zoas have green hair algae growing in side
 

Hi ,
I have a some zoas that have green hair algae all around them an inside of them
How can i get rid of it?
I tryed to pull it out with my fingers but it is not doing the job.
0 nitrates 0phos water good
I got a sea hare to eat the algae but he dose not get in the zoas.

To Reef Central


taking the algea off manually is the best way unless your tank is big enough for a tang or another fish to help eat it. i personally use tweezers to try and win the war. another thing you can do is make sure you have a good clean up crew.

hair algea is not always caused by nitrates or phosphates. there could be many different reasons you have it. lights could be getting old, not enough flow, over feeding your tank blah blah blah.. anyhow telling us abit more about your tank would help us figure out your problem.

I use a soft toothbrush with very gentle strokes in one direction to remove algae from polyps.

There are some threads about dipping in peroxide.

What Slag wrote.

Right now in the nano forum there is a long thread started by Brandon.

I have used it and it works very well.

For some type of algae, no amount of manual removal will work. I have tried them all. They best way I found that worked for me is adding a turbo snail. It cleaned it so well, the frag plug looks brand new. A lawnmower blenny or a tang can do it as well, but I find that if the hair algae gets too long, the fish may not eat the algae.

Algae...

Feeding the tank, small skimmer and other organic nutrients play with algae problems too.
To remove by hand/ tweezers is not the way to go. That only gives us some room to play with the real toys!

1) Make sure the evaporated water is replaced with RO/ DI/ Carbon filtration.
2) Water changes using also filtered water with a good salt.
3) If natural salt water is used for water changes you need to keep an eye on the tank and try the synthetic to compare. Not all the natural sea water is good and low in nutrients.
4) Try not to overfeed the tank at all costs. But feed the animals!!! Find the balance.
5) Make sure your lights are ok for the size f your tank.
6) Temp around 79F is a good way to avoid too many algae.
7) Make sure you skimmer is the right size for your tank.
8) The use of kalkwasser is great to help water chemistry against algae.
8) The use of carbon in the tank will help too.
9) Keep natural predators (fishes and snails) to help.

These are the 10 golden tips against algae problems.

The use of UV light and Ozone are not necessary, but options of some.

Now you need to search about the use/application of all the methods above... :)

Have fun!

Grandis.