Yellow tangs?

[Secondgen]

How good are yellow tangs at getting rid of hair algea?

[bigfalcon36]

hit or miss, some eat it some don't.  Best bet is a Nudibrach or Sea Hare

[micki]

I was going to say the same thing.  Hit or miss.

[Secondgen]

I have thought about a sea hare. I have a good amount of hair algea, but it is at a stand still now. I just need something to get rid of what I have. I always prefer the natural approach. I will look into a sea hare then. Thanks falcon, and micki.

[aquavista99]

Adding cheato to my sump eliminated my hair algae problem. I use it in both of my sumps, but my upstairs reef had a bad hair algae problem for a while....I did massive water changes, reduced phosphates  & nitrates to near zero and added hundreds of hermit crabs, a mimic tang and a sea hare, yet I still had hair algae until I added cheato macro algae. I attached pictures of both sumps.....I can spare some macro if you need it.

[ohioreef]

Mine refused to touch the stuff.

[aquavista99]

I have thought about a sea hare. I have a good amount of hair algea, but it is at a stand still now. I just need something to get rid of what I have. I always prefer the natural approach. I will look into a sea hare then. Thanks falcon, and micki.

I added a sea hare and it died shortly after I purchased it. I was told that they can be sensitive to nitrate and phosphate problems.....which is generally what makes hair algae go crazy. It is a hit or miss with others as well.....Also, sea hares do not eliminate the source of the problem and when they poo, they add the hair algae back to the system. If you eliminate the source, you eliminate the hair algae problem....just my two cents.

[Secondgen]

That makes sense I will keep that in mind. Like I said I think the source has been taken under control, but I still have hair algea on the live rock though it is receeding. I just wanted to find a critter to help the process of cleaning the rocks off quicker.

[slandis3]

I added a fox face to rid my system of the remaining hair algea. He has done a great job of cleaning my live rock

[Secondgen]

I appreciate the pics aquavista.

[andrewr]

a rabbitfish is pretty good at it, plus they have been known to eat valonia hardcore too

[BobbyC]

I think sea hares may be partial to certain types of hair algae.  The one I had cleaned my tank beautifully, twice; also lent it to another guy and it cleaned his tank.  But a third person had no success and after a week or so it died.  I figure it starved.

That's the problem; once the algae is gone the hare has nothing to eat.  If you can loan it out for a month or two until your algae comes back (it will come back) then you can bring it back in.

Best bet is to find the root cause of the algae and eliminate that.

[OneThunder]

Adding cheato to my sump eliminated my hair algae problem. I use it in both of my sumps, but my upstairs reef had a bad hair algae problem for a while....I did massive water changes, reduced phosphates  & nitrates to near zero and added hundreds of hermit crabs, a mimic tang and a sea hare, yet I still had hair algae until I added cheato macro algae. I attached pictures of both sumps.....I can spare some macro if you need it.

What about putting it in one of the back compartments in a nano cube?

[ohioreef]

Actually there is a mod for that. I've seen where people have put chaeto in one of the rear compartments. They then cut away some of the black plastic and put a daylight CF fixture to light the chaeto.

[aquavista99]

I appreciate the pics aquavista.

No problem. Hope you can resolve the hair algae problem soon!