Hairy green algae

[beckzilla]

Just got an outbreak of hairy green algae and was wondering rather than take out all the rock and clean is there an animal that will eat this stuff. Obviously I did not change my Rowaphos soon enough. Any other good ways to clean?

 

[kelly]

Hermit crabs, snails, foxface, lawnmower blenny just to mention a few things...

 

[jc74]

Yep. I got 10 turbos, 10 hermits, and a queen conch in my 75 gallon tank when hair algae broke out.
After a couple weeks I noticed a huge difference. After a couple months, it's nearly all gone. There are still a couple small patches but they'll get to them.
I had no desire to remove all my rockwork since it took me so long to position them the way I like it. Plus all the critters have their own homes in the rocks and I didn't want to mess that up.

 

[bgrae001]

I used 3 emerald crab for this and it worked out great!

 

[jc74]

Yeah, I also got a few emeralds.
They love the stuff.

 

[groupergenius]

Foxface are hair algae eating machines.