Inverts

I read the green hair algae thread but that didn't meet my needs cause i saw his picture and it was nothing near that. OK so i have live rock that is just green with thick algae growth and its all over the place. my uncle gave the live rock 2 me and he didnt have any snails for a long time. so are there inverts that will just eat this stuff up cause its to a point where its like it will never go away!! What would you recommened for this stuff and how much of it. i just bought 5 blue legged crabs and 5 astera snail on saturday but it dosent look like their doing anything! And would a tarfish help with that!?

 

Sea hares, turbo snails, nassarius snails will eat hair algae. Do you have a sump/refuge? If you do you could try removing the hair algae and then using chaeto, caulerpa, or an algal scrubber in the sump/refuge with a suitable light above to remove nutrients so as the hair algae won't grow in your DT in the first place.

 

Fish wise, tangs do a good job at getting rid of hair algae but some will get large and need a large tank with suitable tank mates, also they should really be added last due to their territorial tendencies.

 

A lawnmower blenny, or a bicolor blenny will also feed on algae.

 

I agree except nassarius snails are carnivores they feed on detritus, left over fish food, and fish waste. They won't eat algae.

 

My mistake, I meant cerith snails, but not sure if they would do a good job with hair algae, they do a good job in my tank with the small amount of green algae that ocassionally appears at the bottom, on the sides of my tank.

 

Yeah, ceriths would be good to add I have probably 100+ dwarf ceriths that do a great job cleaning the algae on the glass. Hermit crabs will eat hair algae too.

 

My nassarius snails eat algae but it's algae disks that they eat, not GHA or anything.


OP, I'm looking at fuzzy chitons for my spots of algae. I've heard they don't move quickly but they're thorough.

 

I have some very small limpets and astrea starfish in my tank which do a good clean up job also.

 

About the tangs ohh and thanks everyone ill check into those snails. But the tang i have a chevron full adult and he seems he dosent really like to eat the algae