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kdinkel 
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 Topic: Sea hare
Posted: September 10 2008 at 8:55pm |
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I have had 3 die on me in the last few weeks (fine one day, dead the next). My paramaters are good since I fixed the issues I had (0 ammonia, 0 nitrates, 0 nitrites, 8.4 ph, 1.025 salt). My fish are fine, so are my snails, hermits, shrimp, and my corals are growing like crazy. I have too much hair algae to brush off (from when my RO unit and skimmer where setup wrong) and need a hare (or something else if you know something) to clean it up. Any suggestions?
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29 gallon reef
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john hill
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Posted: September 10 2008 at 11:11pm |
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they die on me to so i got a rabbit fish and it ate all the hair alge
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out with the large and in with the nano
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kdinkel
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Posted: September 11 2008 at 9:12am |
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I heard rabbit fish are kind of hit and miss. Is yours a foxface? I heard scribbed do a better job. Any truth to that?
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29 gallon reef
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Crazy Tarzan
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Posted: September 11 2008 at 9:44am |
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lettuce nudibranch. though they tend to be friends with powerheads too often for their own good.
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Was that in there yesterday? Casper--WY windier than ?
Down to a 20, soon to double or nothing
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: September 11 2008 at 10:22am |
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If you would like to call me, I can help you eliminate the nusiance algae. My phone # is below.
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Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks:www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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kdinkel
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Posted: September 11 2008 at 10:42am |
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I'll take you up on that! I'll give you a call right now!
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29 gallon reef
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markandmelly
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Posted: September 11 2008 at 1:16pm |
Kdinkel, I used Mexican Turbo Snails in the 90G when I aquired it. It was covered in hair Algae. Seemed to work well for me.
I have a sea hare in there as well. Problem is he only cleans one very small area, even at night.
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If you are not laughin' you're not livin'!
210g - just out of storage, deciding what to put in it
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: September 11 2008 at 1:56pm |
I know that many of us would like to buy things that fix a problem quickly and easily. But as KDinkle, Markand Melly and others have discovered, Sea Hares are less than reliable.
The best way to prevent an algae problem is to have enough herbivores to eat the algae when it's just little shoots. Almost before we can see it the little critters like Amphipods and copepods eat these little shoots. They are tender and taste good. If we have carnivorous fish we are risking not having enough of these critters. After this we must have enough snails and hermits and after that come the herbivorous fish. This is the way it works in the wild and also in our aquariums.
Luckily the hobby has stumbled onto the use of high levels of Mg to kill Bryopsis. The 1600 ppm Mg does not seem to hurt anything else so I suggest we try it on hair algae. It will be wonderful if it works. If not then we can fall back on the old reliable way of methodically decreasing light and nutrients to solve the problem.
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bbauman
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Posted: September 11 2008 at 2:06pm |
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Another thing to consider- where's your tank located? by a window?
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kdinkel
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Posted: September 11 2008 at 3:31pm |
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It is across the room from a north facing window so it gets light, but not direct sunlight. I purchased a one spot rabbit fish and he has been in the tank about 2 minutes and started eating some algae. No one had the kent magnesium in utah county so I will order some in and let you know how it goes.
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29 gallon reef
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Will Spencer
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Posted: September 11 2008 at 4:17pm |
I have heard for the longest time that Sea Hares are awesome for algae problems. I've never needed to try one myself, but in the last little while I have heard from several people exactly what is stated here. They seem to come into a tank and die fairly quickly. Presumable not from lack of food when some tanks I've seen have been covered in algae.
Are these just one of those critters that aren't very hardy, but we as hobbiests keep them coming into stores because we think they are the cure all to algae problems? Or have significant numbers of people had good luck keeping them long term?
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bbauman
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Posted: September 11 2008 at 5:11pm |
I've been noticing the same thing, Will.
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john hill
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Posted: September 11 2008 at 5:41pm |
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it was a scribbled
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out with the large and in with the nano
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Acrid
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Posted: September 11 2008 at 6:18pm |
 Crazy Tarzan wrote:
lettuce nudibranch. though they tend to be friends with powerheads too often for their own good.
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Ugh. I do not recommend trying one of these. We got one, it got pissed, and the stuff they secrete killed 4 shrimp and a handful of snails. NOT good.
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90g Reef
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MrNewbie
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Posted: September 11 2008 at 7:25pm |
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We did a sea hare a few weeks back, it lasted a couple of days and started to look real bad and it was removed to isolation where it proceeded to ooze purple crap and died. Glad we spent that 26 bucks.
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Just a couple of glass boxes full of slimey things
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: September 12 2008 at 10:46am |
bbauman wrote:
Another thing to consider- where's your tank located? by a window? |
Good point. Natural direct sunlight is far and away the best way to illuminate a reef aquarium.  The authors of the old books knew nothing of algae control, recommending that aquariums be placed away from windows. In 1993 I went against the grain with my very first reef tank in an east facing window. I was excited to see stuff growing that no other hobbyists had ever seen. Unfortunately at the time, I also knew nothing of algae control... but that was about to change. And here is the rest of the story: http://www.garf.org/ugly.html
Edited by Mark Peterson - September 12 2008 at 10:49am
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Rioreefer
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Posted: September 12 2008 at 2:54pm |
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I had sea hare for about 4 months then traded it for coral after it did its job. It mowed down my algee after I got all new bulbs ans the algee spiked. now that the algee it is gone it has not returned and the take is used to the new lights
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I dont mean to brag but, yeah it's 6ft long.
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: September 12 2008 at 8:13pm |
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Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks:www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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cl2ysta1
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Posted: September 12 2008 at 9:35pm |
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we had a sea hare that lived a very long time. he ate up all of our algae and we fed him nori sheets. cutest gosh darn thing!
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I <3 Boxers
Achilles tang lover
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Mike Savage
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Posted: September 13 2008 at 9:20am |
I have also kept Sea Hares and a Lettuce Nudibranch for many months and enjoyed watching them.
Mike
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