Best Green Algae Eater?

[wallj]

i have some green algae growing im assuming its hair algae and i wanted to know what it the best thing to eat it that wont affect my corals? what have you had work for you?

[outy]

seahair

[Allmost]

seahares do a good job

although u need to remove it when the hair algae is gone or it will starve to death and release toxic chemicals.

lawnmover blenny is the absolute best in my opinion
doesnt touch corals, eats ANY type of algae and is ugly and has a personality lol

To ADD :

some sea urchins do a great job at eating hair algae if FOWLR and u are scared the lawnmover would get eaten

thats' what I have with my lion fish

[d0ughb0y]

I have only tried snails and lawnmower blenny, and would say lawnmower blenny does a great job compared to 10x all the snails I have (I got 100 snails from reefcleaners and they hardly made any dent). I also tried a rainford goby and that did not do much either.

[chimmike]

What are your water parameters? Just throwing in a grazer to eat it may not solve the root issue.

[theone]

water changes

[Rich1427]

my opinion is a toss up between a lawnmower blenny or a kole tank the kole when i stuck him in the next morning most was gone

[wallj]

ok i dont know the parameters because i dont have test kits
i just recently did a water change
and ive had a lawn mower in my bigger tank and he seemed to only pick it off the glass...and would the sea hare eat it off the rocks because thats where its starting to grow longer

[chimmike]

I recommend investing in test kits then. If you don't know your parameters, you don't know if anything's wrong, so you can't fix a problem if there is one.

Not having test kits is like driving a car without a speedometer, fuel gauge, or tachometer. Something is bound to go wrong sooner or later, and you'll never be able to tell until it's too late.

[fishchef]

Testing can be pretty crazy since even the best tests are suspect. I imagine you must use your local FS. That said I do my share of testing and you learn so much more about your tank when you do your own tests.

[stanlalee]

no fish compare to urchin and seahares however creatures to solve algae problems dont solve algae problems. Who wants short lived seahares or a billion ugly snails. I have had 4 lawnmower blennies since I've been in the hobby all for at least several years and have yet to have ONE that controlled any kind of nuisance algae. they spend most time scraping micro algae and algae sheets (which is what I use to keep mine alive) then any hair,turf, bryopsis or real nuisance algae. If you have a REAL algae problem it usually grows faster than fish eat it. Not overstocking/overfeeding, frequent water changes, GFO, 16hr:8hr macro algae fuge:display, TIME/tank maturity are all more sound long term solutions than creatures.

[wilsonreefs]

Originally Posted by chimmike

I recommend investing in test kits then. If you don't know your parameters, you don't know if anything's wrong, so you can't fix a problem if there is one.

Not having test kits is like driving a car without a speedometer, fuel gauge, or tachometer. Something is bound to go wrong sooner or later, and you'll never be able to tell until it's too late.

I agree with the test kits, phosphates could be wreaking havoc causing the hair algae to grow. What size tank is it? you may have to do 2 or 3 partial water changes to get phosphates down. I don't think I'd do a big single water change. If thats the problem.

[Ali :D]

In my experience the lawnmower blennies have not done it for me but I have had good luck with sea hares. But like mentioned find out what's causing the issues; Phosphates, nitrates etc.

[wallj]

Originally Posted by wilsonreefs

I agree with the test kits, phosphates could be wreaking havoc causing the hair algae to grow. What size tank is it? you may have to do 2 or 3 partial water changes to get phosphates down. I don't think I'd do a big single water change. If thats the problem.

The tank is a 36 gallon...and also does anyone know if the sea hare will eat it off my rocks cause thats my problem i dont mind scraping the glass but the rocks are the hard part

[Rick2203]

i had a major GHA problem , got a sea hare, and within a week my tank was clean, also got an angel fish, yellow tang, and a lawnmower blenny and now my tank is algea free,

[prickles]

You may not want to hear this, but it is 95% certain YOU are causing the hair algae. It comes from overfeeding, mixed with too infrequent water changes. You could do one or the other and have a problem.

As an analogy think of a bucket. when you put food into the tank, it is like adding dirt to the bucket. When you do a waterchange, you are taking dirt out of the bucket. If you add too much dirt, and don't do enough waterchanges, you will overflow the bucket and have problems. If you add very little dirt, and do no waterchanges you will still have a problem. If you add a reasonable amount of dirt to your bucket, and do LOTS of waterchanges, you will have a pretty empty bucket, and therefore no problems.

I had a hair algae problem for about a year because of laziness. My tank looked good, so I didn't do as many waterchanges. Then the algae got a toehold...It took me WAY more effort to get rid of it than the proper maintenance at the onset.

In addition to waterchanges, as potential solutions, I rinse my frozen food in a brine shrimp net before adding it to the tank. Supposedly frozen food is really high in phosphates which will spur hair algae growth. I also run GFO which is a way to keep your phospates down and be a little lazier on the waterchanges.

[brandacca]

+1 prickles. I too run GFO, and do frequent water changes. I have zero algea, but my 12g nano on the other hand looks like a tropic rain forrest. i never change the water and nothing dies, but i neglect it and therefore i am loaded with algea. For a quick fix, Tangs can be great algea eaters