algae problem

[Novafire]

which is better at getin rid of hair algae a yellow tang or some cleaner shrimp

[TimH07]

a yellow tang should be kept in a minimum of 100 gallon tank and wouldn't cure hair algae anyhow, a cleaner shrimp won't eat it either.

the only really good way of getting rid of it is using ro/di water and picking it out.

if this is in your small tank that is not cycled yet then dont put anything in it yet anyway let it run its course.

[Novafire]

no this is in my bros 75 gallon tank. so you can't buy anything to get rid of it

[TimH07]

there is no real "buy to fix" animal, think about it, if it fixes the problem now you have another problem.. .now you dont have food for that animal (like buying that one nudibranch to kill aiptasia, it runs out of food after doing its job and dies) and you havent solved the source

all algae are due to nutrients in the water, reduce the nutrients or get macro algae to use them up so the micro algae wont grow and maybe try to keep your alkalinity above 9-10dkh (from what ninong mentioned in another post im led to believe this will curb it but dont take that for fact as im not sure about htat yet, i'll look it up)

does your brothers tank have bio-balls? or a skimmer?

[charlesr1958]

A brown scopas tang (I have one in an 80gal) and a variety of herbivore snails, lots of them. To further reduce dissolved nutrients, why not put that type of algae to work for you? An algae turf scrubber not only naturaly "filters" the water, but creates another habitat for many organisms that go towards feeding other critters in the tank, specialy corals.

A Reef Aquarium Clean up Crew

A Philippine Fringing Reef & The Reef Aquarium - Part one

Chuck

[yvr]

Eliminating algae is tough, and removing excess nutrients is the key. Using RO/DI water is a good start and using a high quality salt with no NO3, P04, silicates etc. like Tropic Marin will really help too. I have also found that the Foxface Rabbit Fish is a good hair algae grazer, but they do grow pretty large.

[metalhead]

I agree with Tim... The only really effective means of controlling algae in a captive marine system is nutrient export via ATS or refugium.

[peasofme]

1 large mexican turbo snail per 10 gallons and manual scraping.