Copepods

[Cichlid23]

I have a 75 gallon reef tank that has had some issues with hair algae. I'm willing to take out each rock and scrub of the algae individually to remove it, but my concern is that I also have a mandarin and I don't know if I'll be killing off a lot of his copepods. Is there possibly a better solution to removing it or will it not kill that many to begin with? All my nitrate, phosphate, and stuff like that are basically zero. I also don't know how many of the copepeds are living in the algae. Would removing it deteriorate their population?

 

[tlindsey]

I have a 75 gallon reef tank that has had some issues with hair algae. I'm willing to take out each rock and scrub of the algae individually to remove it, but my concern is that I also have a mandarin and I don't know if I'll be killing off a lot of his copepods. Is there possibly a better solution to removing it or will it not kill that many to begin with? All my nitrate, phosphate, and stuff like that are basically zero. I also don't know how many of the copepeds are living in the algae. Would removing it deteriorate their population?

Add a Sailfin Blenny aka Lawnmower Blenny.

 

[twentyleagues]

Yes removing the rocks will kill some pods. The reason you are reading basically 0 is because the algae is using the nutrients. Get your tank stablized and the hair algae will die off. Trust me did reef stuff for a long time. Sounds like a newer tank ? In the meantime just shut off flow and use a clean tooth brush to help scrub it off in tank just make sure you collect the scrubbed algae.