Hair algea eaters

[Ghostyboythedog]

Fuzzy Chitons. They are slow but good grief they clean. They don’t discriminate what they eat once the get started so dinos and cyan and anything else get munched. They exclusively clean rock so you won’t have them constantly on the glass either. So the won’t likely eat your dragon’s breath.
Turbo snails as mentioned.
An orange lipped conch stays small enough to live in a 20 high and will help your sand bed a lot.
For a small tank, Hector’s goby or rainfordi (court jester Goby) will eat it when it’s longer. Once it’s short they pick at it but will move to sifting out of your sand bed mostly which helps with nutrient export and still helps control algae. They might pick at your macro algae as will any algae eating fish or crab but probably won’t consume it. I have chaeto in my tank in case I don’t have enough algae for my lettuce nudibranch. And both of the above mentioned animals mess with it except the nudibranch during periods of low algae.
Lettuce Nudibranch: I was so amazed with my first one because it literally climbed waving algae and tamed it. Once the long stuff was gone, it moved to the glass, wouldn’t eat the chaeto and finally vanished. The second one did a great job on the rock until it found the chaeto ball. My guess would be that your dargon’s breath would not survive a lettuce nudi.
Nassarius snails to clean up detritus in your sand to aid with nutrient export.
Copepods and amphipods.
If you want to add “fun” CUC, micro brittle stars will clean up extra food like crazy as will cleaner shrimp.

Thank you all so much for helping me.

 

[Mr Fishface]

I had hair algae pretty bad at one point. I tried turbo snails but they would rather eat the algae off my glass rather than the rocks so they didn't help at all. Only thing that worked for me was a sea hare. Ate every little bit of algae I had in my tank. My LFS offered to buy it back when I was done with my algae too so that was nice!

 

[kevgib67]

All great suggestions, as mentioned my best workhorse is my tuxedo urchin, never stops munching.

 

[XtraKargo]

I have a 32 BC. When the hair algae got bad I loaded mine up with a couple hermits, a couple smaller emeralds, nassarius snails and I believe trochus snails along with a Tuxedo Urchin. I lowered my white LEDs to less than an hour a day unless it was for ramping up or down with the blues. Then added Chemi Pure Blue in the back. It took a few weeks to eradicate it all, and was fun to watch the last few spots of GHA left standing, going oh yeah! I got you... I feed Rod's Triple weed now to keep the CUC happy, and recently upped my Whites to a full hour midday and will monitor progress for the next month. Good luck!

 

[just_matt]

a waterproof toothbrush

Eh... As opposed to the water soluble kind?

 

[Solo McReefer]

Eh... As opposed to the water soluble kind?

 

[BristleWormHater]

Hi,
I have a 20 gallon high tank. There are 2 corals, a duncan and a zoanthid, and dragons breath macro algea, and a cleaner shrimp, that's all that's in there are there any fish, invertebrates, or anything that controls it. I get you can pull it out of the sand, but when it's in the rocks it's very hard to get out. So any eaters or anything that gets rid of it, thanks.

Emerald crabs and Tuxedo urchins

 

[LoneStarReef]

Tuxedo urchin and my Mexican turbo snails keep my tank squeaky clean, especially the snails.

 

[Solo McReefer]

Waterproof toothbrush

Bauri Electric Toothbrush, Rechargeable Sonic Electric Toothbrush with 3 Brush Heads,Super Slim Electric Toothbrush, IPX7,3 Modes,White Electric Toothbrush https://a.co/d/dQhUx1T

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

I'm still waiting to try Chiton. they never have everything I want in stock for a complete order. don't want to pay that shipping fee again. heard Pithos eat it too. ironically it only grows on the Caribsea rock.

 

[MZabel67]

Hi,
I have a 20 gallon high tank. There are 2 corals, a duncan and a zoanthid, and dragons breath macro algea, and a cleaner shrimp, that's all that's in there are there any fish, invertebrates, or anything that controls it. I get you can pull it out of the sand, but when it's in the rocks it's very hard to get out. So any eaters or anything that gets rid of it, thanks.

Sea Hare. I borrowed one from my LFS and returned it after 3 days. Ate all of the GHA in my tank. They only eat GHA so when it's gone you need to return them or they will die.

 

[Mechano]

Mexican turbo snails are your best bet.
Just don’t get too many in your tank and make sure the tank isn’t too warm as they don’t do as well. Keep tank around 76-77 degrees.
I’d say try 2-3

 

[stewy14]

my emerald crabs destroyed all my hair algae in 2 days!
its a 10 gal
highly recommend it

 

[paragrouper]

I heard they will attack other inverts though and eat cirals

I have 3 in my 32 gallon tank to control bubble algae. They have never bothered my corals. They are actually helpful in keeping the algae around corals trimmed up.

But my main algae fighters are limpet snails.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I just pulled the hair algae off my tank with my bare hands and had a snail take care of the rest.

 

[stewy14]

I just pulled the hair algae off my tank with my bare hands and had a snail take care of the rest.

a singular snail...
what type?

 

[GARRIGA]

Going to try a Sea Hare. Told only invert that will eat long GHA. Not in the mood to pull out the tooth brush. Kind of defeats the reason for a clean up crew.

Had an urchin but didn't eat the long stuff and ultimately died. No clue why but could be it starved.

Thought Turbos also only graze on the short stuff along with every other snail.

Sea Hare seems to be the only valid option but it too will starve unless fed or just allow algae to grow and encourage it. Seems win win since it doesn't necessarily need much from us to succeed.

Might also try Lettuce Nudibranch as mentioned. Although I can capture both in the keys on the way home from a fishing trip. Can always give to another reefer if feeding not worth it. Could also just setup as small tank and let algae bloom and have that as a staging area as I plan for Berghia Nudibranches. Perhaps one tank solves both

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

If you get Mexican Turbo Snails, make sure you keep your tank below 78F or you will slowly cook them. The are a Cold Water Snail.

 

[Ghostyboythedog]

Okay, thank you all for the response!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

a singular snail...
what type?

Trochus snail