I'm still dealing with the same thing

Sleeping Giant

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I guess I will turn down the lights cut down on feeding. I don't see hair algae, but I guess I don't really know what I am looking at. Thanks for the help
The actual hair part of it will grow from the green spores imbedded in the rock, this is why it's hard to remove and is a long process of erratication
 

j.falk

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It will not scrub off. It is hard green algae. Nothing eats it. I was told it would go away naturally in a couple of weeks. 6 weeks later and it is only thicker and uglier.

Betcha a bleach cure would get it off. :)
 
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My tuxedo urchin is my best green algae eater on rocks - he will scour the rocks. When I was dosing vibrant, the rocks would stay white after he passed by. My fighting conch was also incredible when I had GHalgae on the sand - you don't appear to have that problem.
I used vibrant to fight off bubble algae - it took about 2 months. But it also required manual removal - the vibrant was good at breaking the cycle and at loosening the grip. Without it, I was unable to make a dent. Where algae forms, detritus gets trapped, forming more algae.
Another valuable exercise is blasting your rocks - some use a turkey baster, some use a handheld powerhead - but the crevices of rock hold an incredible amount of material waiting to fertilize your algae.
Expand your clean-up crew - pods are expensive and may not last long, but are rumored to be effective if established. Bristleworms are ugly, but are definitely effective. You might need something that will get into the cracks and crevices - so not just snails and crabs.
You can try dosing peroxide - you should squirt it directly at a spot you want to attack, and no more than about 1ml per gallon of tank volume. It breaks down fast, so it would appear that you can repeat this twice a day (not an expert - you may need to read up on this). I've used it a few times with decent results. You could try a peroxide doser - users of Dr Sochtings oxydator seem to love it. I haven't tried it.
Algae does an amazing job of pulling nutrients (phosphate) out of rocks.
I don't know what size you are dealing with. Rock removal would have been a big production for me, but on smaller tanks, I've just pulled stuff out and scrubbed it, maybe use some peroxide or bleach after checking for critters you want to keep. I prefer peroxide for stuff thats going back in soon, or bleach for stuff I'm putting up dry for a while.
I have changed the lighting schedule down to 6 hours a day. Will an urchin be ok in my tank? 32 gallons and less than a year old. I am willing to try if it will survive. I ordered 5 turbo snails from reefcleaners and 3 came in dead and a hermit killed another one and the last fell over and died. I am nervous about ordering more but I guess I will have to. Thanks
 

Hugh Mann

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I have a tuxedo urchin in a 25 gallon tank. It's really small, maybe 1.5" in diameter.
Making a huge dent in the algae growth. So much so in a week or two I may have to start feeding it algae sheets...

And the tank is only 3.5 months old.
 

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I have changed the lighting schedule down to 6 hours a day. Will an urchin be ok in my tank? 32 gallons and less than a year old. I am willing to try if it will survive. I ordered 5 turbo snails from reefcleaners and 3 came in dead and a hermit killed another one and the last fell over and died. I am nervous about ordering more but I guess I will have to. Thanks
If a Turbo snail falls over, you need to help it flip back or it will die, it can't right itself
 

Suohhen

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I didn't see it for a couple of days. I had one fall off the glass and I didn't see it for two days. Are there any that can flip themselves?
Turban snails are the closest thing to an astrea that can right itself but I find them very hard to find without ordering online. There's also Trochus but they are much different which is a good thing for a CuC, but if your looking for hair algae powerhouses, turbos are the ticket.
I am a huge fan of Astrae even given their weakness as I typically find they tend to only overturn once or twice when first added to the tank but figure it out from there. I also find plenty that overturn within the first few days simply because they are dead and I have far fewer deaths when buying from the best fish stores vs any other means.
 

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