Cleanup crew for 180

[toptank]

What crabs are the best to contol hair algae?

Moving everything from my 90 gal to the new 180 this week-end and have noticed that on some of my LR in the 90 is starting to get some hair algae so need to clean it the best I can before putting it in the new tank. Do you think a tooth brush will work OK?

Barry

My Site: http://barryreef.homestead.com/index.html

[johnny]

a toothbrush will just spread the stuff unless you use it in a seperate container and then rinse the rock really well. Another bad thing about brushing is it kills the surrounding bacteria and give the algae an easy access to "room to spread". Also, make sure it's hair algae and not bryopsis, they look the same but are two different monsters.

Nick

[FishBait]

Both can be a major pain in the butt, and hermits will not always help w/the problem. If it is Bryopsis, look for feathery tips on the end of each strand. This is hopefully not what u have as it's the harder of the two to eradicate.

[johnny]

Fishbait,

Sniff sniff... yup I agree with it being harder to erradicate :'(

[tubs]

Hi Barry,

If you've got a tang such as a Purple or Yellow Tang, it should take care of it. I lost my yellow tang (it seemed very healthy and one day I saw a large crab got a hold of it) and I started seeing sprouts of hair algae in some spots. As soon as I reintroduced another tang (Purple Tang this time), the hair algae was gone in heartbeat. FWIW I also have various snails, different types of hermits and a lawnmower blenny.

Take care chief and best wishes to your move this weekend.

[Randy V]

Emerald mithrax crabs will eat hair algae but I like queen conchs better.

[joeychitwood]

Occasionally, I get an outbreak of hair algae on some synthetic coral skeletons I use for decoration. My Turbo and Astraea snails find it, and overnight, all of the algae will be gone.