Rabbitfish are reef safe. I'd recommend the spotted rabbitfish because they don't get to big, and they are easy to care for.
Some urchins will eat coraline algae, but usually not if there is other algae to eat. They won't attack the corals though. And usually the amount of coraline they actually eat is barely even noticeable.
Rabbitfish are reef safe. I'd recommend the spotted rabbitfish because they don't get to big, and they are easy to care for.
small alien
The fungus is among us.
I had a blue spotted sea hare. Unfortunately, due to my lack of research, it was sucked into my filter intake on the second day
. Luckily, it didn't nuke my tank. During the roughly 18 hours it was in my tank, however, it ate A TON of algae including dense hair algae. I was pretty blown away and it's a cool looking creature, though I would not replace it due to the potential toxicity/inking issue. RIP little sea hare. I hardly knew yee.
. Luckily, it didn't nuke my tank. During the roughly 18 hours it was in my tank, however, it ate A TON of algae including dense hair algae. I was pretty blown away and it's a cool looking creature, though I would not replace it due to the potential toxicity/inking issue. RIP little sea hare. I hardly knew yee.Are you using RO/DI or just RO? Some times phosphates and silicates won't all be removed by a tfc membrane. If your water is like mine you might also want a post DI canister on your R/O. In either case using some sort of phosphate absorbing media is definitely good advice. Also dry food usually (but not always) contains phosphates.
In my opinion even if a animal does not eat corals, it might not be safe for a reef. Urchins, Stars, and large Snails can knock down, disturb, or damage corals just by moving by or on them. But I guess it depends on what your more interested in keeping.
Really? Did you see the algae being removed or hanging out of his mouth, or was he just picking at the area. I've seen mine mouth at any algae including macro, but none of it was devoured. He was just eating the micro algae off its surface. You might be lucky though and have one who prefers more substantial algae.
In my opinion even if a animal does not eat corals, it might not be safe for a reef. Urchins, Stars, and large Snails can knock down, disturb, or damage corals just by moving by or on them. But I guess it depends on what your more interested in keeping.
Really? Did you see the algae being removed or hanging out of his mouth, or was he just picking at the area. I've seen mine mouth at any algae including macro, but none of it was devoured. He was just eating the micro algae off its surface. You might be lucky though and have one who prefers more substantial algae.
With my hair algae problem i took out the rock that were had the most hair algae on them and scrubbed them off in a 5 gallon bucket during a water change. After that the tank looked great. The next day i added a phosban reactor with phos lock, which is helping a lot. I did this last week, the hair algae is starting to come back but not as fast or thick. I also got a clean-up crew and now they actually can keep a hold on the algae instead of always trying to catch up. With the water changes 40% at once is a lot for a system to handle. I would also agree with the 10-20% changes weekly, right now though while you are trying to get rid of this problem you might want to a few more. I am doing about 5 gallons every 2 to 3 days (I have 66 gallons in my whole system), once everything gets under control then back to the 10-20% weekly changes. good luck
Blitzburggirl
Member
I too added a lawnmower blenny to solve a crazy hair algae problem. I noticed him happily chomping away at it the second day, that and the 300 other types of ugly algae I had been collecting!! I wondered if he was picking at other types, but a week later, and it's clear he's impacted every type of algae that I can see in the tank.
In fact, his name is Harvey - short for International Harvestor
In fact, his name is Harvey - short for International Harvestor
Turbo's definitely cleaned up my tank quickly. 6 had a 65 gallon cleaned within two weeks, die off shortly after because of lack of food. Down to about 3 larger ones now. Unfortunately one wandered into my zoa's and killed of half of them. Debating getting rid of the last three all together as there just mindless bulldozing machines that eat. Blenny helped with algae as well.
Jason
Jason
