I'm scared to death. I have a BC29 with about 30lbs of gorgeous LR. and 25 lbs. of Carib-Sea Live Sand. I found a deal on frags so I put a bunch of small softies in too. The tank is fairly new. Hair algae as well as a light tan 'carpet algae' is starting to take over. I put in 4 snails and 2 little hermits in today. Did 35% water change last night.

I admit I've taken things fast. The 30 year exp. LFS guy said to put a silver-dollar sized Yellow Tang in the tank. Said it would 'mow down' the algae.

There is a 2cm sized Blenny and a 4cm Six Line Wrasse is there now.

I searched the threads for tips on hair algae.. my main question is the Yellow Tang solution, and any other ideas...

I'm having so much fun.. I don't want to lose the LR colors, etc. Please help!

Oh yea, the BC29 is being used as designed (stock lighting, bio-balls, etc.)

My best advice for now is to manually remove as much as you can and try some ferric oxide hydroxide phosphate remover for a quicker fix. Start off slowly and use small amounts to start with--like say a tablespoon or two. You may or may not need to add more. Just observe the tank, keep an eye on parameters, especially alkalinity, and go from there. In the long run, you can keep running that remover, get a protein skimmer (if you don't have one already), setup lighted refugia, etc., to help with nutrient control (and subsequently algae control). Some herbivorous fishes will also help, but I don't recommend the tang at all. Not only are yellow tangs hit-or-miss (and the practices to get them to eat hair algae aren't great, either, like starvation), but are way too large and active for a tank of that size, IMHO.

Ok before the tang police come. A tang is not the right for your tank. Your LFS guy has not met the tang police yet. They need more swimming room and space then a 29 can provide.

Try a - Lettuce nudibranchs or a Sea Hare

Lettuce nudibranchs - http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_di...amp;pcatid=1349

Sea Hare - http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_di...amp;pcatid=2246

You can also turn off your pump and hand pull it out of there like crazy.

The carpet algae It maybe a cyano Bloom

Things I am doing
More frequent water changes -1 per week
Feeding less-

Things I am going to do or considering:
Increase water flow
Using a phosphate sponge if your phospages are high

Take some pics

There are alot of other ways to rid hair algea other than a tang.Do a search on hair algea removal and there will be TONS of threads.

How old exactly is the tank and what are your water parameters.

first dont listen to the LFS he wants to sell you a tang even though it is extremely mal suited for the job.

Order a proper CUC from reefcleaners.org or somewhere similar. Your few (way to few) cuc members are not enough to take on the job from the sounds of it.

I run my BC29 with stock lights and no bio balls and cheato in center chamber along with Chem pure and Carbon.

I had some issues before the CUC, cheato and chempure/carbon additions.. now everything is great. My algae issue i had cleared up withing a week of these changes.

Bio balls are best suited for fresh water. Remove them if you have a sufficient amount of live rock (1.5 ish pounds per gallon) you will not even notice their removal other than a drop in nitrates. (btw if your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate are all zero its likely due to the algae feeding on them, test results can be tricky like that)


Best of luck.

CUC is very weak. I have about 30 snails and 4 hermits in my Elos mini.

Tang is not the answer, trust me.

I cured my live rock in a tub and when I transferred it into my aquarium and started running a full lighting cycle my tank blew up with not only hair algae, but also red bubble algae. I added 7 nassirius, 7 astrae snails and 7 cereiths and they were getting the small stuff, then I put in an emerald crab in and the moment he hit the water he started eating everything. He has been eating algae nonstop for 2 days now, both hair and bubble, and the tank looks 100 times better. I also added a ball of cheato in the rear chamber to help stop further growth. I'm still a noob, but this seems to be working for me. Good luck.

Edit: tank is a 30 gallon finnex AOI.

Lawnmower Blenny.

There's already one blenny in there. Is it one of the combtooth blennies? If so, they will help, but they prefer short, cropped filamentous algae.

wow... thanks for all the info... I woke up this morning and the snails DID make work of some of the algae on the backglass!!! wonder if I should manually remove that so they'll go to the rocks?

Manually remove as much as you can.
Figure out what is feeding your algae (Phosphates, silicates, nitrates, too much lighting, etc.) and cut it down.
More snails. I have like 40 in my 25 gallon. Talk to John Maloney at reefcleaners.org

lol @ the 30 years exp LFS owner trying to sell you a Yellow Tang for that tank.

As Degener said, ChemiPure, Purigen, Chaeto etc. will all help.