Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

I have a huge crop of hair algea at my overflow teeth on my 26 gallon. It grows so fast it slows the overflow to the point that the water is nearly coming out the tank. The rest of the tank is pretty well barren of hair algea. I have tried water changes, manual pulling and many blue hermits. My last effort was Mexican Turbo snails which can be hard to find at times. Rob Gray (Iron Cage) called and let me know that Rich had some this week. He had four left and i picked them all up. Currently they are all at the overflow having a nice breakfast. I will let everyone know how well these guys work but so far i am seeing improvement.

I hope they work for you.

My hair algea problem was getting to the point of absurdity. My overflow teeth get clogged almost weekly now causing water overflow problems and I’m having to unscrew it and rake the hair out of it.

So far I’ve added a lawnmower blenny, a handful of Mexican turbos, 20 more blue hermits, an emerald crab and something weird that rich had for 6 bucks that looked like a small piece of lettuce floating around in the tank until it grabbed onto some rock. Some kinda slug I guess. My glass is clean now, the turbos have done a great job at that. My emerald crab looks like he’s braiding an afro at times but the algae problem is slowly starting to improve.

I use only RO filtered water either from Rich or Kevin and have cut my Halide down to just a few hours a day. If this doesn't get it I'm not sure what to do.

Are the Mexican turbo grazers different from the "normal" turbo grazers you get at B&B? Got a picture? I think I want some!!!

Yes i think the ones from B&B are way different. The ones from Rich are the real Mexican Turbos with the larger shell with more texture. The ones from B&B are smaller and the shell has a smoother texture.

Ya these guys are huge, like a big walnut still in the shell. They clean the hell out of some glass I'm here to tell ya.

Do you have any problems with them nocking things over of eating other smaller snails?

Knocking over, yes. Eating smaller snails, doubt it.

So far neither. They tend to be very slow and deliberate and have yet to knock anything over. Now the lawnmower blenny keeps knocking some of my frags over that I'm trying to get grow on my rock when something spooks him.

Ironcage wrote:So far neither. They tend to be very slow and deliberate and have yet to knock anything over. Now the lawnmower blenny keeps knocking some of my frags over that I'm trying to get grow on my rock when something spooks him.

Glue my friend, glue.

Absolutely, positively, without a doubt

Mexican Turbo Grazers EAT hair algea.

I want my million dollars now.

What i tried with zero no luck.

Water changes, shitloads.

Emerald crabs....wonder where they went.

Conchs....hmm disappeared ?

Fish....tanks too small, normally die. Blennies never seem to eat it.

Hermits...well they do walk over the stuff.

So there you go people, buy some. If it grows faster than they can eat it, you need to buy more of them.

They are currently at the overflow and have it picked out as far back as they can reach with there snouts. They have yet to hit a small spot on the rock but honestly they have been working on the overflow for 3 days now.

Does anyone know if Rich has any more?

Those snails are brutal to your little frags.. they're so big, they end up knocking everything down. I'd probably be happy with them if I had any hair algae, but I don't and I'm glad I don't have the one I had any more.

Got glue?

I hear Lettuce Nudi's love some hair algea. Haven't tried it though...

Elysia diomedea (Lettuce Nudibranch, Saltwater)
Lettuce Nudibranchs are great for eating hair algae and Bryopsis. They don't eat anything else so make sure that you have enough algae in the tank to sustain them long term. This can be done by grown a couple rocks of hair algae in a sump or refugium and adding it to the tank once the hair algae is cleaned from the main tank. Unlike other nudibranches, these wont pollute your tank with deadly toxins when they die.