20141103 Green Hair Algae- What do I do???

Green Hair Algae, or GHA as many forums refer to it, is a bonafide nuisance in any marine aquaria. The bad news is, it is always an uphill battle against it. Good news is, unlike cyanobacteria, there are many more creatures who will happily gobble it up.

Green Hair Algae

In case you did not read my voice on cyanobacteria, with the exception that brown slim algae is not algae, just about everything else on the characteristic of cyanobacteria is the same as green hair algae- will thrive with light and dissolved nutrient. The one key difference is that this is an actual algae and will require iron, among other elements to properly grow. So on top of light control, nutrient control, and predator introduction, we can add one more element here: competition.

Unlike cyanobacteria that can disappear completely if you keep light off for an entire day or two, hair algae is an actual plant and can store enough energy to sustain an extended period of darkness, just like your corals would. So the light off trick must be carefully modified here- instead of all out for a day or two, you can attempt to change spectrum/color temperature and also shorten photoperiod.

Reduction of dissolve nutrients will not affect corals so this is a safe approach by limiting how much you feed your fish, inverts, and corals, and maximizing your skimmer.

Predators- Many creatures naturally prey on hair algae- all tangs, most dwarf angelfish (reef caution), all rabbitfish (reef caution), many hermit crabs, snails, urchins, etc.

Lastly- competition. So a hair algae's competition is obviously another algae- but you probably don't want more algae in the tank? a good option is to house some macro algae, here is a place you can find many different varieties with reasonable price: Reef2go- Macroalgae. Keep these macro algae in your established sump or refugium to absorb nutrient and minerals just like hair algae would, but at a much faster rate to out compete the hair algae.

Good luck!

2014-05-05 Cinco De Mayo Harvest~ Gold wall hammer/anchor

Happen to travel to Chicago over the weekend with my wife to attend Stars on Ice. While in the area, I can't resist but to stop by Beyond the Reed in Schaumburg, IL. If you live anywhere within 2-3 hours from the Chicago area and are looking for great corals, frags, and invert both in quality and price, you cannot miss this store.
The new prize I scored is this beautiful 5" piece of Gold wall anchor/hammer coral. I've seen a comparable coral's online priced at the low to mid $100's. This piece was $98, retail! It is now happily expanding in my tank (shot below), and I am looking forward for this to wow any guests over!

A bit more about Beyond the Reef- Their staff is nice and knowledgable. And the store floor is DRY and CLEAN! The store's crown jewel is a huge (my estimate 1500 gallon) all glass FOWLR tank housing a pair of magnificent foot long uniform tang, along with a foot long Queen angel, 10" orange leopard spotted rabbitfish, full grown harlequin tusk, an almost full-grown black moray eel, along with many other beautiful fish. The only downside of the store I'd say is it didn't offer much of a clam selection. But they have 3 cubic inch acro frags (a full tank of them) for $49 each- a steal. Plus many other corals that you'd normally find 2-3X price in any other retailers, even online.

Even though I hate driving to Chicago area, even though the tax is higher down there, but I am almost getting ready to make this place my go-to store for all future coral excursions!

Good morning bunny!

The blueline rabbitfish in my 92 corner reef is one of the most boldly beautiful fish. However, when the tank is being disturbed (i.e. cleaning, feeding, rearranging, etc) she is also the first to disappear. Seen in this photo, all i did was stick my camera towards the glass and it is attempting to hide behind the toadstool. My point is, rabbitfish has a general shy personalitu since they are herbivours( lots of nori in their diet) they fall prey to many others in the wild. So if you have one or planning to have one, gentle and friendly tankmates and attitude towards this beauty is the beat way to go. Oh, and if you are not gentle with it, their dorsal fin is equipped with a venom spine that can inflict quite a painful wound on the handler