Will a tang eat hair algae?

[HumanIMDB]

I've tried searching and while I've got a few hits on those keywords, I haven't found a definitive answer...

Will they? If so, is one species more inclined to eat it over another?

Just wondering if they might help out between Live Rock brushings...

 

[gmneil]

i havae a blue hippo tang, clown tang, atlantic blue tang, tennenti tang, and a yelllow tang, and none of them will touch the stuff

 

[jimbo78]

i have heard that a kole tang will but have never seen it. if it bryposis then a lettuce slug is the way to go.

 

[Mr James]

Don't rely on a tang or any other invert to eat your HA. Go to the source of it and nip it in the butt!! What happens if you got a tang and he ate all the HA?? What does he eat next??

I am slowly ridding my system of my HA. Watch your nutrient uptake, water changes with DI water, PhosBan reactor....and I dose Vodka...

 

[seafansar]

My convict tang and bullet gobies would eat hair algae, but not enough to make much of a difference. Turbo snails work great. As long as you get the nutrients under control, snails and hermits can clean up the remaining algae. But you have to find them a new home when they're done, unless you want to feed them nori tied to a rock all the time.

 

[Amphiprionocellaris]

I have a yellow tang that does a pretty good job of controlling what hair algae grows in his tank...he also gets supplemental dried algae, so it's not his main food source. Many of the tangs in the genus Zebrasoma will eat hair algae if it's short, but IME they rarely touch it if it's longer. Rabbitfish, on the other hand, are algae-eating machines. I can put one of them in a tank and depend on it to decimate the algae populations. Unfortunately, I've had poor luck keeping them alive after they finish the algae, even with supplemental feeding, but it seems from my experience working with other people that I'm the exception.

 

[tmz]

Rabbit fish are good algae eaters; many are coralvores too. My foxface is my best grazer. Zebrasomma ( yello, purple, scopas, salifin)are good grazers on filamentous algae, most of these require large tanks . Virtually nothing geats bryoposis, fernlike type of hair algae.. Some lettuce slugs do but they don' t live more than a month or so in an aquarium and don' eat a ton anyway.A diadema urchin may eat this type of algae.

 

[jtma508]

I had a massive amount of hair algae on my return nozzles. 6+" manes of the stuff. Put a yellow tang in and every speck was gone inside 24 hours. He devoured the stuff.

 

[will16]

My kole tang seems to be doing a decent job. Grazes on rock and glass all day. As a previous poster stated, turbo snails do a great job. I have actually resorted to picking them up and putting them on top of the algae and letting them rip. It actually works!

 

[brian37]

I recently purchased a yellow tang and I have a bit of green hair algae and he absolutely loves it.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Like another said the Turbo snails eat it up. Also a lawnmower blenny will eat it but once its gone might starve. If you do get the snails I suggest one per 10 gal of water volume, no more than that because they will starve after it's gone. Turbo snails eat all kinds of algae and they clean everything from top to bottom of your tank.

 

[jason2459]

My experience is the same as TMZ. I've had two fox faces and both were the best algae eaters of anything I've had. The only difference is my magnificent foxface would also consume bryopsis. My one spot does not.

 

[ca1ore]

Sometimes tangs will eat GHA, sometimes not. Your best bet are the zebrasomas, though, again, some individuals will eat it and some will not. Bristles typically eat slime and film algaes, so likely not a good choice. I've had some success with some Acanthurus, namely Achilles and convicts.

 

[Marty.H]

The Tangs in my system and what they eat.

Kole Tang eats hair algae , bryopsis , cheato and what ever else it can suck at

Sailfin Tang eats hair algae , cheato and bubble algae

Clown Tang eats cheato and hair algae

Yellow eats hair algae and cheato

They are always grazing on the rocks and do a mega job keeping.the place clean I must be lucky with them.

 

[Sapelo]

We have five: two yellow tangs, one Bristletooth, one Naso and one Powder Brown -- none touch the GHA.
I think it's on a fish by fish basis.

 

[Sk8r]

The answer to hair algae is phosphate overload, which can be cured with a 50.00 phosphate remover reactor, aka GFO reactor. I use the Phosban reactor. There are several good brands, all using granulated ferrous oxide, all of equal effectiveness. YOu have to change the medium monthly to get effective treatment, and you can stop the monthly changes after you see the algae thin out and go away. You should also be using ro/di water, which is phosphate-free. Spare phosphate arrives with sand and rock, which is the original source. Eventually the rock and sand run out of it, as the Phosban sops it up.