What eats hair algae?

[t5Nitro]

Good info thread. I may need to start looking around for a tuxedo urchin!

 

[lordraptor1]

pods eat hair algae and cyano i watch them doing it all the time. another thing that will help get rid of hair algae belive it or not is phytoplankton. however, if you have the means best thing to use is an algae scrubber, keeps hair algae out of your DT while providing a nice bit of nutrient export when you throw out the harvested hair algae out of the scrubber. i put an ats online a few weeks ago and just did the second cleaning monday and i can already see growth on the screen after a couple days and adding that the pods are infesting and munching on the hair alge on a rock in my dt and the several rocks with some cyano on them ( cyano thanks to dr tims garbage products by the way) i figure in a couple more weeks my DT will be hair algae free and hopefully the algae scrubber can get to work hardcore work lowering my nitrate levels LOL.

 

[lordraptor1]

to those that have laughed at my statement. hate to be the bearer of bad news but pods do indeed eat hair algae ( they will never make a dent in it though) among other algaes in the tank, and yes they will do the same with cyano ( but to a lesser degree than with hair algae). this is based on my personal experiences going back to 2000 until i got out in 2009, and i am seeing the exact since setting my tank back up in 2019. will they control it? no i never said they did, all i said was they eat it so any asumptions outside of me stating they eat hair and cyano is clearly on the reader.

you do not have to feed phyto for pods, i have a healthy pod population and i dont feed phyto ( 1 cant afford current prices for "live" phyto, and 2 my only alternative is the seachem phytoplankton ( NASTY looking and smelling stuff that causes more issues than it is worth)

 

[kcschwabe]

Mine was banished to the sump because of the white trails it left through my only few pieces of live rock in the new tank.
Once coralline grows over the Dead Marco rock, I may put it back in the display. They are really cool!

i know this is a super old thread but what did you mean about white trails

 

[Blake509]

i know this is a super old thread but what did you mean about white trails

They take part of the rock with them when they eat scraping away a layer leaving it exposed and white compared to the rest of the rock covered in algaes