Hair Algae on Sun Coral

[fastrd400]

I am fighting a bit of hair algae in my 24 Nano. I have been able to remove it from the rocks as I see it apear, and added a few more personalities to my CUC. I do have this stuff growing in the middle of my Sun Coral though, which keeps all the heads from opening up. My question is, do you think it would be safe to try and remove the algae with a toothbrush without hurting any of the individual heads?

 

[Bifferwine]

I would try tweezers first. If that fails, then I'd use a toothbrush. They are pretty tough when the polyps are closed up, I think.

 

[fastrd400]

I tried the tweezers, fingers method. Can't get it all out though. I was thinking the same thing about them being pretty tough when closed up as well.

 

[Hiker4twenty]

+1 Sarah. I think tweezers are the best method for not doing any damage to the soft outer tissue of the sun coral. I have a few different tweezers I use for gluing frags that work really well because they're small and can get into those little spots. That's what I used to pull some HA from between my nightmare palys. If all ese fails then try to lightly brush and see what that does. Maybe you can brush a little just to loosen and then pull out with the tweezers.

 

[Bifferwine]

NDB has a tool from a med kit... I'm not sure what it's called, but they are like tweezers, but the gripper part of it is wide, so it can grab a bunch of stuff at one instead of just working on a small area. I'll ask him about them and post a pic when I get home.

 

[fastrd400]

Thanks you guys. I had to get scalpel blades the other day from a medical supply. They told me they can order me anything they don't carry in house. So I'mm looking for all the good tools to order up.

 

[purpledragonfly1970]

NDB has a tool from a med kit... I'm not sure what it's called, but they are like tweezers, but the gripper part of it is wide, so it can grab a bunch of stuff at one instead of just working on a small area. I'll ask him about them and post a pic when I get home.

They are called forceps or Kelly clamps and tey do work great because they are ment to grab and hold

 

[Dana42078]

haha they are called hemostats or roach clips if you ask any of my friends lol, not forceps heres a direct quote "These are the "scissor clamps", sometimes incorrectly called forceps, that surgeons use to clamp off blood vessels"

I'm sure they would work better than a tweezers because they are wider. Goodluck!

 

[Bifferwine]

I don't think they are hemostats. When I google that, I don't find anything that looks anything like them.

They have the scissor handles on one end, but at the other end, they have a circle, so they are rounded.

 

[Bifferwine]

Woohoo found them!

They are "sponge forceps."

 

[Dana42078]

Oh I see, yea we were thinking of repairs things. The ones I was talking about are a little bigger than a treezers so you would be able to get into tinyer spaces. I'll post a pic when I get home

 

[Dana42078]

Ugh hate my iPhone spell checker " we were thinking of two different things"

 

[reeffreak]

I wouldn't use a toothbrush since the stony part is rather brittle.

 

[fastrd400]

I wouldn't use a toothbrush since the stony part is rather brittle.

Too late!