lettuce nudibranch

[shobby]

Okay, still have an algae problem, been fighting it for at least a year and half if not longer. Followed all of the things I have been told. All water parimeters are great except for phosphates which seems to be betweeb .5 and 1.0. Use R.O. water, change at water at least every other week. Added 6 emerald crabs, added 20 more hermits, four snails, one sea urchin, and now bought a nudi branch (which many people reccommended), but now I read that they don't eat all types of algae, what do they eat? Help please, I want to get rid of the algae and I don't want to starve the nudis.
Shelley

 

[rtzx9r]

I've been in the same boat for ~ 6 months. Things I have tried (unsuccessfully):

• new vho bulbs (no luck)
• foxface (must be a carnivore)
• cut back on feeding (trigger ate my pair of banded coral shrimp)
• added a sea hare/bali sea monster (didn't touch it)
• 8 emeralds (in 60 gallon tank)
• rowaphos (4x recommended amount)
• manual plucking
  water changes (using real seawater here in S. FL and/or RO/DI)
  skimmer
  high water movement (800gph recirc pump, two korelia 3's)
  lights on limited amount (5-6 hours a day)
  snails, blue legger hermits, etc
  varying temp (on chiller between 76 - 79)

I just added a phosphate reactor today, and will see what that does. Grrrr, it can be frustrating!!

 

[indy2009]

Originally Posted by shobby
http:///forum/post/3006468
Okay, still have an algae problem, been fighting it for at least a year and half if not longer. Followed all of the things I have been told. All water parimeters are great except for phosphates which seems to be betweeb .5 and 1.0. Use R.O. water, change at water at least every other week. Added 6 emerald crabs, added 20 more hermits, four snails, one sea urchin, and now bought a nudi branch (which many people reccommended), but now I read that they don't eat all types of algae, what do they eat? Help please, I want to get rid of the algae and I don't want to starve the nudis.
Shelley
What kind of algae do have? Can't help if you don't tell us what kind. If you don't know, take a picture and post it.

 

[flower]

I got rid of hair algae...I have a 90g tank, I don't know what size you have, but this is how I did it.
I purchased a blue spotted Kole tang ( this fish is GREAT), to assist my lawnmower blenny. I scrubbed my rock as best I could with saltwater so I wouldn't kill it. I did not get all of it, but quite a bit of it.
This gave my algae eaters a head start. I also bought phosphate E, I started rinsing my frozen food that I feed my fish. My problem is gone.

 

[mantisman51]

Lettuce Nudibranch only eat hair algae. It'll starve if there is none. I got one and it cleaned all the hair algae in a matter of weeks, then slowly starved to death. I have a huge hermit and snail population in my 125g tank and haven't had an algae problem since adding them. I still get alot of green algae on the back wall, but that feeds my angel and lawnmower. You know, I put cheato in my DT and that could be a large part of what got rid of it. Cheato eats the same stuff that pest algae does. It grows out and then I pull out the extra and give it away.

 

[shobby]

I have hair algae. All over, except for one small rock, seem to be immune to it. I also tried the foxface, same thing, ate everything but the algae. I go in and srub the rock at least once a week, suck out the algae off the bottom, and change out about three gallons. Also tried the phosphat stuff, slowed it down but did not put a stop to it.
Thought I would try the nudi, so I bought two, one hasn't been seen since I put him in, but I have quite a bit of rock, so hopefully he is in the rocks somewhere. Saw one of the fish biting the other one, but he got away, so I hope the other one didn't turn into fish food.
Thanks Shelley