Algae attack!!

I would recommend the lawnmower blenny(aka algae blenny).
they are probably the most effective algae eater you can get, but
be sure you have a constant supply, as they will clean a tank rather quickly.

you should also look into why you have excessive algae. is the tank near direct sunlight?
also, are you using tap water with high phosphates?

unfortunately, they are not very colorful.
they are mostly grey, with slight hues and spots of blue.

I added four clumps of macroalge (plants from the LFS) to the back of my tank and three weeks later all the bad alge stopped growing to the point where I am having snails die. The plants are about as big as my fist. Don't ask me what kind, I forgot and didn't write it down. I also use RO water or whatever they call it. Purified reverse osmosis stuff.

hey lionfishy, I just realized you were probably
talking about the color of the algae! lol!

good point. the color of the algae tells a lot.(cyanobacteria, diatoms, etc.)

well it has hairs on it ive been going through many stages of it in my 18 gallon i have green, red velvet algae (which is hard to scrape off), brown. but will a lawnmower blenny eat the algae on the walls of the tank or only on the floor?

if it is a healthy green algae the blenny will eat it from the glass as well as
the rocks.

but if it is brown, or black hair algae, he probably won't touch it.
in that case turbo snails would help a little, but you would have to go
in another direction to solve the problem.

well i asked if they had turbo snails and blennys at my lfs and they didnt have them in stock. They had 1 snail but they sell them 5 for $10 so i was going to wait for them to restock. And he suggested 2 hermit crabs for my 18 gal and a chocolate chip star for my 40 gal so i bought that for now until they restock on the snails.

well, i hate to tell you this but a chocolate chip star wont touch the algae like you want
if you want to use snails to help control the algae, astraea's are great for hair algae and dont get huge, turbo snails get large

remember snails, etc will only help you, they wont get rid of the algae
good water flow, correct parameters are the best way to combat algae

first, i would lower the lighting time, feed less, and might want to get a bit more flow

lighting: algae is a plant and needs the light for photothinsis (sp?), the phosphates and trites will be turned into food, you prob know this

feeding: most (if not all) foods contain phosphates, which can and usually will mess with the params a bit, more by the non-eaten food, i only feed about every other day, or less
you can also soak the food in RO water before feeding to help get the phos's out of the food

flow: algae, for the most part, like dead spots or low flow areas so if the flow is increased, in most cases, the algae cant get a grip

one of the algae's you have might be coraline algae (good), which is hard and can only be scraped off, this is a sign your tank is starting to mature, young tanks will have a algae issue until the parameter swing stableizes (maturing)
coraline comes in a few colors, pink, red, purple, green (green is usually the first) it usually starts by forming in a circle type pattern, then spreads from there, this is where live rock gets its color
the aid of micro algae will help, but keep in mind micro algae can over grow also, but is easier to harvest, which is called neutrient export

a good skimmer will help also

hope that helped a bit

Jay

ok ill go out and buy 2 powerheads for my 40gallon to get a better waterflow and i can only fit 1 in my 18 gallon so ill go ahead and do that. I feed the fish everyday brine shrimp but a small amount so they eat it all and rarely is there any left over. as for the lighting they are on automatic timers wat should i do? change the turn off time earlier?
basically my water flow in my 40gal is just the bio-wheel 330 filter and my jebo 180 hang on skimmer. in my 18 gal i only have a skilter running.

yes, you can adjust the timers to shut off early or come on later
imo, for now i wouldnt have them on more than 8hrs, less would be better, that will help

as for the filters, in your situation they are ok, i just dont like them (another thread

), imo, i would try to clean or change the pads on a more regular basis maybe every 2 weeks or more

you might also want a more diverse cleaning crew than what we have recomended so far
for tanks with substrate (depending on what you have), i like fighting conchs (they get their names from their breeding habits), nassiarius snails are great for turning over the substrate, but eat very little algae and eat other stuff. for everything else, bumble bee snails, nerite snails (stay small), cerith snails, maragrita snails are great for other types of algae
the hard workers (as have been said) the astraea's and turbos are great for almost all types of algae (not all)

Jay