Isolated spots of GHA

[perpetual98]

Hi everyone. I've got a 120G tank that I'm starting to notice little isolated patches of green hair algae appearing. I've been trying to keep an eye on it and manually grabbing it when I can, but it keeps popping up in hard to reach places. I know how to cure it in a more drastic fashion (I've had to do it in my other 120G tank) but I'm not sure how to do it in this circumstance.

Here's what I did in my other tank:

Since there wasn't any light "loving" corals in there (mainly softies) I cut the light period all together and covered the tank with a comforter for a week. When that trauma was over for the tank, I pulled all of the LR out except the large base pieces and scrubbed it all on a bucket of saltwater. I then waited an hour or so with all of the pumps off and sucked the settled hair algae off of the bottom during a huge water change. Problem solved (albeit a lot of work)

I can't go that route on the other 120G tank because I've got all sorts of corals in the tank that require light or I'll lose them.

Here's what I'm figuring:

1. Get rid of my Turboflotor 1000 skimmer and get something larger like another ASM or something. Anyone got a G3X for sale? :)
2. Move all of my corals to the other tank and nuke the heck out of the problem tank. The problem with this is that the GHA is growing in little patches on a lot of rocks that I have frags on
3. Get a couple lettuce nudibranches or a sea hare to chomp the algae. I haven't had any luck with snails or crabs
4. *Here's the crazy one* Acclimate some mollies to SW and put them in the tank. I've read some threads elsewhere that talk about mollies eating GHA

Any other suggestions?

Thanks!
Eric

[dakar]

How about a lawnmower blenny? Maybe a pencil urchin or something similar, though they tend to be more of a bull in the china shop type critter if your frags aren't nailed down, they are supposed to be fantastic all around algae eaters...

or 'the crazy one' This being MY prefferred method, bring all of your corals up to us and we'll house them while you treat the tank, though obviously you will be required to waive any and all rights to missing frags from them then you return to pick them up.

[perpetual98]

I've got a lawnmower blenny in one of my tanks. Maybe I should try to catch it and put it into the GHA tank? You know how much fun it is to catch a fish in a reef tank. I'd be better off buying another one I think. :)

[dakar]

I've got a lawnmower blenny in one of my tanks. Maybe I should try to catch it and put it into the GHA tank? You know how much fun it is to catch a fish in a reef tank. I'd be better off buying another one I think. :)

You can eiher wreck the whole place trying to catch him or just take out all the rock and stuff and then try to catch him, the last one will definately be quicker.... Might be better to let go of the $15 or so and get another.

No dice on the urchin though huh? I've contemplated one on and off for a while now, just cool to look at, but i think the bulldozer effect would send Angel over the edge and I'd wake up with him sticking out of my forehead.

[perpetual98]

That's my take on urchins too. If anything, I'd get a pincushion or something instead of those spikey jobbers. Besides, pincushion urchins are kind of amusing when they drag stuff all over the tank that's become attached to them. lol Then again, with my luck I'd look over at the tank and it would be dragging a bunch of my palys or eagle eyes around on it's back. I thought that they also will eat anything in their paths including SPS. Is that true?

[Reptoreef]

Hey... ever consider adding a closed loop for more chaotic water flow(wavemaker, sea swirl, ocean motion, SCWD, etc)?

[graphixx]

I would try increasing the flow in the tank. hair algae does not like a lot of flow. I had it growing in patches and I took a powerhead and aimed it right at the patch and it went away. And the lawnmower blenny, those things are machines when it comes to algae eradication!!!!! I would not take such drastic measures. this is an easy fix!!!!!

[perpetual98]

I must have some sort of mutant nuclear GHA then. LOL I've had it growing directly in front of a powerhead to the point where it was laying flat on the rock. I might swing into Milwaukee at lunch and look for a LMB.

[graphixx]

oh man I love the lawn mower, not only are they algae eating machines, but they have so much personality allways perching on a rock trying to look pretty (whichh is hard they have a face o nly a mother could love) my little neice calls mine "goblin" but I love tht fish he is awesome.

[perpetual98]

The one I've got it pretty awesome too. I just don't think I could catch him to put him in my other tank. He leaves "kiss" marks all over the glass and is constantly cruising around. I had to catch him in the overflow the other day because he jumped the divider. I guess that would have been the perfect time to put him in my other tank, but I wasn't thinking at the time.

[perpetual98]

**UPDATE**
Well, I ended up getting a lawnmower blenny about a week and a half ago. He's the cutest little bugger, but shows no interest in the GHA.

I actually had some time this weekend for tank maintenance, so I did a 22 gallon water change on one of my 120G tanks on Saturday, and on Sunday I did a 25G water change on the 120 that has the algae in it.

While I was doing the water change, I pulled quite a few rocks out of the tank and scrubbed them with a brush. I also re-aquascaped a bit. The only rocks that I didn't pull out and scrub were the ones that were way at the bottom of my live rock pile. I tried to manually grab some of that algae. I had a HUGE wad of it behind my live rock too. It was nasty. Probably about the size of a baseball when I grabbed it and pulled it out. Stinky too.

We'll see how things look now. I moved a lot of stuff around and spent a long time scraping corraline from some neglected parts of the tank. The side of my tank that gets natural daylight from the window has some brutally thick corraline on it. It took a while to scrape off, but the tank looks better now I think.

[graphixx]

well lets hope that does the trick. your LMB should catch on and attack the algae

[Blk_Lotus]

#ed_op#DIV#ed_cl#Yeah, I've noticed that Lawnmower blennies can be finicky about their food intake for a while after moving from one tank to another. Give the little fella some time,he'll figure out he's supposed to EAT the stringy stuff eventually. Though don't be surprised if he spends a week or two sitting on it beforehand. Sometimes I wonder if our tank inhabitants are just messing with us for stealing their house and dumping them into an alien aquascape.#ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl#