Inverts that eat green hair algae?????

[billy302]

What inverts can I get that will feast on this messy junk?

Thanks

Bill

 

[steve-s]

Your best solution is to find the cause which is most likely PO4. As far as animals, most will ignore long out of control algaes, they're simpley to much work to make a meal out of. Crop it manually being sure it's removed as you go. Most hermits and reef snails will consume the short stalks. The best animal by far is usually an urchin. IME, the blue tuxedo is your best bet. Completely reef safe and will not strip corraline.

Cheers
Steve

 

[lbaier]

In our 46g bowfront we had a huge infestation of green hair algea that would cover our whole tank if we didnt clean the tank. We went to the lfs and the guy tolds us that our lights were on to long so we cut back the lights which helped dramatically. We also bought several pencil urchans which loved the hair algea. The only place it pops back up on us is on our prefilter box.

 

[MarineFlake]

I cut back the lights from 12 hrs to 6 due to a hair algae bloom. Its slow and making the corals angry, but Im winning. Adding a clean up crew is helpful..until they die. I would suggest cutting back on lighting and looking into water quality. Even in a 75G it only takes one little anemone to walk off behind some rocks and croak..

GL!

 

[nodoubt471]

argh amen to that anemone dying comment...

its worth your time to discover the source. but you could also try adding macro algae to outcompete the hair algae. that worked in my tank, i just stuffed my fuge with cheato to eat up extra nutrients.

 

[makana]

i just got an indopacific abalone (Haliotis varia i believe) that canno get enough of the hair algae, diatomic algae, and other microalgae that coat my glass, rock, and substrate. it seems to be a happy camper once acclimated too.
o yeah - its one of the most beautiful mullosks i have ever seen as well

 

[packfan2204]

at the store we just added a few nudibranch lookin dudes called sea hairs, and they're in the process of completely destroying it

 

[steve-s]

As I said in my first post, finding the cause and eliminating it is the best solution. Without doing that, anything else is simpley a "bandaid".

Cheers
Steve

 

[steve-s]

Adding a clean up crew is helpful..until they die.

Care to expand on that little tidbit

Cheers
Steve