hair algae

[huladaman]

Im starting to develop some hair algae in my mantis tank and was wondering if anyone else has experienced that problem. did you add other livestock like nudibranches to tackel the job or just lots of water changes? I have a 30 gallon with about 10 pounds of liverock and a bag and a half of live sand. I have a medium sized peacock and a small niger trigger in the tank. The only other things are 3 big snails and a feather duster. Yolanda is very happy and eats well.... I just like things to look good.

[Gonodactylus]

THe build up of phosphate and nitrate with O. s can be particularly vexing since some animals bury a lot of their excess food. The same is true of their molt skin. Crustacean cuticle is particularly bad at adding phosphate and should be removed from the system whenever possible.

I should also warn you that hair algae (particularly red) can infect stomatopods and is often fatal is not checked in time. It seems to be one of the few things that they cannot clean. In particularl, watch for algae growing on the antennules.

We control algal problems using frequent water changes, low levels of illumination and mechanical cleaning, but then our research animals are generally not kept with any other animals in their aquaria. I'll leave it to others with more experience with clean-up crews to make suggestions although an O.s will eat most such animals. We experimented with ab a couple of years ago, but the stomatopods ate most of them - not the cheapest food.

Roy

[huladaman]

Thanks Dr. Roy! This is the peacock from atlantis aquarium you posted about the other day. Shes super healthy and just cruises around the tank all day. I just started noticing the hair algae on Sunday night, so I scrubbed the rocks, siphoned out the sand, changed 10 gallons out of thirty, and replaced all filter pads..... Hopefully this will help out the cause. Now if only the Yolanda would share any of the food I put in the tank with the fish...... have a great day!

[rwhhunt]

I have been succsesful in keeping various clean up crews with my 5-6" female peacock mantis. The BEST imo, is a LARGE Turbo (golf ball sized or bigger) It was added early on, and she never saw it as food....I added ~30 "scuba" snails (illyneaous??)(I found a lot of 50 of them cheap on ebay) I bought them for food, but she wont eat them...I 'll occcasionally hear her banging on one, but I just feed her some krill and she will stop... I also have a 3-4" chocolate chip star, and a 12-15" bubble tip brittle star. The stars are the coolest, because you can feed them as well, but the brittle stays extended in her burrow grabbing any extra food! works out pretty well... I did try to add an anemone, but couldnt keep my nitrates low enough, I am currently trying a new technique, and I will try an anemone again in some time (for my the Allardi Clown)
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