Red Hair Algae In QT

Marco S · Jun 17, 2019

What can I use to get rid of hair algae in my coral QT? I cannot have fish, so it would have to be some kind of invert that will eat the algae and not my corals. I put in two Fighting Conch, but they do not appear to be able to climb the rack to get to the coral.

Here is a pic of the setup and a few close ups of the algae:

Any help is much appreciated!

LiveWire · Jun 17, 2019

This may help.

Marco S · Jun 18, 2019

LiveWire said:
This may help.

Thanks!

I actually had several Turbo snails in QT as well, but they didn't pay attention to the coral at all. I went and got 4 more Turbo snails that were a lot smaller and like he said in the video I put them exactly where the algea was growing on the coral and they immediately went to work. There is still some algae on a few frags, but the ones they cleaned are cleaner than when I first put them in! I will re position them again tomorrow on the remaining frags with algae and hopefully they will clean them as good as they cleaned the ones today.

Thanks again!

LiveWire · Jun 18, 2019

Glad that I could help out. Make sure to get some Nori or other Algae sheet for the Turbos after they get done cleaning up everything otherwise they will wind up starving. If you keep them happy they will be ready to work on any algae that happens to return.

Marco S · Jun 18, 2019

LiveWire said:
Glad that I could help out. Make sure to get some Nori or other Algae sheet for the Turbos after they get done cleaning up everything otherwise they will wind up starving. If you keep them happy they will be ready to work on any algae that happens to return.

I have algae wafers I have been breaking into smaller pieces and feeding my snails while they are in QT and will do the same with them once they are done with what's in the tank.

As far as the video goes, the fact that you can direct the snails to eat the algae in specific places by just placing them directly on that algae is GENIUS!!! Thank you so much for sharing that video! that is something I will definitely use going forward in both my Saltwater and Freshwater tanks.