I have a friend with hair and bubble algea all over his tank. his CUC is very low for the system, maybe 25 crabs and snails in a 85 gallon system. he is progressively adding more CUC. do you have any suggestions on getting rid of the algea? all help is deeply appriciated. thank you.

Find the source of it. Is he using RO/DI water?

i believe he is using RO/DI water.

How old are the bulbs, how much is feeding, is the tank getting direct sunlight, how old are the filters in the RO/DI unit?

Probably manual removal is the only way to get ahead of it. 25 snails/hermits is plenty for an 85. I agree with the others suggesting getting to the source of the problem and fixing that - then manual removal is likely the best way to go.

Jenn

i helped with the manual removal, and that made a huge difference. i don't think he is feeding that tank. the fish are all algea eaters and some coral. as for the others i don't know yet. thank you for some suggestions on figuring out this problem.

I had great success getting rid of hair algae with turbo snails. I would buy between 10 and 20 turbos and place them directly on the hair algae and let them go to town and every so often move the ones that had wondered off back to the algae.

Lawnmower blenny FTW and +1 for checking the lighting and the water

Lawnmower blenny FTW and +1 for checking the lighting and the water

These guys eat film algae actually. I havent had any luck with them on hair algae. As for the bubble algae, emerald crabs should do the trick. If you do remove them manually, its best to remove the rock from the water because when they pop it releases spores which can spread.

thank you for the help i am planing on helping him some more with the algea, he has a lawnmower, rabbit fish, and i added some trubos to his tank. thanks dawgdude, i did not know that about bubble algea. so a couple of emeralds should take care of the bubble algea. thanks again. as soon as the algea gets under control the tank will look great. i will try to post some before and after pics.

We had a 10 gallon with a major bubble algae crop. So we added an emerald crab. Nothing. A couple months later we added another emerald crab and in 3 days it was ALL gone. We also had a rabbit fish in a 30 gallon that ate lots of algae till he decided to jump. Bought another rabbit fish and he hasn't eaten any algae in the 2 months since we've had him. So keep that in mind. The eater you buy may not be as good an eater as he should be.

Bubble algae can spread like wild fire if you pop it under the water. And Yellow tangs will eat hair algae too.

dont leave lights on that long for the hair algae and have alot of current blowing towards them.