Kessil

hair algea! cant get rid of them

I had to Google paraquat. I've heard it before, but could not remember the context. Thanks again to the internet I found it. If you can, it's always good to buy local. :)

Oh...I had HA algae and I just went the shot gun method. I tried doing one or two things, each for a couple of weeks with no noticeable change. So I did all of the following and it ended it.

1) Pulled/scrubbed HA
2) Filter sock (replaced weekly)
3) Reduce feeding
4) Reduced light hours
5) New lights
6) UV
7) Denitrator
8. GFO
9) Kalk
10) Increase volume of weekly water changes

I did all of it simultaneously, so I have no idea which one or which combination ended it.
 
emerald crabs might be a good idea.. i want to advoid adding any chemical if possible and just trying to do everything.. pulling / scrubbing doesnt work that well because its really hard to get them all when they are in between the rock work and stuff. thank you all every post and advice will be taken in!
 
I have had them pick at corals, knock all kinds of stuff over, take down fish etc etc.

Way better solutions in my opinion. Best solution is to make sure your water quality is correct. It looks like this isn't a new problem for you

http://www.bareefers.org/home/node/1393

Clearly you must have a big nutrient issue if it has been persisting for that long.
 
yea had that problem a while back kind of got rid of it by doing a large amount water change along with removing most of it by hand. the algea recently came back and just thought i ask once more on bar to see if there are anything that i should add to the tank to help control it a bit better.
 
I like my emerald crab, he comes out during feeding time and allows me to spot feed him a shrimp pellet now that the algae is gone.
 
I also had an emerald crab that went rogue on me about 6-years ago. Caught him munching on one of my grammas. Took care of my algae though. If you can spot feed it, it might prevent it from finding other food sources.

To put things in perspective though, I don't even like blue-legged hermits in my tank. I have one in my 55G because I can't find him anymore.
 
well you can't blame an animal for feeding itself if you do not provide it food. my dwarf golden moray punishes me by eating my cleaner shrimp and firefish when I get lazy and not feed him. totally my fault so I can't be mad about it. so if the crab goes rogue its probably cause you don't have any more algae cause they did such a good job to eliminate it and you need to spot feed it or get it out if you know you are going to be lazy about the situation. just my take on it. sorry if this sounds rude just like to call it like I see it.
 
Turbo snails worked for me. They never stop eating. After they finish and your phosphate and nitrate is under contol the snails are easy to remove if they are causing trouble knocking over your corals.
 
One of my tanks had a severe hair algae outbreak. I tried many solutions: Sea Hare, GFO, water changes, lots of manual removal, etc. In the end, what did it for me was introduce enough competition: significant amounts of Chaeto. This is not my main display tank so I did not care. But if you don't have a refugium, maybe is time to get one.

PS: patience. It doesn't go away over night and probably you don't want it either. Also try to figure out why you are having the hair algae problem. In my case it was due to not properly cycling the tank (not by choice) and detritus at the bottom of the tank.
 
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