what's a good hair algae eater?

[zoom2zoom]

I had hair algae growth in my tank last month, I have since controlled it by cutting down feeding and controlling nitrate to almost zero. It doesn

[trockafella]

A tooth brush to scrub it off. Seriously.

[Hilary]

Turbo snail (translates into English as "bulldozer")

[SunWyrm]

Lawnmower ate mine very quickly in my 90g. They can sometimes limit what you want to stock though... and they can be picky about where you place frags and corals. Maybe I just have a cranky lawnmower...

 

I also have some tiger trochus which don't knock over frags like the large turbos do.

[zoom2zoom]

i forgot to mention i also bought two large turbo snails at Prestine Aquarium and they dont do anything.. is it a different species?

 

tooth brush is tough as my live rock setup is hard to reach.

 

does hair algae die off in time by itself if i can controll it?

[Marc Weaver]

I think you are going to have to remove as much as you can with tongs or something. From what I have seen, nothing will eat long hair algae except maybe a sea hare, just the short stuff when it starts to grow. You have to remove as much as you can, then your clean up crew can get it under control.

 

Try a pair of aquatic gardener tongs and maybe try rubber-banding a toothbrush to a piece of pvc pipe. If you wrap the whole length of the toothbrush with tons of rubber bands it will stay in place and you can put some pressure on it. Be sure to remove as much of the loose pieces as you can or they will re-grow where they land.

[Ryan S]

a sea hare would eat it all, but he is only temporary, you'd only keep him fed for probably a week.

 

lights off for 3 days + scrubbing with the tooth brush + a water change would help.

[zygote2k]

two-barred rabbitfish works every time.

[ToddR]

Manual removal always seems to speed things up. I have a Chocolate Tang that loves hair algae but only the short stuff. I used a toothbrush wire tied to a wooden dowel to get the hard spots.

[zoom2zoom]

Ok... Toothbrush method tonight.

 

Thanks everyone

[Ryan S]

Ok... Toothbrush method tonight.

 

Thanks everyone

 

if you can do a water change after you do the toothbrush method, that would be ideal. the tank will get really dirty with the algae and if u can suck it out before it spreads everywhere, that would be best.

[Jan]

I'd first make sure to ID the algae. What are your params like? How's your Mag?

Edited April 28, 2012 by Jan