ideas on how to remove this

[mmm33732]

theres a good amount of hair algae on this rock that i need to get off. thing is that theres some orange zoas on it. theres really no room for me to get my fingers in there or anything and i don't wanna damage the zoas. the rock is a bunch of branches. i believe its an old skeleton of a coral prob. it resembles a tree kind of, so theres really only 1/4 inch between each of the little branch parts. may be hard to tell from the pic, but any ideas?

 

[mmm33732]

here we go. i found this pic... its pretty much exactly how the rock itself is...

 

[alex4286]

hermits and snails will take care of most of it

 

[mmm33732]

Originally Posted by Alex4286
hermits and snails will take care of most of it
they have yet to touch it. even if i put the directly on it, they just walk away. its been in the tank for a few months now with no hermits or snails ever touching it.

maybe if i put it and some hermits in a smaller container with a mesh lid so theres no other food for them...

 

[alix2.0]

you have to take the rock out and scrub it.

 

[mmm33732]

but how would i do that without damaging the zoas? when the close up, you can barely find them, they blend right in.

 

[alix2.0]

oh, i forgot about that. sorry. well your probably going to have to pick it off by hand then, some tweezers might help.

 

[teresaq]

you could try a sea hare.

 

[trey the salt]

I have a sea hare and it is an eating machine, it gave my decorator crab a haircut the other day haha. The crab was not to happy and scurried away with a bald spot.

 

[donald]

I would try emerald crabs. I bought two for my 55g and they eat non stop. i had one spot of bubble alage and now I don't. These things are machines, they will clean glass(where they can reach) rock, sand, snails and hermit crab shells. Anything with alage on it is game. I have had them catch snails and hold them while they clean there shells!!! I'm sure the snails don't like it but they sure look purdy when they get cleaned.

 

[coatej01]

Do you have any tangs? Anytime I get anything like that my tangs and foxface eat it right up!

 

[mmm33732]

yeah, i have yellow tang. it grazes all the time, but never really touches hair algae. will the emerald crab eat other food or only algae? my hermits and kind of switched to fish food instead of algae like they use to eat.

 

[tinmanny]

when the crabs and snales won't do there job it usually means that you are feeding too much cut back on the food and watch in a fiew days they might get the hint and eat the algae
Good Luck
Manny