So Much Hair Algae!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Page 2

mastou · #26 07/26/2007, 04:34 AM

Seahares should eat hairalgae

/Magnus

Spotted Leopard · #27 07/26/2007, 07:20 PM

Well I tried a lettuce nudibranch....but it somehow died. Since seahares are in the same family, I think he's gonna die with a week. Also, aren't seahares a fragile type of nudibranch?

Plantbrain · #28 07/27/2007, 01:46 AM

I just manually remove it aggressively. Do not fret, the critters and desirable species will fill back in.

If you keep up on it, it never gets out of hand.
Water changes are your friend, you cannot over do those.

I'd stay away from any snake oil that claims to export or control NO3.

There's only one way to do so short of a water change, macro algae export etc: denitrification.

Coils or the DBS are decent methods there, with DBS being the easiest.

During the water change, you can do all sorts of cleaning etc easily.
Harass it. 1 sq ft is nuthing to clean, I've cleaned 8 ft planted tanks covered with BBA on every surface.

Do not wait for a weed to go away, attack it asap.
That and good general care will go a very long way.

PO4 limitation can work well in most cases.
If you keep a refugium, the NO3 and PO4 would be gone and provide a great place for a DBS.

If you focus on the needs for the other critters and plants in the tank, the noxious species rarely bug you.
That's always been a good approach and method in the hobby in general.

And that is the goal, not learning how to kill various noxious algae
, name some folks that wanted to do that as a hobby?

Some weeding is required, some cleaning etc, and if you neglect things for awhile, algae outbreaks can and will occur.

But if you stay on top of it, the effort is much less.

Regards,
Tom Barr

mastou · #29 07/27/2007, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Spotted Leopard
Well I tried a lettuce nudibranch....but it somehow died. Since seahares are in the same family, I think he's gonna die with a week. Also, aren't seahares a fragile type of nudibranch?

My seahare came as a hitch hiker (click here) and it didn't seem especially fragile. It twice crawled into the overflow through the tubing into my refugie, whether it is sensitive to bad water parameters I don't know.

/Magnus

Spotted Leopard · #30 07/30/2007, 12:06 PM

hmm...sounds good...I think I will also get a seahare. Do they eat diatom algae as well?

Secondgen · #31 07/30/2007, 09:20 PM

Seahares do a great job at removing hair algae just make sure that they cannot get into your powerheads. Also if it should die in your tank remove it right away they can poison your system.

Spotted Leopard · #32 07/30/2007, 10:20 PM

I thought seahares and lettuce nudibranchs were the only types of nudibranches that wouldn't release poison into the tank upon death. Oh...and I got rid of 99% of the hair algae today with a toothbrush.

scapes · #33 07/31/2007, 08:00 PM

oh lord....hair algae!!

my story....I have a 55g. had the current nova 8x54 watts of t5's light fixture. I had NO fish. I knew I could purchase a tang to help eradicate the HA, but since I have hallimeda prolifera, shoal grass, sea lettuce, mangroves, I didn't want those eaten too. I bought a sea slug---NASTY creature. didn't do a darn thing except die in a couple of weeks.

I posted on here and all I got was "reduce feeding>I had nothing to feed, lower temp, water changes>was changing roughly 50-75g a week, eliminate nutrients>wasn't dosing w/ anything, etc...." DID ALL THAT!! what a pain in the neck. just as soon as I did all that, it grew a foot.

the only thing that eradicated it was decreasing the light. I went from the 8x54 w fixture to a coralife pc fixture (low 200w's, not exactly sure). so I cut the lighting by more than a half. I had to take out the light loving corals (ie brains) that were on the bottom, but other than that.....WHOLAH!! no HA at all.

I don't know if this is a possible solution for you, but it worked for me!!

Spotted Leopard · #34 08/01/2007, 01:27 AM

That information would have been helpful...but I already got rid of most of my hair algae with a free toothbrush from the dentist

Spotted Leopard · #35 08/01/2007, 01:28 AM

BUT...did I really get rid of the hair algae? Will it eventually grow back?

scapes · #36 08/01/2007, 07:21 AM

did you get rid of it>>no
will it grow back>>yep

Spotted Leopard · #37 08/01/2007, 10:26 AM

Spotted Leopard · #38 08/01/2007, 10:32 AM

Why will it grow back? I mean I scrubbed it off the rock.

scapes · #39 08/01/2007, 02:10 PM

just speaking from my experiences, I'd scrub & scrub, pick and pick, siphon and siphon, even heard of people bleaching their rock(I never removed any of my rock to do these drastic measures) and what not, and it always came back. better luck to you

cnidaria nut · #40 08/01/2007, 10:05 PM

Turbo snails, turbo snails, turbo snails.

Spotted Leopard · #41 08/01/2007, 10:18 PM

Well...I can't use snails because I have reef hermits-reef hermits kill snails.

Spotted Leopard · #42 08/01/2007, 10:19 PM

Is there some sort of chemical I could put into the tank to kill the algae?

Plantbrain · #43 08/02/2007, 01:32 AM

That does not address the cause, merely treats the symtom.

To deal with algae, you need to focus on the inducement, the germination, the life history to control and manage it.

You need to see what specifically induces it, not mere correelation of speculation without any real testing.

You will rarely get anywhere without going through that process and be dependent on the symtom treatment from then on, which ususally has a fitness penalty for other non target organisms.

Regards,
Tom Barr

mastou · #44 08/02/2007, 03:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Spotted Leopard
Well...I can't use snails because I have reef hermits-reef hermits kill snails.

Maybe Columbellid snails are the answer, they spawn in my aquarium and despite the presence of three different hermits they have been growing in number in my aquarium

They will not be able to eat the macro algae but maybe prevent them from reappearing...

/Magnus

cnidaria nut · #45 08/03/2007, 09:13 PM

Spotted Leopard, what are these "reef hermits"? Not all hermits will eat snails, and not all "turbos" are equal. Get the mexican turbos wich are large, and red leg hermits wich don't usually kill snails. Blue leg hermits kill snails a lot from what I've seen. Just trying to help.

Spotted Leopard · #46 08/04/2007, 02:30 AM

well...I have 7 blue-legs and some extremely large hermits (larger than red legs) that I forgot the name too-but the LFS told me they would kill any snails they come in contact.

Spotted Leopard · #47 08/04/2007, 02:31 AM

Don't hermits also eat hair algae as well as snails?

cnidaria nut · #48 08/04/2007, 10:15 AM

Hermits eat algae too, correct. Blue leg hermits are notorious for eating snails however. The snails do the better job at cleaning algae, it's all they eat whereas the hermits will also readily eat meat. If you are attached to these hermits you will just have to limit your nutrients better. If you are not really attached to them I would suggest you remove them and replace with snails. They will do a much better job, and you can still have some red leg hermits with them without a problem.

rcypert · #49 08/04/2007, 10:22 AM

Nothing works. True story. To get rid of my hair algae I took all my infested rock to the fish store and left it in one of their cleaner crew tanks for a month. That was like a year ago. A Kole tang helped me keep it nice for a while. Sold him when I moved. Its back.

Spotted Leopard · #50 08/06/2007, 01:19 AM

I think I'll stick with my blue-legs.

I forgot to mention that I hate snails