I'm moving and I plan to upgrade my aquarium. Currently I have some bubble and hair algae in my tank. I have 5 pitho crabs slowly picking away the bubble. I just got a Sea Hare about 6 days ago. I'll see it sort of attempt to eat the hair but its been mostly grazing at the coraline algae on the glass. I was really hoping it would be the fix. I ordered Flux RX a couple days ago but im hesitant on using it. I really want to use this rock in my next tank. I turned off my whites. Nitrates at 3.5 and Phos is at .02 and these have been pretty much the same numbers for a while. I picked out a lot of the hair algae and took a brush to some areas. Its not to crazy right now but I know it'll be back. Any recommendations?
More elbow grease; less waiting around for something to happen! :)
But seriously....this is something many (most?) of us go through. Algae do not wait for you; you should not wait for them. Get in there and aggressively remove 100% of it by hand....ideally the same day you first notice it, but obviously that ship has sailed. ;)
Here's the best technique if you haven't done it before:
Notice there's no toothbrushing tho! That's better for spreading the algae. A better "extra" would be UV or micron filtration....that will slow or stop the algae's spread while you're working on the issue.
If there's a lot of algae, work in small 2"x2" areas and TOTALLY remove the algae from that area. When done, gently place a snail there from your cleanup crew and they will know to return to keep that area clean.
Proceed similarly with the next 2"x2" area, and the next.
If there's REALLY A LOT of algae, I'd try not to work sections like that for longer than 20 minutes at a time without taking a good break. DO try to work on it every day though.
Remember that you might need a CUC upgrade while you're at it. Don't add too many all at once, but DO focus only on herbivorous snails....no hermits or other scavengers.
