Nano tank hair algae eaters?

RNeiswander said:
My court jester goby eats it, although I doubt it would do enough to make an impact.

What kind of cuc do you have now?

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Clean up crew (CuC), has long since retired (bought years ago)

I had,

Scarlet reef hermits
Brown Legged hermits.
Bubble bee snails (carnivore)
Glowing Marginella (carnie)
Cerith Snail
Nerite Snail
Nassarius (carnie)

I've had no luck with,

Astrea Snail
Margarita Snail
Turbo Snail
Zebra Snail
Banded Tiger
Zebra Snail

I have the empty shells to prove it.

Now, most if not all, did a great job cleaning film algae off the glass or rocks.

I even tried a Pumkin Urchin. It was great on the glass and loved the "Coraline algae", bad Urchin and some of my SPS corals.

Would like to re-establish those soft corals and not still have an urchin around.

Hope that helps.

Not sure of the cure?

Hate to rip up the tank, to remove the balls from rock work and disturb the Macro-algae. No food source for it, so I thought I try to feed a fish or invert.

Thanks for the reply!
 
greech said:
Mexican Turbo snails and or a Tuxedo urchin. Turbos here (even big ones) are $0.99 and when they are done with their job, you can take them back to the store or keep them I have had 2 med/lrg in my 40B and have for years. I have never had hair algae and they get plenty of food. Red banded trochus are another good snail. Smaller that the MTs but very active and quick.
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Since I have a small tank, I'll look into the Red Banded T's.

The pumpkin Urchin (Pink) at the same film algae and Coraline algae along with nipping on Sps corals. It also went for food meant for the tank-mates (shrimp, shrimp pellets).

Now is the Tux Urchin, smaller in size and a bit less of a carnivore or omnivore?

Thanks for the reply.
 
Maybe one of the smaller blennies. The Salarias sp. will definitely go after it but they would be a bit too big (and looks like you already thought of that). But maybe a Tailspot Blenny or similarly sized Ecsenius sp.?
 
trybry5 said:
Since I have a small tank, I'll look into the Red Banded T's.

The pumpkin Urchin (Pink) at the same film algae and Coraline algae along with nipping on Sps corals. It also went for food meant for the tank-mates (shrimp, shrimp pellets).

Now is the Tux Urchin, smaller in size and a bit less of a carnivore or omnivore?

Thanks for the reply.
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Do you know a specific species, or common type for the Pumpkin Urchin?

They will all go after Coralline algae. As far as I know they are all omnivores, just that they aren't that picky so some will fill up on algae faster then others.

I've had good luck with Pincushions (have three, not sure if all are Pincushions are a single species though). But they do get rather large. Tuxedo's seem similar though (and smaller).
 
+1 on Tailspot. I have one in my 8 gallon biocube and he dose a great job with hair algae. I do have some sort of dark green to red slime algae on my rocks still and a brown algae on the glass that I can't seem to gett rid of. Might try a tuxedo urchin some time for that


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another vote for turbo snails. Got 2 for my new 10g, in fact they are the first official occupants of the tank, started about the same time as yours (Feb. 22.) Hair algae was growing all over the top of the higher rocks, and test results were looking good, so decided it was safe to chance it.

Put the turbos in Friday afternoon (3/16), acclamated them for twice the 4 hrs. LFS owner advised (in the bag for an hour to match temps. Then started poking small holes in the bag. After awhile, bigger holes.) Let them all the way out after I got off work at midnight. They just sat there for a few hours and I was totally depressed thinking I had killed them or the tank wasn't really cycled enough or something. :(

in the morning they were'nt where they were at lights-out. They were up on the ridgelines of the rocks and algae was gone. In fact the rock, which was old skeletal coral bought years ago as decor for a FW tank, had been so covered with (I assume) diatoms that it looked like it had been dipped in a bucket of rust-colored paint. Now the rock is again pleasantly white, and I am starting to research what eats turbo snail poo. :)

o. and I found my very first aiptasia. that needs to be devoured too. The snails have not gotten over to that rock yet so the verdict is not in. But if they get rid of that I am ready to nominated them for Snail Sainthood. :)
 
Snails (none of them) are going to eat aptasia (I wish they would). There is a nudibranch that will eat them but that's all they eat.

Tux urchins will not eat coral or any meaty food for that matter but they will pickup and carry corals (or rocks, or clams, or thermometers :)) they think they will camouflage them.
 
Khemul said:
Do you know a specific species, or common type for the Pumpkin Urchin?

They will all go after Coralline algae. As far as I know they are all omnivores, just that they aren't that picky so some will fill up on algae faster then others.

I've had good luck with Pincushions (have three, not sure if all are Pincushions are a single species though). But they do get rather large. Tuxedo's seem similar though (and smaller).
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Ok so I'll try on the Tux!


Mines was a Pink Pumpkin Urchin - now renamed

[TABLE="class: zborder"]
[TR="class: ztablerow"]
[TD="class: ztable_head"]Pink Pin Cushion Urchin
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: ztablerow"]
[TD="class: ztable_row"]
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: ztablerow"]
[TD="class: ztable_head"] SCIENTIFIC NAME:
[/TD]
[TD="class: ztable_row"][/TD]
[TD="class: ztable_head"] Lytechinus variegatus

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Thanks!

On the list are,

Red Banded Trouchus snails
Court Jester Goby
 
greech said:
Snails (none of them) are going to eat aptasia (I wish they would). There is a nudibranch that will eat them but that's all they eat.

Tux urchins will not eat coral or any meaty food for that matter but they will pickup and carry corals (or rocks, or clams, or thermometers :)) they think they will camouflage them.
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+1

crazyurchin.jpg

They do eat a lot of algae though so well worth it IMO.

crazyurchin.jpg
 
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