Who likes green hair algae ?

[aquanaut]

Hi guys

I have a 30 gallon long reef tank,and ahve a slight green hair algae problem. Besides Tangs... are there any smaller fish that will eat this stuff.

 

[Fluff]

SW mollies love the stuff if you can find them.

 

[mykpoz]

i believe lawn mower blenny's like it too from what I heard...

 

[aquanaut]

Fluff Can you acclimates fresh water Mollies to salt ? I thought I heard something about it ??

 

[arminkropp]

Fluff Can you acclimates fresh water Mollies to salt ? I thought I heard something about it ??

This is from a book I have:

using an airline and valve, drip marine water at a rate of 1 drop per second into their container(4 liter milk jug). As the container fills the water should be discarded, a little at a time.

not all species of mollies are suitable for conversion. Black hybrids and high-fins are generally fine but TRUE species are not.

hope this helps

 

[Jason]

lawnmower blenny!!!


oh, and on SW mollies, The guys at my LFS took some mollies out of the fresh water tanks and tossed them in with an eel. the eel didn't eat them and the mollies were instantly converted to salt. I think they let the mollies stayed in the tank for maybe 2 months before the eel finally ate them. they did not die though, not from being put in the SW at least.

 

[noteworthy]

I like hairline algae. You just should leave it in there as long as it is controlled. Something about coraline growing all over LR and hair algae being pushed off a powerhead that is just appealing. Looks natural and thriving.

 

[beachbumin]

Go with the Blenny. I had one for a long time and he was one of my fav fishes ever!!! Besides the fact that they mow through any alge you have, they also look really cool and are very neat to watch.

 

[StickyTuba]

Here's a question:

If I have a black clown and an orchid dottyback already. Is a lawnmower blenny going to survive in a 12 gallon Nano?
These are the only two fish, granted I have snails, shrimp and two Kenya tree corals.
Would water changes aid in its livlihood or am I thinking about a path that would lead to disaster?

My main problem is tank temperature and I have been trying to remedy it for awhile, but due to the heat of the outside I cannot seem to get it lower than 80 degrees.
TIA for any help and/or suggestions.

(PS - I didn't mean to take over this thread)

 

[schoeplein]

In my old 75g, the entire back of my tank was covered with hair algae (enough for the cleaner shrimp to climb up) -- 3 mexican turbo snails took it out in 2 days.

 

[Fluff]

A lawnmower gets to big for a 12g nano and no, I don't believe it could support one for very long. Lawnmowers prefer to eat the green film algae. I know people suggest them to control hair algae but mine never touched it. I did have a ten gallon tank though that was completely covered in hair and within a week, the mollies had it cleaned up. You don't need many. And acclimating mollies should be done over a period of a few days, constantly raising the salinity til you reach the salinity of your tank. My mollies were sold to me already acclimated and they are lyretails. If that makes a difference. I have an article on sw mollies, if I can find it , I'll post it.

 

[Fluff]

http://www.saltcorner.com/sections/zoo/mollies.htm

I just want to add, I don't normally advocate adding fish or inverts to solve an algae problem. It's always best to try to find the source of the problem and fixing it. The mollies like every other quick fix remedy is just that, a quick fix. It's not really addressing the issue but controlling it. They will eat the algae but once it's gone, I would suggest that you supplement their diet with another type of algae. They don't really care for sw flakes but will eat cyclops, mysid, brine and algae wafers. I intend to try them on nori, just haven't gotten any yet.

 

[melosu58]

Lawnmower blennie did it for me