hair algae(?) in my DSB

[psumba]

What are the best inverts to get rid of hair algae?
At least thats what I think I have - its green, stringy, and hard to pick up out of my DSB.
I currently have turbo snails, marg snails, astrea snails, 3 types of hermit crabs, a bristlestar, an emerald crab, 2 peppermint shrimp
TIA.

 

[jim672]

We are....Penn State!!
Hey PSUMBA, glad to see another PSU alum on the board.
I've not heard of too many inverts that will eat hair algea. Most of the commons inverts, snails and hermit crabs, just ignore it. A better plan is to try to figure out why you have the algea and fix that. What are your water parameters? How long has your tank be set-up? Do you have crushed coral as your substrate? Do you have live rock and if so, is the hair algea growing on that, too?
For the glory!!
Jim

 

[psumba]

Jim
So what gave me away that I am a Penn State alum?
responding to your help - thats the funny thing, my water parameters are dare I say perfect?
0 phosp, 0 nitrate, ph 8.2, ca ~550
I have LR, but none of the hair algae is growing on it, only on the DSB. My substrate is a aragonite based, varying types of sand from Coral Sea (I think). I am soon going to get some Fiji LS to accentuate it.
My tank has been set-up since Mar (when I first added water). I have been slowly adding to it since..LR for cycling, clean-up crew, a yellow tang, more lr, a xenia sp.
My guess is that I have good water parameters but the algae is "eating" anything that is in the water leaving it that way. Leading the conclusion to be that I am overfeeding. So I am trying to cut back and find the happy medium from starving my poor tang and keep him fat and happy.

 

[salvatore]

Your, um, login name is psumba (Masters from Penn State?)

 

[jim672]

psumba,
A lucky guess? I figured it was either that or you were named after one of the animals in "The Lion King"......
I have a couple of concerns/issues. If I understand your reply, you've had your tank set up for about 2 months, but you've been adding lr intermittently since then. If that's the case, I'd guess you have not allowed your tank to finish its cycle and every time you add lr, you may be starting mini-cycles. Hair algea can be a normal part of cycling.
Tangs should be added only to mature systems. They require stable water conditions and they are grazers who need lots of algea to forage. If you can, I'd return the tang to your lfs. Add it back only after a few months, assuming no other or on-going water problems. Of course, I don't know how big your tank is.....and tangs should not be in anything smaller than a 75.
Beyond that, xenias in a new system like yours are asking for trouble/death.
Soooo.....try to return the tang and xenia and stop adding stuff. Continue to test your water....ammonia, nitrites and nitrates until all parameters are "0".
Please let me know how you're doing.
Jim

 

[wrassecal]

Nothing against Penn State but Sooners rule.....uhm oh yeah, I didn't see how big your tank is, but I also put my yellow tang in a little early ( at 2 mos) in my 55. If you can't or don't want to return the tang, get some seaweed selects, or seaweed salad or nori, basically dried seaweed sheets at lfs and a veggie clip and put about a sqaure inch of it a day and your tang will graze on it all day. Mine has been with me 4 mos now and is doing great. If I don't get it's seaweed up by noon it darts to to the clip every time I walk by to remind me! Also, you might do a search on hair algae here but do you know if you have any silica in your sand? I've heard it can cause hair algae outbreaks and diatom problems

 

[psumba]

I guess you can really tell sarcasm in writing can you - I knew how you could tell I have a masters from PSU.
Well let me describe better. I dont have my logbook with me so I will estimate dates.
I added water and base rock (non-live) to my tank (55gal) around early Feb. Then I added 2-3 pieces of LR (~3-5)to start cycling. Most of the cycle was complete (Nitrite ~ 5 on the low range readings), and algae was starting to break out on glass, rock, etc.
So I picked up a 20gal clean-up crew, and some more LR ~15#. This happened probably about 3 weeks into it. This did kickup the cycling again.
This was late march.
I waited until the Nitrite was 0 - about another week or so - and then I purchased my Yellow Tang and another 1-2# of LR. We had some bouts with ich (I didnt quarantine) but since he has been fine (tooks 2 weeks or so). That was end of March/early April.
After everything was stable, I added the Xenia Sp. and 2 peppermint shrimp.
That was right around April 15th.
That reminded me about buffering the water to hold my pH. Its feeling much better now, I have a colony growing.
All along my readings (Nitrate, Phosphate, etc) always have been 0. I have had minor hair algae growths in the sand, but last week I went away on a trip, and I come back and there is alot more. And well it confused me. My water parameters are not showing anything.
The only thing that I can imagine is I have been overfeeding.
DAB - thats exactly what I do. I have a feeding clip and the Seaweed Selects. He likes that and Frozen Brine. its funny because he will also eat flake spirulina, but when I have tried flake brine he wont even touch it.
Ill have to look at the bag at the LFS to see if its list silica as a component. I am sure it must - its sand right. If you get LS arent you going to have the same issue? If this is the proper conclusion, then I cant fix the problem, and I have to find something to control the result, right? Like something that happens naturally in the ocean...hmmmmm