Algae Discussion

[Pterois2004]

I'll start off with a discussion of one of the least favorite subjects- hair algae.

Who's got it and how did you get rid of it?

I've never had a hair algae bloom. knock wood

I do have good water movement all the way to the bottom, and I have Caulerpa and other macro algae growing in the main tank.

Is that the secret? Who knows. What's your experience with algae.

Angela

[kbmdale]

Well I get patches from time to time but they are really small and are ussually gone quickly. I had alot of hair algae in my fuge, but after I put in the cheato it all died, so I think cheato robbed the nutrients the hair algae was feeding on. My crabs pick at it in the main tank (scarlet reef crabs) but they never clean it off this one snail. This poor snail has a fro of hair algae on its shell...lol

[Pterois2004]

That is so funny-the snail with a fro!

I have a snail that has this ugly brown worm on it's back. I've been trying to get an ID on it, but can't get close enough with the camera. I'm going to pull the snail out one day just to snap a picture of that worm.

I do feel that an abundance of macro algae does it's job to keep hair algae in check.

Angela

[Cysero]

Macro Algae tends to rob the nutrients from the hair algae. The hair algae cannot compete so it dies off. Some times if you have a very large bloom you can do a fresh water dip on bare rocks. Another alternative is to add animaks such as the white lip bleeny also known as the lawn mower bleeny. Tangs are good herbivores, sally light foots and a few others work as well.