seahorse safe hair algae eaters

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

I'm getting hair algae in my new 75g. I have no idea why. There wasn't anything in it but 100 nass snails and 30 micro hermits. I wasn't feeding it untill last night when I fed the new seahorses. The macros that are in the new 75g. came out of the sump of my 65g and a few I ordered online. The hair algae is growing on my prolifera. I have TONS of macros in this tank. I thought they would out compete the HA for food. Not true obviously. There is pretty good flow in this tank with the mag 9.5. Even though the new seahorses are small, they seem to like the flow. I did install a ball valve to "throttle back" the mag 9.5, but I have it wide open since the seahorses seem to enjoy it.

Tank info:
75g rr tank
mag 9.5 return
20g sump w/ older asm g3 (no macros or LR in sump...will be when I get new sump installed.)
40 lbs LR

Ammonia 0
Nitrate 5
nitrite 0
Ph 8.2
Temp 72
Phosphate 0
calcium 450
alk 14 dkh

What eats hair algae that is Seahorse safe? Urchins will eat it I've heard, but I don't think they are Seahorse safe. What about seahares? I plan on getting a few huge turbos. Probably on Friday. Any other suggestions?

Since this is a new tank setup, I'm getting the diatom bloom on the rocks and sandbed. (kinda brownish) I know this will pass, as I've never had a lasting problem with it. It's just the HA that bothers me. I know there's no harm in it, but I'd rather get rid of it before it becomes a major problem. If it starts to smother my feather algae or any of the reds.....then it will be WAR!!!

I do use RO di water for water changes and top off. Always have. TDS meter reads .5

Angie

[reef123]

you should try some blue-legged hermit crabs, mine like to eat my algae, and don't bother anything else.

[reef123]

nice tank

[dakar]

You know this may sound silly, but in Angel's pony tank she interchanges some fake plastic type plants, not the gaudy ones of 10 years ago, the nice ones. For some reason HA is attracted to them like some crazy HA magnet... they grow HA all over then she pulls them out and cleans'm off and plops them back in... next to zero anywhere else in the tank when the magnets are in place.

Figuring if you must have HA from the high nutrient/low flow environment, them at least make it easily removable.

For a natural predator, how about a lawnmower blenny? They are quite docile to everything but their own species.

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

I added 4 seahares to the 75g tank and 1 to my nano. All of the frags I have in my 10g nano came from the 65g that also had HA. I'm hoping they will take care of the HA problems. Once they take care of it, all but 1 will be returned to the LFS. I will rotate the 1 I'm keeping between tanks so it never runs out of HA to eat. I have tried lawnmower blennies. They never ate the HA, just the algae off of the glass and all of my prized Red macro algaes. Little brat!! Wouldn't eat any of the easy to come by green algaes.....just the expensive reds. Left cute little "lip prints" all over the glass though. Maybe I will try another one later.

Angie

[pledosophy]

Lawnmower Blennies are not seahorse safe IME. Blue legged hermits are also more on the risky side, however a lawn mower blennie is capable of killing a seahorse. Often times seahores grow algae on there backs and the chasing of the blennie can be quite stressful.

4 seahares in a 75g tank aren't going to last you very long a all. IME two in a 65g was overkill. JME

Nuissance alage in a new tank is no that uncommon.
Even though your phosphates measure at 0, it is still possible and very likely they are there and being absorbed by the macro and hair algaes.

I'd keep doing what your doing, remember to rinse the mysis for the seahorses and, keep a close eye out. Very often new tanks will experience a nuissance algae phase, just keep on top of it.


BTW IME Turbo's love red macro's. :D

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

Ok maybe something got missed here, lol. The 75g tank will not be a seahorse tank. It will be a reef tank. The seahares are dwarf seahares and are on LOAN from my LFS. I won't be keeping them once the HA is taken care of. The lawnmower blennie will NOT be going in the 65g Seahorse tank, it would be in the 75g reef tank. I think you underestimate the amount of HA in the 75g tank. Think 80% coverage. It's been 2 days and they have only cleared a patch the size of a baseball. It will take them awhile.

I now rinse the thawed mysis shrimp EVERY time. I started rinsing it about a month and a half ago. It's before that I started having the problem. I didn't rinse it then. (shame on me)

As for the blue leg hermits, I have the micro hermits and they have never caused a problem. They are smaller then a pea. I only have 20 in the tank. I do have a few large scarlet hermits, but they are in the 75g tank and I would never put them with the seahorses.

My mexican turbos cleared out a very impressive sized clump of red grape macro overnight. I could have killed them I was so mad. All turbos were removed at that time......that's another reason the HA got out of hand. I have now removed what reds I have left to a safe tank untill the HA is gone. The turbos will be removed before the red macros are returned to the seahorse tank. If they would eat the HA as fast as the reds, I'd be estatic. The reds must be sweeter or something. It seems everything eats the red macros. Go figure.

Angie

[mutts]

that sucks angie, the only thing i can think of that hasn't been talked about is slowing and very carefully pulling the hair algae off the rocks/sand/glass/whatever. if you do this as long as you can stand it everyday for a while it should (hopefully) take care of it

[pledosophy]

Originally Posted by Sea~Horse~Whisperer

Ok maybe something got missed here, lol. The 75g tank will not be a seahorse tank. It will be a reef tank.

Sorry, the title of the thread and all the comments about seahorse safe hair algae eaters must have confused me. :D

The seahare will clear a path but aren't really a solution unless you have a means of exporting the nutrients. IME

Good Luck

[JustDavidP]

tuxedo urchins are fine in pony tanks. I'd just keep away from the diadema or other real spiny guys.. just because ponies are clumsy and don't tend to look where they are hitching.

FWIW.. I've kept scarlet, blue, zebra, all kinds of hermit crabs in my pony tank without ill effect. Yeah, every once in a while they try to get some "tail" but the ponies never get bitten. The darned asterina stars are more of a nuisance to the seahorses than the hermit crabs.

Dave