Hair Algae Eaters

[ishharris]

I have a reef tank and I want a fish that will eat hair algae. If you are going to recommend a chemical or a clean up crew, please don't. I am ONLY interested in fish that eat hair algae. So, does anyone know a really good reef safe fish that will eat hair algae.

 

[DaveK]

Before responding to this post, could you tell us more about what your trying to do? I assume you have a hair algae issue. Please tell us about your system. Even if your going to restrict yourself to algae eating fish, there are different ones I'd recommend depending on the system you have and what you have in it.

 

[ishharris]

I actually have 2 systems with hair algae. Neither is a really bad problem, just a minor problem that is covering some of my corals. One is a 90 gallon tank with sump. No predatory fish or anything, just some Anthias in it. The other is a 20 gallon long tank with 2 clowns and a firefish.

 

[redneckgearhead]

The problem I ran into is, that no matter what fish/animal you get its seems to be hit or miss whether or not they will eat it. I had a lawn mower blenny, supposed to eat HA, never touched it. I did buy a sea hare and he ate it just fine but died with in 3 weeks or so. Not sure why. Was warned by my LFS that sea hares can "nuke" your tank when they die so I decided to fight the problem and not take a chance on another one. Some say turbos love it, mine never touched it, even when trimmed short. Good luck, sorry I couldnt be of more help. You might have better luck with the lawn mower blenny than I.

 

[PSU4ME]

I would go after the source....nutrients. Once weakend I found that fish and snails help out alot along with siphoning efforts.

My experience though. Blennys would be my recommendation but as RNR points out, fish don't alway do what they are described to do.

 

[saltycity]

A small fox face will usually take care of any and all hair algae. Small ones work best as they are eating non stop and can take care of the issue in a short time.

 

[jakeandjen03]

I had a lot growing in my 14g tank and I bought a starry blenny and it was all gone in like 3 days. I mean every price of hair algea there was is now gone.

 

[ChrisOaty]

I had a 20long a while back with a ton of HA. Threw a seahare in there and every inch of that tank was HA free within a week and a half. Beefed up the filtration with a turf scrubber, sold the hare back to the same shop for 1/2 store credit. HA never grew back.

 

[RedTail87]

Curious as to why you're not interested in CUC. When I first started my tank up I had a lot of green hair algae so I bought 2 turbo snails. The tank was mostly spotless in about a week or two.

 

[KARussell88]

Reefcleaners.com is a sponsor here, if you email john maloney from the site with your problem he will build a custom CUC for you and he is VERY well priced and has really good stock! He saved one of my tanks!