Hair algae eater

[Wolf]

What an effective hair algae eater that's reef and fish safe? Thanks

 

[haus]

I've got a chocolate chip star that seems to love the stuff. I don't think that they are reef safe though. Also I have three emerald crabs and a yellow tang that picked at it too.

 

[badfish]

maybe a lawnmower blenny.

 

[melosu58]

CC star fish are not reef safe. Lawn mower blennies or Black sailfin blennies are. A good clean up crew is Good. Tangs they say . Best thing to do is limit organics in water by feeding every other day. Been doing this for several years with no signs of hair algea. Also when you do a water change rubber band a tooth brush on the end of siphon hose and gently scrub rock while taking out water. Siphon will suck up loose hair algea. Before long You`ll be hair algea free. Good Luck

 

[Gatorfreak]

I had great luck with Astrea snails mowing through it.

 

[Wolf]

Alright thanks a lot guys. Will Emeralf Mithrax crabs eat a ton of it or just pick at it like haus said? Also, what about Sally Lightfoots? TIA

 

[melosu58]

I have both in my tank and they do pretty good job of keeping it in check.

 

[Wolf]

Thanks everyone.

 

[Jason]

Lawn Mower Blenny!!!!!!!!!

 

[seaham358]

IMO emeralds and Sallys will not mow down a lawn of HA.. If you have a big HA problem you need to get some of the fish mentioned or the large Turbo snails. My friends have used seahairs with great success. The only issue is when the HA is gone the SH will die. So my friends are passing one around and he is cleaning many tanks.

 

[Wolf]

Will bicolor blennys do a good job?

 

[seaham358]

on hair algae? IMO no... They are small, mine ate algae on the glass mostly.

 

[theorkinman]

I just got a purple tang yesterday, and he is eating the stuff at a fast rate.

 

[schoeplein]

Mexican turbo snail will chow down on it all in a day or two (at least three of them cleared the entire back wall of my 75g off in a day)...

 

[sdellin]

Sally Lightfoot is not safe with small fish. I had one and it ate a couple of cromises. I actually caught him in the act, he had the whole skeleton cleaned except the head and was working on that when I busted him. I ended up donating him to Petco, they take anything under five inches.

 

[seaham358]

Did you saw him catch it?? If not the crab was doing his job.... cleaning dead matter.. Thats what they do.. Turbos are cheap and do the work...

 

[sdellin]

I did not see him catch it, but I didn't have any missing fish before I put him in there. I have done a little research and read that the crabs tend to be the culprits of missing fish, and talked to the lfs about it also. Hopefully he was the culprit (for my sake, not for anyone who has one... hee hee) but I haven't had any more come up missing since I took him out. I really liked that crab too.

I also have turbos, I have four in a 55-gal tank and they do eat the stuff too. I've been told (by lfs) that I need more, but I've also read that if you get too many snails they can eventually starve to death because there isn't enough algae. I guess we just have to work it out on an indivudual tank basis, but I do like the turbos, they're ALWAYS eating algae!