In your experience, what eats hair algae?

[Miami Reef]

edit

 

[dhnguyen]

If you have GHA then I doubt your nutrients are as low as you think. The Algae is most likely taking up most of the nutrients. Did you use live rock or dry rock in the tank?

 

[Miami Reef]

If you have GHA then I doubt your nutrients are as low as you think. The Algae is most likely taking up most of the nutrients. Did you use live rock or dry rock in the tank?

Nitrates and phosphates are low, but there are other forms in the water that we can’t test for. This is normal.

We need to manage algae with herbivores or manual removal. Starving the tank of ALL nutrients is a bad idea. My goal is to limit the inorganic residual nutrients, but have enough input of the forms corals prefer.

@jda can explain it best. I’ve had the best success with his method. Many ways to run a tank.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I was waiting for someone to tell me that my high nutrients were the issue. Lol

You're asking for it

 

[Miami Reef]

You're asking for it

I know. It’s just a pet peeve of mine when people post their tanks with basic algae, and members jump down their throats about lowering their nutrients, but if there nutrients are already low, they assume the reading isn’t accurate.

Algae should be managed with herbivores and manual removal. That was my point. We can’t control algae by starving the tank, as some members imply.

 

[AcanSamDC]

They are kinda fun like that though, as long as all the little stuff is pretty solid, you are good. Mine havent picked up any big frags, but definitely some frag plugs with zoas. They like zoas for whatever reason. This one has been wearing these scrambled eggs for over a month now. They both seem happy, and the yellow pop makes it easy to spot the urchin. Also, the rock it is on was covered with hair algea, havent touched it in a month either. Just a few tiny stems left to go, but it, like my hairline, is receeding.

Pretty late to the party here, but wanted to share the various Acro hats my guy wears. I’m on paternity leave currently with plenty of time to undo his shenanigans, so for now it’s fairly entertaining and I enjoy an algae free tank.

 

[jda]

Urchins and sea hares work the best for me. Sea Hares do not live long and can be hard to acclimate, but once you get them going, they are algae machines.

Pincushions are good, but they like to carry things around. Rock and pencil urchins stay on the rocks more than the glass and they do not pick stuff up. Tuxedo are also good for hairy types of algae, but only live a few years. If you keep the glass super clean, the urchins will stay on the rocks more.

I have to put the snails back on the rocks most of the time before they work their way back out to the glass. The hermits will eat algae very well, they just don't eat a lot - if I put an algae covered frag plug into my display, about a dozen hermits will find it within an hour and pick it clean. The hermits are probably better at spot cleanin.

 

[JohnD4g]

Ditto on the tuxedo sea urchin suggestion. Also Halloween urchins work well too. But be aware they can bulldoze your corals.

 

[Reeferbadness]

What type of urchin?

i have 3 tuxedo urchins + a purple urchin. The tuxedo's are great - still quite small and do an amazing job. The purple one is getting rather large but is also a great add to help keep algae in check. I would add turbo snails to the list - they also do a good job

 

[Jeremy_d]

I have had fantastic luck with turbo snails, I know those aren’t the first choice given their habits for knocking over coral. But I’ve also had Emerald Crabs and Blue Leg Hermits eat it also. The Blue legs aren’t as efficient at really scraping the rock clean they kind of trim it down, but the emerald crabs I’ve had pick the rock c l e a n.

I’ve never personally had a sea hare, but I’ve seen them take GHA out in mass. Non stop eating. Once it runs out of GHA move it to another system that has it, much like a conch they need a lot of food.

Sea Hare eating GHA
(not my video)

 

[Fritz05]

I've never owned an urchin that ate green hair algae. I've had tuxedos, longspine, and pincushions.

Same here. My two tuxedos in two separate tank do not touch any green algae. But they eat the coralline, making space for the GHA, so for me, they made the algae situation worse.

 

[BZOFIQ]

Like everyone already said, urchins.... and I'll add emerald crabs to suggestions.

 

[Miami Reef]

Like everyone already said, urchins.... and I'll add emerald crabs to suggestions.

I tried urchins and I already have like 8 emerald crabs. They didn’t touch it.

The hair algae was derbesia, and a desjardini tang eliminated it.