Best Attractive Algae Eaters?

[Texas Reefer]

Unless your fish are in the sump with the pods, that's not going to be anything but a starvation diet.

Hook up an auto-feeder to add small amounts of food throughout the day vs being limited to just when you're there.

You can afford to be a lot more conservative with your manual feedings that way without depriving the fish that need frequent feedings.

Eheim's feeder is reliable and can do up to 8 feedings per day.

My anthia won't eat flake or pellets, only frozen meaty foods. Do you have a suggestion for an auto-feeder for a type of meaty food? Just yesterday I was contemplating raising pods in a remote tank and using a doserer to drip pods into the tank, but assumed the doser would crush the pods. Does anyone know of a similar setup that works?

 

[bobbyM]

Hair Algae? Sailfin Tang Hands down the best hair algae eater. I'd also add an acanthus tang, also great algae eaters. Feed algae daily.

 

[BryanD]

Maybe not the most attractive, but definitely one of the most interesting, a lawnmower blenny. Not sure about the hair algae, luckily haven't had any in a long time, but will eat most other algae and will nibble on the live rock constantly. Just make sure you quarantine and figure out what he likes as supplemental food before putting him main tank in case your natural algae levels get low.

 

[Lonnie]

Kole tang all the way

 

[Cory]

I have a foxface and he ate all my bubble algae. I have a diadema sea urchin and they ate everything else.

 

[mcarroll]

I’ll second the dwarf Scarus Quoyi Parrotfish. It’s reef safe

What's the longest that you've kept one of these in a reef?

 

[mcarroll]

I think those Parrots get >12" long. You'll be going through live rock like it was flake food when they get big!

But you'll have a nice sand bed.

 

[Chelle's Ocean]

Tuxedo urchins are the only thing i've had luck with. They're awesome! Tangs wont eat hair algae. They will pick at the rocks without growth and maybe prevent growth in those areas. I also just ordered a sea hare. From what i've read, they will wipe clean a 125g in 2 weeks. But they're ugly. The attractive ones don't algae.

Love our seahare.. we keep one always, like a mascot, too cute. He eats algae sheets, and now algae discs, and has been seen squishing bitty chunks of scallop in his moooshy mouth and eating.. yup, literally sat there and watched him moseying around the tank to see if he spit it out. He's one of the odd balls, lol

 

[Ed M]

Far from attractive, but definitely effective, the Hairy Sea Hare Slug. Its like a lawnmower. It will clear up your long haired algae from your tank relatively quickly. So quickly at times, that you will have to find an external source for feeding it or take back to your LPS. I understand that if you have an algae problem you should focus on what is creating the problem, but in the mean time, let the slug work---it really works!

 

[van7271]

I vote for the yellow tang. Have had the same one for 10 years and all he does all day is graze on algae. He is also a great tank mate. Urchins are also great. However, some urchins will get a taste for soft coral just out of the blue. Had one for years then one day it just started mowing down polyps like crazy.

 

[PhreeByrd]

Considering the wide variation in responses, I suspect that we're not all talking about the same kind of 'hair algae'...
When I had algae issues in the (pretty distant) past, I had a sample identified by a lab, which confirmed that I was dealing with a derbesia species. Nothing would touch it except urchins, and they weren't too crazy about it, either. No other fish or invert wanted anything to do with it.
Most other alga, however, lots of things would pick at.

 

[Jackcarp]

I had a bad GHA problem and bought a sea hare. Not pretty but an absolute lawnmower! You have to sell it to someone with a algae problem before it starves to death. Good way to get a jump on it.

 

[ZoWhat]

I would have to vote for Jennifer Lopez eating sushi with strips of nori algae......as the most attractive algae eater.