Sea hare vers Mexican turbo snails

[Dp11]

I'm trying to rid my tank of a ton of hair algae and I've been told try either a sea hare (i can get one thats about 2-3 inches) or about 12 Mexican turbo snails. does anyone have a suggestion on either?**

 

[Xavibear]

I've never had a sea hare. I prefer trochus snails over turbo snails. I put a tuxedo urchin & trochus snails in my tank & they mowed through algae.

 

[dannyp02908]

turbo snails will continue to live. sea hare will die when there is no more algae. my guess is you have some other underlying issue causing the algae.

 

[dz6t]

turbo snails will continue to live. sea hare will die when there is no more algae. my guess is you have some other underlying issue causing the algae.

+1, also Mexican turbo lives a long life, I have some they are over 6 years (may be even longer) in my tank and the size of baseball.

 

[Dp11]

The only place I could put my tank is between 2 windows? (but I keep shades down most of the time) water always tests good. The tank has been up and running for almost 3 years and the hair algae has only been about 4-6 months, so not sure why all the algae

 

[dannyp02908]

after that amount of time, it is possible that you have some detritus build up causing the blooms. Water tests are good because the algae is using the nutrients as they are created. same reason 10 fish can use the bathroom at the same time and you detect no ammonia. The bacteria use it immediately.

 

[ro_nicu]

Has anybody tried an Algae Scrubber to keep nutrients down?

 

[mchartier]

I believe Paul (ReefKeeper2) uses one along with other methods of phos/nitrate reduction. If I remember correctly he had a Dailysea dialysis, ATS, lanthanum chloride with diatom filter(tried not sure if he still uses it) and GFO I believe.