Could Start My Own Barber Shop

[parrotchute]

That's funny, mine won't touch any dried seafood. He loves mysis & veggie flake food tho, and yellow polyps!

He goes insane if I put any macroalgae in and vacuums it all up

 

[Bifferwine]

I wouldn't definitely NOT listen to your LFS! Removing your chaeto and replacing it with bioballs and ceramic media is a bad idea that will likely cause your nitrates to go up! Which will make more algae! Keep your chaeto. Stay away from bioballs.

Sea hares are the most awesome algae eating animals out there. They will wipe that crap out. It may be what you need to get rid of what's in the tank, to give you a chance to deal with the water quality in the mean time. Like others have said, a sea hare is a temporary fix, but they work so well!

 

[andysgirl8800]

Ok, check out my new addition...."Shrek". He's already getting to work. Hopefully, this critter will survive. I bought him from one of only 3 LFS's in my immediate area. They were the only one to have a sea hare in stock, but I've not had much previous success when buying livestock from this particular store.

Thank you for everyone's feedback. My next question, however, concerns the survival of "Shrek". If I want to actually maintain this ugly little thing, should I NOT proceed with attempting to halt my algae growth so that he will still have something to eat? My other option is to continue to fight the algae and return "Shrek" to the LFS once the stuff in my tank is gone. I've read that they have a short survival rate if not kept well fed. What are your thoughts folks?

 

[Ted]

you can always feed him algae sheets and pellets.

 

[andysgirl8800]

I also just retested all of my parameters and have the following readings (all with API tests)

PH =8.2
No3 =20
Po4 =0
No2 =0
Nh3/4 =0.25
SG=1.024

 

[Bifferwine]

Seahares will run out of food pretty quickly. I'd say to keep fighting your algae, and if you run out, take him back to the store.

 

[andysgirl8800]

The LFS I bought him from did assure me I could bring him back if he exhausts the algae supply in my tank. In the meantime, I will add a bunch more chaeto to my fuge, replace my light bulbs, and, if those don't help, I will try the algae scrubber technique.