Hair algae HELP

[Anna P]

Hello. I have a 32 gallon biocube and am having a major hair algae outbreak. I have read about sea hares being good at cleaning hair algae but am worried about their toxin, especially in such a small tank. Any suggestions that have actually worked?

 

[Euphyllia97]

How old is the tank? If the reason for an algae outbreak is that your tank is not mature, I would definitely stay away from adding these creatures. Time and patience is your friend in this case. However, If your tank has been running for a long time, I would have a look at nitrates/phosphates and your nutrient export methods. 0 nitrates does not mean your system has 0 nutrients)

If you are looking into just reducing the algae I would stick with “normal” snails, crabs and herbivores to help out with the lowest risk of toxins.

 

[slingfox]

You should post more about your system to increase chances of getting better advice. First line of defense would be manual removal, add an urchin and add more snails that graze the rockscape. Also need to assess your nutrient import and export.

 

[tmcca]

I had success with adding an urchin and manually removing it. It also helped by scraping the rock off of in a bucket. It could be another algae as well. Microscope will help identify the algae.

 

[kevgib67]

My oldest son put one in his 55 gallon that had a lot of gha. Two weeks later he had bare rock. He was supplementing feeding. I had patches of Gha in my Biocube so I put it in my tank and after 4 days I had to put it back so it wouldn’t starve. In over 20 years of reefing I’ve never had or seen anything destroy gha like a sea hare. It is now back in my son’s 55 gallon. It a quick fix but as mentioned above you need to address the underlying issue. Good luck and happy New Year!

 

[Sam7]

They work but if your tank is young and in the early years i would wait until you get your tank parameters in check because its not a once and done fix. There are no short cuts,,,,only time and manual removal and determination to persevere

 

[Sam7]

Please show us your beautiful tank.....so we can see the issue