ok so my tank has sort of had a minor algae problem for quite a while, but ive changed the light bulbs, which were over a year old. Ive also added a 1200 lph pump into the back of my NC 24 and another one of the same pumps in the display of the tank. I have also cut back most of the hair algae, however i am going to buy more of a CUC on the weekend and i was wondering if any of you could tell me the best CUC for removing green hair algae? thanks a lot, steph

I don't know but I love snails. There are nudibranchs that will demolish hair algae, but when the hair algae is gone then you have a problem. My local forum has a nudibranch that they pass around to people in need. It's never in a home for more than a week lol.

just tagging along as know some people that need help also

Margarita snails devour hair algae. My buddy had an outbreak in his tank and he picked up a few margaritas, and they cleared up the algae within days. He ended up giving me about half of them because they are such efficient algae eaters that he was afraid they would starve.

try a sea hare maybe?(just read and research about the risks)

or

try a urchin(obviously with caution) apparently really good filamentious algae eaters, but don't have exp. with then though.

GHA sucks, I know the feeling right now.

Small tuxedo urchin. Make sure all your small frags are glued down.

This is what happens if you don't

ok thanks for all the help everyone youve been great, and nemo_niblets, i love the idea of snail recycling!! are there any fish than eat GHA?

Try Mexican Turbo snail as well. Those guys will go to town on the green hair algae. They are large tho.

not to disagree but:

margaritas are a temperate snail, unless you your tank is in the 60s you are putting them on slow cook, raises their metabolisms and kills them off early

nudibranchs - some do, but they are almost all short lived and not very effective. (your club probably has a sea hare)

sea hares - not for beginners. not for tanks with strong intakes, (most reef setups), they cant wait to get sucked into one. also they can ink your tank. (your tank is also too small to keep one successfully in the long haul, and they are a nasty mess to clean once dead) Treat them as a pet though and you will be rewarded, many species readily accept ulva, codium and gracilaria

pin cushion or tuxedo urchins etc.. well, kind of explained that one, they love to wear whatever they can to camoflauge themselves from predators. also eat coralline and can scratch acryllic. pencil urchins and rock boring urchins dont wear anything, pencil urchins are safe to hold, rock boring are not. Longspines (diadema) have no place in aquaria under 150 gallons IMO, an animal that can reach the size of a volleyball, (and are recovering from a blight that nearly wiped them out), should be left alone.

Mexican turbos - good, eat hair algae etc..but can bulldoze b/c of their size like mentioned

hermits - get the job done, but may kill snails for their shells. No snails? Hermits are great if you dont have snails.

emerald crabs - good if they arent on a meat diet. as an omnivore they tend to be hit or miss. the younger the better

good luck with the GHA fight!

for that size tank hermits or emeralds are probably best. hermits are more of a sure bet, some emeralds are just lazy about algae.

Yeah I do have one snail, but its pathetic, and does absolutely nothing, and they never did when I had a few of them so I'm going to get loads of hermits and if possible an emerald, however I'm in london and there isn't a huge variety of CUC, and what the hermits are labelled as are hardly ever accurate, but ill see what I can get

the only fish I know that "might" combat gha is a lawnmower blenny, and tangs...But obviously wouldn't recommend tangs unless you got a very large tank for fear of death

Just about any small hermit will do just fine. blue legs have three colors on their legs (blue, red stripe white tip) in that order from the main body to the end of the leg. Any hermit with red legs will be fine. Get like 25 blue legs for your tank, if you are still pulling out the GHA on a regular basis. The blue legs are good at both the GHA and cyano, that would be a good catch up crew for awhile, when the tank starts to sparkle on a regular basis you might want to bring some of them back. Ideally at that point you would want to focus on snails, help with cyano and they get to anywhere there is surface etc...but that would get you going.

Nice action shot of the sixline by the way.

ok so basically i need to concentrate on hermit crabs, i will get as many of them as i can afford. Also how much do you pay for hermits, over here in england, they are 10 for £35 which is quite expensive i think. Oh yeah and that wrasse was a nuisance to take pictures of, he died unfortunately.....

My red legged hermit is useless! He just lounges around the tank - I've had him for nearly 2 weeks and I have yet to see him eat anything, and I've got plenty of GHA to go around (especially on one small piece of LR - spreading to adjacent rocks, tho). My trochus snail is about the only one who seems to have a taste for the GHA. Maybe I'll buy a couple of Margaritas. If they cook, they cook - that's why they call it escargot.

John Maloney knows his stuff, always has great advice.

I've had great success with GHA removal with a very small tuxedo urchin. I haven't had any problems with him stealing frags yet, but it's only been a week. That's just in my experience though

I wouldn't suggest too many blue legged hermits as they pick your liverock clean(literally).. Urchin or sea hare is the way to go. I also used recently a sea hare in my tank and he does the most amazing job with hair algae. I also suppliment his diet with nori. I also swap him between 2 tank setups and he keeps both tanks GHA free.