Sea hare for GHA - last resort

LMSquire

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 16, 2023
Messages
148
Reaction score
143
Location
Santa Cruz
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hey all,

So as a few of you know, I am struggling with green hair algae in my 90 gal reefer. I have a chaeto reactor - not helping. I got 4 tuxedo urchins - not doing much. I’m so tired of manual removal and especially trying to get that short stuff that isn’t long enough to grab!

So my next move is to order a sea hare, but I’m worried about these stories I am reading where they die and nuke the whole tank. My wave makers are on random wave, and I have a grate over my drain. I read they are lawnmowers for gha.

Any reason why I shouldn’t do this? I have to get rid of this algae before it destroys all my corals.
 

Bosreef

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 30, 2020
Messages
301
Reaction score
333
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I bought one absolutely decimated my gha then one day I didn't notice it in the tank anymore must have died and the cuc got it.
Didn't have any negative effect on my tank.

This is only my experience.
 

littlefoxx

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 25, 2022
Messages
7,884
Reaction score
7,575
Location
Denver
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Mine have been great with it! They really only live a year though. Just keep an eye on it so if/when it does pass you can catch it. Only thing Ive had nuke my tank was a dang cucumber!
 

Darstar301

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 29, 2021
Messages
81
Reaction score
51
Location
Maryland
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I bought 3 and it did nothing for the GHA, it just loved sitting in the GHA. Lucky when they passed of hunger it did not nuke the tank. Chaeto reactor also did nothing. Adding tons of cleanup crew and manual scrubbing did nothing. The only thing that works was a cheap algae scrubber that grew the GHA somewhere else Took about 3 month for the GHA to die off the rocks, battled this for over 1 year.
 
OP
OP
LMSquire

LMSquire

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 16, 2023
Messages
148
Reaction score
143
Location
Santa Cruz
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I bought 3 and it did nothing for the GHA, it just loved sitting in the GHA. Lucky when they passed of hunger it did not nuke the tank. Chaeto reactor also did nothing. Adding tons of cleanup crew and manual scrubbing did nothing. The only thing that works was a cheap algae scrubber that grew the GHA somewhere else Took about 3 month for the GHA to die off the rocks, battled this for over 1 year.
This is so discouraging. Hopefully I don’t go through this because I’m so annoyed. What’s worse is that I’m getting ready to set up a water box 380 gal in our new house and it makes me feel like I’m unprepared for that if I can’t even keep gha away
 

MoshJosh

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 27, 2022
Messages
3,941
Reaction score
4,394
Location
Grand Junction
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
This is so discouraging. Hopefully I don’t go through this because I’m so annoyed. What’s worse is that I’m getting ready to set up a water box 380 gal in our new house and it makes me feel like I’m unprepared for that if I can’t even keep gha away
A bit off topic, but may be worth looking into reef flux (flucanazole)

A local reefer and I were both having algae problems at the same time (I also had bryopsis), she used a sea hare and I used reef flux. . . both worked well

In the future I might try a sea hare (I have GHA in a new tank now haha) cause I do prefer to use "natural" methods. . .
 

Mr. Mojo Rising

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 14, 2021
Messages
7,401
Reaction score
8,357
Location
Toronto
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Agree with above, tackle the food source that is feeding the algae, something you are doing is feeding the algae. Can we see pics of the tank?
 
Last edited:

Dburr1014

10K Club member
View Badges
Joined
May 8, 2016
Messages
11,059
Reaction score
10,751
Location
CT
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hey all,

So as a few of you know, I am struggling with green hair algae in my 90 gal reefer. I have a chaeto reactor - not helping. I got 4 tuxedo urchins - not doing much. I’m so tired of manual removal and especially trying to get that short stuff that isn’t long enough to grab!

So my next move is to order a sea hare, but I’m worried about these stories I am reading where they die and nuke the whole tank. My wave makers are on random wave, and I have a grate over my drain. I read they are lawnmowers for gha.

Any reason why I shouldn’t do this? I have to get rid of this algae before it destroys all my corals.
I traded coral for a seahare, it died in the tank, was completly consumed by my cuc. 100g system, all was fine.

After a year of pulling the gha, I dosed reef rx, less than prescribed, and it went away.
 

vabben

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 6, 2020
Messages
401
Reaction score
566
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I say pass on the sea hare, I’ve had zero luck with them. I finally beat back my GHA with heavy phyto dosing and a team of pincushion urchins.
 

Joe.D

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 2, 2022
Messages
260
Reaction score
276
Location
Minneapolis Area
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
My LFS actually will “rent” a sea hare. Once the GHA is gone, they’ll take it back and refund a chunk of the purchase price. That said, I got a Tuxedo urchin. No more GHA after a week or 2 - not much coralline left either. Been a few months and all is well. The urchin is kind of fun - I pick off some debris that he collects every few weeks. He did take out a chalice and cut a stripe on another encrusting coral. But, no GHA. It’s a trade off I’ll gladly take as I too was trying to manually remove for a while.
 

ShadowMan

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
May 7, 2021
Messages
102
Reaction score
135
Location
Surrey
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I think it's a mixed result in terms of algae control, and mine did take to the GHA very well although it wasn't a fan of bryopsis. IMHO it's quite fascinating to watch the sea hare move around and navigate the aquascape. I had no negative effects but unfortunately they seem to have a short lifespan in captivity... mine lasted a year, although I fear my copperband aggravated it, which may have lead to it's shorter lifespan
 
Last edited:

Devaji

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 27, 2016
Messages
7,616
Reaction score
6,972
Location
Jackson Hole, WY
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I am struggling with algae in one of my tanks too. did a long slow lights off cycle with dry rock around 3 months .
I added a bunch of macro algae as it was going to be a sea horse tank and a month running with no fish as i was debating what I wanted to do with this tank. the macos melted...
1st came the brown algae, got that under control then came the stringy GHA only in the middle of the tank, but with trying to remove it in the tank it has spread of one side of the tank in the last week.

I agree with you gotta try to figure out where the N&P are coming from.
in my case I believe it has been over feeding when I am away.
that said the nutrients are in the tank so now we have to get them out.

I have tried GFO, micobactor 7 & an API algae fix. the later did seem to help with the brown slime algae...

I am about to shut the tank down and restart it as a FW planted if I cant get this under control this tank has been a struggle and not really enjoyable. so I hear and feel your struggle ...

my plan:
I cut lighting by 50% in the DT
the ATS on mt large FOWLR is doing great. always been a huge fan of them.
I am going to add one to this tank. prob. will take a few months to see GHA in the DT start to leave.

only have to decide if I want a huge ATS and ditch the over sized skimmer that is IMHO not going a great job or keep it and get a smaller unit.

TLDR:
same boat adding a ATS to out compete the GHA in the DT.
 

Singspot

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 19, 2017
Messages
674
Reaction score
239
Rating - 100%
6   0   0
Use Flux RX and it will definitely fix it.


I used it 2-3 years back (and added Zebrasoma to keep algae proactively in check) .... 0 GHA since.
 

IF YOU HAD A CAREER IN REEF-KEEPING, WHAT WOULD YOU BE DOING? AND WHY?

  • Selling and distributing livestock!

    Votes: 53 33.3%
  • Selling and distributing equipment!

    Votes: 15 9.4%
  • Breeding and Aquaculture!

    Votes: 76 47.8%
  • Livestock Disease and Treatment!

    Votes: 7 4.4%
  • Chemistry!

    Votes: 16 10.1%
  • Designing and Maintenance of tanks!

    Votes: 31 19.5%
  • Research and Education!

    Votes: 38 23.9%
  • Reefing Equipment and Dry Goods Creation and Manufacturing!

    Votes: 19 11.9%
  • Conservation!

    Votes: 39 24.5%
  • Other (please explain)!

    Votes: 6 3.8%
Back
Top