Misc Algaes....(Hair, Brown, Green)

[Moosetache]

Just wondering what the best addition would be to take care of this and kind of clean my tank up. With those Misc algaes the tank just looks dirty and unkept. Any suggestions would be helpful.

thanks

[dileggi]

Certain hermits or fish would certainly eat the algae. A lanwmower blenney, rainford goby I've read will eat the hair algae, as well as sea hares and lettuce nudi's.

Astraea snails are good at algae clean up too.

But, I think most people are going to suggest to get to the reason the algae is growing in the first place...water parameter's, flow, feeding, etc and correct it from the bottom up instead of from the top down.

Most people agree that if you eliminate the reasons for the algae up front, you're much better in the long run than trying to put a "temporary" fix on it.

[dileggi]

Another thing I would add to the above is also water changes will help with the algae and most importatnly too is time and patience.

If it's still a new tank, eventually it will balance itself out along with good maintenance from you.

I have been battling hair algae for a month now! My tank is about 4-5 mos old. After adjusting my flow here and there, keeping up with water changes and playing with the amount of wetness on my skimmer's, it's slowly...and I mean slowly subsiding on it's own.

[Moosetache]

Well, it is a new tank, and most of what I am speaking of in the way of the hair algae was on the rock when I got it. All the rock (100lbs) came from established tanks. I have 6 astrae snails in there now, need to pick up probably 10 or so more. A lot of people are saying no to hermits....I have about 10 in there now, but wont add anymore and try to combat what the crabs accomplish with something else.

[dileggi]

A lot of people don't like hermits. I've had them and find them amusing to watch. I think a lot of people don't like the hermits because they will eat the snails for their shells if needed. But, I've seen people state that if you get micro or macro hermits, they're usually fine and small enough not to bother the snails.

The astraea snails seem to do a good job on my glass and rocks. They don't seem to do much in liue of the hair algae. I think the best thing available to eat the hair algae is a sea hare. That will mow it down, but they can also be toxic if stressed, so I've never added one to my tank.

I've also read a lawnmower blenny, rainfordi goby and hector's goby will eat hair algae, as well as some tangs. But, I have never had any of those.

[Moosetache]

Thanks Eric.....I am considering a blenny or goby, and a small tang of some kind...(maybe powder blue, or chevron). Hopefully these will assist in the messy look of the tank.....

I am going to have to get my Canes logo to counter your Flyers logo...LOL

[dileggi]

No problem at all. There's a website I've been going on...it's called liveaquaria.com. You can type the name of whatever fish or invert you're looking for. It nomally gives you a pretty good discription of the animal and what they eat.

Haha! I can't complain as I was rooting for the 'Canes cup win. I ordered my Brind'Amour autograph 8x10 with the Cup the next day!