Hair Algea eating fish?

[AW2EOD]

I have a 15gal. reef and has hair algea in it. I grew hair algea on a large piece of rock, in the reef, then I moved the rock to my 200gal. for the Tangs. But now, it's starting to pop up on other rocks in the reef.

Is there a fish (Goby or Blenny) that will eat hair algea but be able to live with a Coral Banded Shrimp?

[AW2EOD]

8 views and no one has any ideas? Come on guys...I know there's some people on here who know what they're talking about. Help me out, a little. :confused:

[knowthemath]

I'm waiting to hear the response too! I have won a battle with cyno, but hairy algae is still an issue for me.

I've put an emerald crab in my tank. He's making headway, but the algae is still winning the war. I've ordered another one. They are a lot of fun to watch. ;)

[mogurnda]

As far as I know, there aren't any fish that will eat hair algae and fit in a 15. I have had really good luck with turbo snails eating it, though. One would probably be enough.

[AW2EOD]

I put another turbo snail in there...that makes 2 in the tank now. They're not eating any of it. What about a Lawnmower Blenny? I heard those guys can do it?

[caz]

some say yest, some say not. what i did recently was buy a small syphon from wallmart, and scrape the stuff up with one hand, and vaccum it up with the other. other than that no clue :(

[Xzibit]

My LMB ate all the red hair algae within two days of being placed in my nano. I am not sure if that was a special case or not. My coral beauty would also nip at it now and then.

[mogurnda]

One concern with LMBs in a tank that size is that there will not be enough algae to support it.

[Hewtonian]

Lawnmower blenny does an awesome job at trimming down all the unwanted hair algae. The only problem is, since your tank is 15g, its food supply will be depleted rather quickly. You might need to supplement its diet with algae sheet....etc. I know there are other fishes that eat hair algae, but they are simply too big/active for 15g. LMB is relatively sedentary, so it would be your best bet. LMB is the only hair algae-eating fish that I can think of. Hope this helps.

[em3r1ca]

you can try a foxface if you can find one small enough also seahares work but will probably die because it wont have enough food

[sauceman]

Instead of adding something to counter the problem, maybe try to figure out the root source of the problem. Is there anything in your tank causing excessive nutrients? Are your light bulbs old, or low color temp? Have you recently added a lot of livestock all at once? What are your phosphate and nitrate levels? Do you use RO/DI water>?

Sorry for all the questions, but i had a battle with hair algea in my ten gallon a few years ago, and it turned out to be a little bit from all of the above questions.

I would start by doing some water changes, a little more frequently than you do now. For instance, if youre changing 10% each month, take it down to 5-10% each week. If nutrients are the cause, you should be able to take thier concentration down a bit through water changes. I would defiently start doing the changes with RO water if possible.

Hope this helps a little...im certainly not an expert. Post back and I'll try to help you out some more....

Steve

[AW2EOD]

Well, my substrate in the 15gal. was crushed coral. I got tired of it (HUGE waste collector).

I drained the water, took everything out, and then cleaned the tank out. I replaced the CC with fine aragonite sand and then put everything back in. I added a large piece of 1/2 lace, 1/2 live rock from my 200gal. tank as well.

As I took each piece of rock out, I scrubbed away all the hair algea. Hopefully that takes care of it.

The only bad thing...I drilled a hole into the large piece of new rock and then used a zip tie to attach my Hammer Coral to it. I guess I pushed too hard and broke a branch (with 2 heads of coral on it). I took the heads and wedged them into holes in the rock...so, hopefully they'll be alright. I was so pissed.

[Ghost_knife]

I had a LMB in a commercial tank and it took care of alot of diffrent algeas. I know this is late in inputting this but I found them most helpful

[nccoastal]

bi color blenny or molly miller did when i first put them in tank. they got lazy after a few months.