Is this hair algae? Bryopsis doesn't die!

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debdp

Premium Member
I've never had hair algae before so I'm not sure what it looks like. This algae just started growing on this rock in the last week. Obviously I have a camera hog peppermint shrimp who wanted to get in on the act.
 
Is there a way to control/get rid of it? I'm researching it now. I have a small zoo frag glued on there but it could easily be removed and the rock removed. I was planning on dipping zoas in Lugols & fresh water (RO) tomorrow, would that affect the algae or is something else needed?
 
Sorry but what's TDS? Feeding is minimal, only one shrimp so very small amount of phytoplankton or Coral Food Mix. It's a 3g with a 1.5 g refugium holding Chaeto. Daily water changes. Doing water testing tonight on all tanks. Lighting is 40W PC approx 10 inches above the tanks.
 
I had good experience with wrasses and angels eating it... In fact I have absolutely none left. I kind of liked the algae, though it was pretty, but that's what I said when I found my first Aiptasia over a year ago lol.
 
I purchased some live rock a while back from a member on this site and it was covered in this stuff. I got a few snails and hermit crabs and they are keeping it under control. It's still not down as much as I'd like it to be, but they do a good job keeping it trimmed back. I have no fish in my tank and have not been feeding anything, and this stuff is still around. I really want to get a wrasse but I wanted to give my tank a little while longer to finish it's cycle completely. I've heard that lawnmower blennys are good for trimming back algae as well.
 
@MarkyMark wrote:
I got a few snails and hermit crabs and they are keeping it under control. said:
Hmm could be why it's popped up in my 20g tank as well... I pulled my hermits because they were going after my snails. But none of my snails will eat it... Although I do have two Astrea in my 10g they might find it appetizing. I'll try moving one there and see. I do have the hermits in the pico refugium so I'll put one in the pico main tank and see how it does. But if it messes with the zoos it gets the boot. I'll try putting one back in the 20g as well and see what happens. If those options don't work it'll be rock cleaning time. Thanks all very helpful info... very much appreciated!
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Okay I took this rock and I scrubbed it with a wire brush. Made a Kalkwasser paste and coated it. Let it sit for awhile. Then sat it in RO water in a bowl (with the kalk still on it). Then oops, forgot about it. So what little coraline that was on there died. It was small so not a lot of life either. So a few weeks went by, I rinsed it off with saltwater and stuck it in this small quarantine tank that has some other rock and macroalgae. Two days later the rock was peach fuzzed with bryopsis.
 
I had some of that on some live rock, totally my fault not the sellers, and I tried cerith snails at first to no avail. Hermits didn't work either.

But Margarita Snails seemed to do the trick. They went through it like a lawnmower...literally. They would eat complete swaths of it in a row....kinda like you'd mow a yard.

I had forgotten what the coraline looked like on the rock, it was awesome when they were done....then my hermit decided he liked the margarita shells...

So I guess try a couple margarita snails if nothing else works.
 
What type of hermit did you pull out of your tank because of preying on snails? I do believe some hermits are more inclined to preying on snails than others. I use scarlets exclusively, and while they are opportunistic (feeding on snails that have turned over), they realy do not seek out snails. Down side is their cost, which is much higher than blue legs, as an example. I'm doing a clean up crew group buy with pick up at the meeting in October. Will sell you a few if you want to try them. They are $1.00 each, which is much better then most LFS' which sell them from $3.00 to $5.00. Just let me know.
 
I found this thread that may help get rid of Bryopsis.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=b63e06c77d8b13e13f743756d94ff4e5&threadid=1113109
 
PhilliePhil: I do have a Margarita snail in my 20g. But I'm skeptical of moving the rock there because I don't want that stuff spreading (or does it just stay on the rock it's on?)

tradosz: I have both blue legged and red legged hermits. Previously only had red... and when they got big I would trade them in for smaller ones at Fish Gallery. I was told the blue ones were good so I took a couple. And smaller wasn't better as I had a baby nerite snail and I was sooo happy that my nerites were breeding and the very next day after putting in the new hermits one was in the baby nerite's shell. I was furious. Anyway I've been hermitless for a couple months now and I don't see any issues. Thanks for the offer anyway.

Nieczy: Nice thread. Thanks. It's a small rock... from my 3g pico... so I've removed it and it's in a separate quarantine tank (with the remaining hermits) so I could try that there as there's only some red bubble macroalgae and red fern type macroalgae in there.
 
Debbie,

It will spread, or at it least did in my tank. Fast growing and very thick stuff too. Luckily I had 3-4 margarita's and the hermits I had ate it too, just not as efficiently. It was only a 10 gallon so it didn't take much for them to clear it out.

I would consider buying a couple margarita's and throwing them in the 20g and see if they make a dent and remove the hermit if he acts up. Mine killed a margarita snail for its shell, which I thought was odd because he barely fits in it as it is. Must've like the color and shape :?:
 
@PhilliePhil wrote:
Debbie said:
Actually the Margarita is already in the 20g, it's the rock with bryposis that isn't. I was afraid it would spread to other rock so it got pulled and because of spreading I didn't want to risk putting it in my 20g. I'll try the Magnesium trick first and see if that works, I already have the test kit. Then if that doesn't work I can pick up another Margarita and see what happens. Thanks.
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Mg would probably be better long term, the snails just feed off of it and feed it at the same time.

Good luck and please let us know how it goes. That stuff is a true PIA to get rid of and if the elevated Mg works I'd like to go that route next time.
 
The thing to remember in the thread is that increasing the Mg with magnesium chloride (i.e. Randy's two part solution) alone didn't appear to work you needed something with Magnesium Sulfide in it. It was also recommended that if you were using Epsom salt (magnesium sulfide) you do water changes with salt already high in Mg to get the Mg up and then increase it with the Epsom salt to avoid building up to much sulfide and not drive the ionic balance in your tank to far off. The easiest way would probably be to use the Kent product everyone seemed to be having success with.
 
i have that stuff on a few rocks in my fish only 29, and the fish LOVE it, my singapore angel, lawnmower, and as of yesterday, my scopas tang feast on it ALL day. they have it contained to just the two rocks that it originally showed up on.
 
I had this stuff once. If I ever get it again, I'm selling everything because it was a nightmare to get rid of. I tried snails, crabs, etc. My water was good. It's just unstoppable. I had to eventually cook the rock. This was a long process I do not want to experience again. I took brushes and scrubbed it, and it would come back. I tried urchins, and all it did was eat my coraline. If it's a small rock throw it away, or cook it. Just get it out of your tank. Don't pluck it unless it's out of your tank, because I swear mine spread faster when I did. I'm guessing it releases spores or something. I'll see if I can find a picture of the damage mine did. But if you don't do anything about it WILL take over. 8)
 
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