whats a good hair algae eater thats reef safe and not a tang

[KMTaquarium]

i have never had luck with tangs, from koles to blue regal to yellows to sailfins they all die so i dont want to deal with that again,
im starting a new propogation system and was curious what is a coral safe, hair algae eater, ive tried blennies but not much luck, what have you had luck with?
Thank you for your time
-kevin

 

[wade1]

Members of the rabbit fish family... Siganus sp. Such as foxfaces and rabbitfish. They are ravenous eaters of many algaes.

 

[Anonymous]

If you partition an area in the prop system to grow some of the caulerpa's, you should have absolutely no hair algae within about 2 weeks.


Competition and all.

I would highly advise against putting fish in a prop system. Adds nitrates and such.

 

[Frank N Beans]

iVe tried sooo many different things and the only one that worked was long spined sea urchins.

 

[reefland]

If you partition an area in the prop system to grow some of the caulerpa's, you should have absolutely no hair algae within about 2 weeks.

In 2 weeks?? come on. Would love to see some people replicate that time line. I doubt newly introduced caulerpa would finish adapting to a new light source in that time frame much less have such a growth spurt to completely outcompete hair algae.

A rabbit fish such as a foxface is an excellent algae eater. But I have seen mine nibble off acropora flesh (a. tortuosa mainly). Nothing major, corals heal fairly quick. I would say this is not typical of foxface fish.

 

[Lynn]

Mr. Reef, I have hair algae and I have caulerpa in a refugium. Have had for 4 months. ??? I don't think its "just that simple"

 

[Anonymous]

Ditto.

I've had Caulerpa refuge and hair algae living quite nicely together for about 18 months now to some degree or another. There is MUCH more to it than that, I'm afraid.

 

[fishfarmer]

I'll vote for long spined urchins as well. I wouldn't consider them completely reef safe though. They will scrape your coralline, which should grow back quickly, they may topple rockwork and they may poke a coral or two.

You would probably have to pull the long hair algae though since they only seem to eat the short stuff.

 

[dizzy]

Instead of looking for things to eat it, it is better to work on improving the conditions to the point it doesn't grow. I recommend adding kalkwasser.

 

[4angel]

A while back when I started my first tank I had a major out break off hair Algae that I attribute to high phosphate levels and just plain poor up keep on my part. I was able to rid that tank clean with a bi color blenny(the guy went to town on that stuff). Some folks also say that lawn mower blennys do a good job. If you check your levels and it turns out that you have high phosphates and you are not cultivating other algae I would try a phosphate sponge. Again be aware that a phosphate sponge will also rid you of some of the pretty algae that you maybe growing.
_________________
Chevy Wiki

 

[OodleyBoodely]

From my own experience, and, I had the hair and then the bryopsis infestations from H@!!, none of the animals-fish, urchins, sea slugs, ect- will cure the problem. I tried all of them, including a foxface, several lawnmower blennies, lettus sea slugs, urchins, snails, hermits, ect. Yes, most of these critters will eat the algae, but, most will not touch the long stuff, and none of them, even several types together could make an appreciable dent in the growth of the algae. They all seem to prefer any other food to the algae and soon stop eating it, anyway, so whatever effectiveness they may have had ended as soon as they 'discovered' other food sources.

What finally seemed to work for me, was a combination (IMO) of upgrading to a better skimmer, constant hand plucking, and, reduced water changes (I use tap and it is bad). Also, I think many of the algal outbreaks tend to be somewhat self-limiting and start to die back after a certain length of time, anyway. I fought the algae for over a year and then it just started to die out. I still have a few small patches that I still hand pluck, but, they don't seem to grow back like they used to. Getting nitrate and phosphate under control is certainly a priority in getting an algea bloom under control. If you don't, all the 'algae-eating critters in the ocean are not going to cure the problem, they will only add to it. HTH

 

[Mike02]

there are these little worms in my tank that eat red hair algae in my tank. they're not bristleworms although bristle worms eat it too. i have red hair algae that grows in the high flow area. after i blocked out some incandescent side lighting that my aquarium was getting alot of it disappeared and/or turned a greenish color. some hair algae in my tank disappeared because it apparently ran out of nutrients. it never returned to the areas where it disappeared from. i dont have much hair algae but its there. my phosphate levels are near 0, but caularpa can grow pretty fast in my tank. i have to prune/remove it regularly.
i started another little aquarium, loaded it up with live rock, and i had alot of green hair algae that never went away (in 3 months, i took down the tank). i never had a chance to put coral in the tank. anyway, i put caularpa from my main tank into the little one. the caularpa grew like crazy but it didnt get rid of the hair algae.

 

[Anonymous]

Listen, guys, if you're going to line me up for the firing squad at least give me my bandana. Sheesh.

It has been my experience that adding caulerpa effectively eliminated hair algae from a 30 gallon aquarium within about 2 weeks. More importantly and more relevantly, I demonstrated this to KMTaquarium by doing it in his very tank.

So, perhaps your experiences have differed, and I am sorry that it has not been as easy for you as it has been for me. I don't profess to know a magic answer, but am just offering advice to a fellow who I have once solved this problem for in person in his very home. Yikes!


I remember when I was a newbie, I was completely terrified of hair algae.

Just recenly however, I was selling some off some of my live rock and the people who were buying it were hemming and hawing about a piece that had hair algae on it. It surprised me to see their attitudes as I could really care less if there is a little hair algae. If tank conditions are putrid, then hair algae rapidly becomes a problem. But, it has been my experience that in well maintained tanks with low fish levels, hair algae does not flourish. I had not changed my water or cleaned my tank in about 8 months and all I had to show for it was one rock that was covered and then odd pieces here and there that were shorter than an Army Sgt's hair. It did not concern me greatly.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[Anonymous]

The only algae that genuinely terrifies me was this rare sunburst reddish/orange/yellow rainbow hair algae that looks identical to derbesia.

I couldn't find any phycologists or textbooks that had an I.D. in them, and nothing ate it. I dont' remember why it went away, but after 5 months of plucking, it sort of never came back. I think it was a Kole tang that might have done it in at last.

Remember KMT?

 

[KMTaquarium]

nope. Dr. (not MR. as some of you refer to him) reef was right.
within 2 weeks the caulerpa had worked by outcompeting the hair algae,
30 gallon std. with a 250 watt iwasaki 6500k and no suppl.
the system had already been set up when the caulerpa was introduced so when it was put in the tank it was had to compete to aid in removing of hair algae. in my new 180 syst. it will be introduced with no hair algae competing so it wont take as long to help remove any algae blooms since it will be already established

the only problem wit the caulerpa was that after the hair algae had been removed the caulerpa became the "hair" algae. i remeber removing enought of it to half fill a 5 gallon bucket that i use for water changes and such aquatics needs, and with out the competing hair algae it only grew faster and faster, its the expodential reproduction thing, one string makes one and each of those makes one and before you know it, its every where

 

[reefland]

Listen, guys, if you're going to line me up for the firing squad at least give me my bandana. Sheesh.

Well you tell someone to add caulerpa and expect hair algae to be gone in 2 weeks. You say it as if it is a certain to happen. That certainly is not the norm. Excellent to see it worked well for you however.

the only problem wit the caulerpa was that after the hair algae had been removed the caulerpa became the "hair" algae

Heh, yeah the cure is worse than the disease sometimes.

 

[aggiefish]

I had a foxface for 2 years, he/she loved the pressed algae that you can buy at the LFS, but wouldn't touch the hair algae, guess it was a algae snob :wink: . Spiny urchins on the other hand did a great job of mowing through the stuff. However, it would just grow back now matter how much they ate, seems the best course is to improve the water quality since eating the algae is only a temp solution.

 

[Anonymous]

Heh, yeah the cure is worse than the disease sometimes.

Indeed. The caulerpa killed more corals than I've ever seen hair algae do!

But I believe he got rid of the caulerpa in the end.

Don't know if the hair algae came back.

 

[aquarist=broke]

I have Stupid Hair Algae too. I aqree with whoever says that it is a water quality issue. I never had hair algae before, but I get one BTA and now it's like cutting my way through a rainforest just to help the zooanthids to some light and circulation. I now feed really healty foods to the fish and healthy chunk sized portions to the Anemone. In manual pruning, i've noticed that the algae smells like crap. Perhaps it tastes like it smells to my algae eating animals, assuming they can "taste".

 

[danmhippo]

I don't know about 2 weeks, but caulerpa can really work, at least for me. I think it has more to do with "how much" caulerpa in ratio to GHA. The more you have, of course, will out compete GHA faster.

I also agree on keeping caulerpa in check to prevent them smothering corals. Remember I have a caulerpa forest in my tank? Eventhough the corals I have mostly are sponges, polyps and softies, if I let the caulerpa run wild, all rocks will be covered by caulerpa in less then 3 weeks. In fact, I am now having problems keeping caulerpa off the rocks and have to pull them out and give away to my LFS.

The caulerpa on the sand is much easier to manage and since they clump the sand with their hold fast, I simply dig a dense growth patch up and give it to LFS. LFS can then scissor them up and sell them by square inches, and I gets to have new sands to replenish my tank.

Back to the original topic, one other organism that I find useful in riddeing GHA is the emerald crab and sally light foot. But both can be a pest when their shell is about a quarter coin size. Get the small ones to be safe.