Two questions - Your input requested

[melev]

[I just spent two wonderful hours picking away at any and all green hair algae I could find in my 29 gal. As that tank is full of corals, you can imagine what fun that was. Would a Lawnmower Blenny be a good choice to assist me in this process? And please list some of its enemies if you know of any. Recently, the algae got rather out of control and I'm pretty sure it was because my PS stopped working properly. I cleaned the pump, and it is pulling out all kinds of skimmate again.

#2 is for Brad: That little coral frag with birght green polyps... did you say that was a Montipora Digitata? I glued it to a scallop shell last night, and put it in the 29 gal under my PCs, and it seemed to be happy.]

 

[Brad Ward]

[Hi marc,

Fish are all right as far as algae control goes, but I have been mostly dissapointed whenever I try and them. I much prefer snails and hermit crabs as a biological fix. Of course, water quality is the main culprit for algae outbreaks...

It is a Montipora. Not digitata though. It is origanally from the Solomon Islands and is an encrusting type coral. It's a fast grower and really is a nice coral. I basicall have given up on id'ing sps corals for the most part because of the growth forms that they take on in captivity.]

 

[Anonymous]

[My snails ignore the hair algae. Also, I have read that the Lawnmower usually ignores it too. Not sure, but thats what I have read.]

 

[ck1]

[IMO it's a 50/50 chance the blenny will work.

some species that you might be interested in are:

emerald crab....but some say do not put into a reef, once algae is gone, might bother corals

Trochus snails...again 50/50
Cerith species
Baha red leg hermits do well

how long have you been having this algae "problem"?
how are phosphates?]

 

[ck1]

[oh, just read your next reply on topic]

 

[melev]

[@ck1 wrote:

I've had a very minor amount of it for some time. It got pretty bad over the past 2 months, but I brought it way back under control. I mean, my tank isn't green with algae, but it isn't pristine with LR either. I have this wispy stuff in a number of places, and very short pieces I can't pluck off, plus areas where my hand simply doesn't fit between the rock and the glass.

Nitrates 2ppm
Phosphates .1
pH 8.0 - 8.1

Tested last week. Top off RO/DI]

 

[ck1]

[i know exactly what you mean, have the same situation in my tank, just a couple small places i just cannot reach, other than that....no other algae problems]

 

[melev]

[I would love to hook up a primed pump, and suck the #### out of a few places on my rockwork to eradicate the stuff. But I would have to work really fast before my water was completely sucked out of the tank. ]