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[Fleendar the Magnificent]

I was having a very bad problem with green hair algae and cyanobacteria in my tank about a month ago. No matter what I did, without emptying the entire tank, boiling the gravel and starting over, I couldn't get the algae under control. I had gotten water from the creek in the front yard but was unaware of the fertilizer that washes into it from the adjacent fields. My rocks were coated with long 1-2" filaments of green hair algae along with that cyanobacteria slime on the gravel. I suspect that this creek water along with too much food is what caused the algal blooms. However, I got to thinking and recalled that crayfish eat just about everything. So I got 3 rusties from the river and put them in my tank, and within 4 days my tank was devoid of algae and most of the cyanobacteria. The cyanobacteria removal was a combination of both the crays and my stirring up the gravel and netting it out. However, the long, thick and lush growths of hair algae they mowed down to bare stone. This is one of my rusty crays in my tank, and as you can see, it's gradually turning blue. When I caught them, they were olive drab with the rust brown spots, and so far, over the past month, all 3 have molted twice.

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