best crew

[carlinsa]

what is the best thing i can get for my tank to help get rid of alge. i have many snails emeralds pepermint cleaner shrimp and a alge blenny but they dont seem to be doing the job like i think they should.


what else could i get to help knock out alge. i am adding a phosban reactor this weekend HOPEFULLY

[MikeyBoy]

micro hermits..........

[don-n-sa]

Here you go Carl...this by far is the best that I know of.... :lol

[Isis]

My sea hare has done wonders on my hair algae in my tank. Since they only eat algae, I am having to supply her with macro from my fuge and nori sheets, which she plows through in about two days or less.

[greatwit]

Depends on the type of algae. What types of snails do you have in your tank? Also a tang or dwarf angel would be another choice.

[GaryP]

I think the best answer is none of the above. Controlling excess phosphates is the best way to control hair algae. Micro hermits are good, but you are treating the symptoms, not the disease. The cause of haie algae is nutrients, especially nitrates and phosphates. I chased hair algae with herbivores for years without a lot of success. It would just come back after the snails and hermits died back. I'm not saying that herbivores aren't important, but rather its just part of the puzzle. Rather than go with just one herbivore, I would suggest a package. If they are going in with your predators that might be a problem though. I started off with the GARF (www.garf.org) janitors. A lot of people have since copied their cleanup crews such as Reeftopia. The GARF crew is a mixture of Mexican micro red leg hermits, nerite snails, and cerith snails. That was the best general purpose clean up crew I ever saw.

[bigdscobra]

Sand sifting stars do great in the sand.

[chrismikea]

sea hairs are good

[runamukus]

When my tank had hair algae all over, I had the fattest lawnmower blenny ever. I thought he was gonna explode! But even with the blenny, snails and hermits I still had a problem with the hair algae. So I kicked up my skimmer, watched how much I fed the fish, did a few more water changes (and changed to RO/DI water) and the algae quit growing. Then I got a scopis tang and that dude helped the blenny to clean out the remainder of algae hanging on rocks. Now I have a small patch of algae at the base of one of the rocks and it doesn't grow because I keep my nutrients under control.

[witecap4u]

a foxface will tear that hair algae up, if you have the room for one.

cs