Glenner’sreef
2500 Club Member
It sounds like there are no fish or inverts in the tank now? Is there just rock with hair algae on it? If so I’d take the rock out and scrub it!!! There are so many possibilities. How long are your lights on? Is the tank next to a window? Do you have good flow in your tank? Are you feeding the tank? Any filtration running presently? A bit more info and a photo would be helpful. Thx
Sharkbait19
10K Club member
Manual removal and a good cuc is the best thing to do. You need to do the heavy lifting, but a cuc keeps it from coming back.
connordv
Community Member
Very good flow, Bunch of snails and hermits + Emerald Crab, Can't take rock out because main rock, lights are on 8-12 hours a day, tank is near a window, I am feeding the tank, normal filter, in school so cant send photo right away!
Glenner’sreef
2500 Club Member
Very cool. So if all you have are crabs and snails, I’d do a lights off for a couple of days. Also the window next to the tank is trouble. Whether direct sun light or diffused you need to control your lighting. Foods unfortunately especially pellets have phosphorus. That’s like an In and Out Burger for hair algae. Experiment and cut back a bit on feeding, amount not frequency.
EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
If the tank is near a window, it's likely you are getting extra growth from the sunlight... This will be a constant problem unless you block the light.
(And hair algae is rarely an emergency
)
This is not an emergency, you should fix the title.
Algae growing is a natural filter of nutrients. Removing it by hand is removing the nutrients from the tank. The only downside is - it's ugly and if it gets too long it can crowd out corals. At which point - manual removal.
You can reduce the nutrients in your system to start. There are multiple methods, find one that works for you. With a tank that size, water changes is not an unattractive method, but other methods will work. I use multiple things.
I don't know of any utlity fish for a tank that size that will eat algae. But as long as you don't have any branching euphillia, an urchin will eat as much as algae as a many snails. Buy 1 of them in addition to snails to eat the algae.
Also, most clean up crew members like the short stuff. So you'll probably need to manually remove the longer bits.
Algae growing is a natural filter of nutrients. Removing it by hand is removing the nutrients from the tank. The only downside is - it's ugly and if it gets too long it can crowd out corals. At which point - manual removal.
You can reduce the nutrients in your system to start. There are multiple methods, find one that works for you. With a tank that size, water changes is not an unattractive method, but other methods will work. I use multiple things.
I don't know of any utlity fish for a tank that size that will eat algae. But as long as you don't have any branching euphillia, an urchin will eat as much as algae as a many snails. Buy 1 of them in addition to snails to eat the algae.
Also, most clean up crew members like the short stuff. So you'll probably need to manually remove the longer bits.
EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
How many tangs would you recommend for a 14 gallon tank???
Lol, you can get a small, cheap one?
EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
I hope you're not serious
Anyways,lawnmower blenny should do the job.
Sharkbait19
10K Club member
Curious - what’s the risk with the urchin and euphilia?
Good question, which is why I should also mention that if you like coraline algae, the urchin might not be a good idea either because they'll eat the coraline. Personally, I dislike the stuff.
The branches on the euphyllia will get a little algae on them, like a turf algae or something. The urchins will want to eat it, but every time an urchin takes a bite, they take a little bit of the stalk with them. Over time, they will completely chop the branches off and the heads will just fall off. It's basically like a beaver cutting down a tree.
I had a hammer with 3 branches. And 1 by 1 each branch was chopped down. At the time I had no idea what was going on and what would do it. No pests were known to do this, and nothing in my parameters would cause the branches to dissolve. The heads were fine, I glued them to another rock, and they are still alive now years later.
Luckily on the very last head I happened to see the urchin on the branch eating away. I moved the urchins into my anemone tank, and never had another issue. So I am 100% sure the urchins were the ones chopping my hammer down.
Sharkbait19
10K Club member
Thanks for the info
I may have to rethink getting an urchin for my 40B. If I try it I’ll definitely keep an eye on it.
adpuls34
Community Member
What happens with urchins an branching euphyllia? I have two branching hammers in a 30 gallon and I just added a tuxedo urchin two days ago
Read above. I don't know if the kind of urchin matters, mine was just a plain pink urchin.
But if you start to notice bite marks or branches getting chopped off, then the urchin is to blame.
