Thinking about a Sea Hare!

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Talk me in or out of it but I'm tired of battling a persistent hair algae issue and hoping I can get the Sea Hare to clean it up!

I'm skimming good, got my nutrient levels down, I'm not overfeeding at all and I believe I'm not seeing any new growth spots for the algae but what I have remains and in an 8ft x3ft tank I can't pull all of it.

Thoughts?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Rev, what else is in the tank that could eat algae? Do you have any tangs or other herbivores?
I had a small sea hare I brought home from the beach. It did OK in my 16g holding tank for a couple of weeks. So I released it into the 40g tank and I never saw it again!

 

[motortrendz]

I had one it did great for a bit eating hare algae. Then it just rolled over and died. Literally. Y dont you dose fluconazole, no carbon and run a phosphate remover to remove all the po4 released by the dying hair algae.. it's worked for me.

 

[RyanHoan]

Do it! Mine single handedly wiped out an ulva outbreak in my 60g

 

[Boston reefer]

I had one it did great for a bit eating hare algae. Then it just rolled over and died. Literally. Y dont you dose fluconazole, no carbon and run a phosphate remover to remove all the po4 released by the dying hair algae.. it's worked for me.

I had a very similar experience when I added a sea hare. It was great for a few months. Then one morning, there it was on its back dead in the middle of the display. Rip mr. sea hare!

 

[AlexG]

I tried a couple of sea hares and they did do some algae cleaning but they did not last very long even with a large supply of algae. Long spine sea urchins and pin cushion are my go to for algae control. I would start out with 2-4 in a tank that size and if they are not dealing with the issue in a few weeks add a couple more to the display. While urchins can knock corals over and carry them away they never stop eating and are very hardy. If you have a refugium running I would increase its light intensity to encourage algae growth in that space rather than the display tanks. If you maintain nutrient control the algae should start getting consumed without regrowing in the display. I used this combination of urchins, nutrient control, and light intensity in the refugium to resolve my algae issues. I let the refugium run wild with all kinds of algae and it stays out of the displays.

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

Mine was awesome and huge (5 in) and kept the HA at bay. I rotated it from the DT to the refugium when the chaeto got out of control as a way to keep my pods from getting thrown away. It died three weeks ago when it got stuck in a small pump ?! The HA is now back with a vengeance so I bought another sea hare (but MUCH smaller) along with a couple of turbo snails . Hope to get the upper hand again on the HA soon with the little hare and added snails...