Star Polyp being taken over by hair algae

[gomrjoe]

I did a 20% water change yesterday with RO/DI water that I bought from the local grocery store, yes I read the label carefully.

I also replaced my bulbs and added reinforcements to the cleanup crew, 100 blue-legs to be exact! I guess I just sit and wait now.

I fragged a small piece of the polyp colony that was relatively algae free and gave it to my brother-in-law, his tank is completely algae free and has a ton of water flow. I am hoping that this frag will serve as a "backup" in case the worst happens.

I am debating fragging one or two more pieces that are also relatively free of algae and moving one to another section of my tank, and one to my LFS that I get all my stuff from. He is pretty dependable and says that he will hold it for me in his frag tank.

What does everyone think about that strategy?

 

[Germanman]

sounds great nice idea with the back up i always do that. hope it all works out for u man!

 

[gomrjoe]

Update for everyone... my frag that I sent off to my brother-in-laws tank is doing well, it opened up already and his cleanup crew has wiped it clean of any hair algae it had, which was very little.

This has left me optomistic about my new recruits that I just put in my tank last night actually. I recruited 100 blue-leg hermits, hopefully they can cleaup my Star Polyp colony within a week.

Quick question I had was how much of a cleanup crew should I throw at my tank in general, there are so many different recommendations out there. I have heard some say that 1 hermit per gallon, 1 snail per two gallons, what are some of your suggestions... here are my updated perams and inhabitants:
Params:
Nitrate 5
Nitrite, Ammonia 0
PH 8.2
Calcium 400
PO4 undetectable
SG 1.24

Tank description:
100 gallon tank
2.6 wpg pc lighting
35 gal wet/dry/sump
Protein Skimmer
UV Sterilizer
1 yellow tang
1 pac blue tang
1 reef chromis
2 TR perc clowns
3 lyretail chromis
2 spotted cardinal fish
1 lawnmower blenny
current cleanup crew: 25 turbos, 100 blue leg hermits
Inverts: star polyp, yellow colony polyp, encrusting
coral, pulsing Xenia, 1 sand star

 

[Reefscape]

your best bet is too look at liveaquaria.com or marinedepot.com as they provide packages, just as an idea, not saying to purchase them from there as they include conches etc etc which i would not put in a tank your size...

Niko

 

[Germanman]

your best bet is too look at liveaquaria.com or marinedepot.com as they provide packages, just as an idea, not saying to purchase them from there as they include conches etc etc which i would not put in a tank your size...

Niko

yea i agree u can get a good idea form them.

 

[gomrjoe]

Yes I have seen that site before, but they usually sell those cleanup crew details as packages with other species like you said, so it makes it a little tricky on figuring out the right distribution.

For instance: LiveAquaria.com's standard algae pack has a total of 125 critters, comprised of turbos, dwarf red tip hermits, and scarlet hermits.

I don't have scarlet hermits, but I do have more than 125 critters between my turbos and my new reinforcements in blue-leg hermits. I know that scarlet hermits tend be larger than blue-legs and they grow larger as well... one can only assume that they will consume more then.

For me I don't see the point in buying scarletts because they wind up dieing in less than a year usually anyways, at least blue-legs are cheap and they live the same amount of time.

What are your preferences for algae consumption?

Thanks, Joe

 

[Germanman]

i have a natural community of stomatelle snails and my tangs do the rest.