What inverts eat hair algae?

[sigmachris]

I have a patch of hair algae the size of a silver dollar. I pull what I can during water changes but it still comes back, but fortunately not growing wider at a significant pace.
What crab or snail will eat hair algae? I currently have 3 nass, 1 bumble bee, 1 certh, 2 Asteria, and 2 red legs but none of them seem to touch the hair. Will an emerald crab or Mexican turbo dine on hair algae?

 

[am00re34]

i'm surprized the red legs dont touch it, but the emerald will and the turbo should as well. my experiance is crabs will eat the hair algae and snails eat more of the film algae.

 

[sigmachris]

The red legs haven't shown any interest, but if one is out I will physically move him on top of the hair and see if he goes to town.
Thanks for your help amoree.

 

[trainfever]

Emerald crabs are your best bet to eat the hair algae but you have to find out what is causing it in the first place. Hair algae is usually caused by excessive phosphates in your water? What kind of water are you using?

 

[sigmachris]

RO water from the store, always have since the beginning...I think the algae is caused by a lack of flow. I have had a 14G BioCube for 5 months. I upgraded the pump a month ago and now I'm messing around with the direction to make sure the dietrus is getting moved off of the rock and into the water column.

 

[trainfever]

Check your foods, make sure they dont contain any phosphates. Also when doing work and sticking your hands in the tank, rinse well beforehand. Soap contains phosphates and there could be some on your skin. In a small tank, the amount of phosphates could be significantly higher than opposed to a larger tank.

 

[am00re34]

also, you may want to consider running something like phos-lock to remove anything that might be generated from food. Or you can always use some sort of macro-algae to eat up the excess nutrients that the hair algae is using to grow.
in my 55 i had algae EVERYWHERE... i first added crabs and snails galore, switched to RO/DI, then added phos-lock. this just about did it but i still had film algae so i bought some shaving brushes (a type of plant) and put those in my tank(no fuge) and now i have to clean my glass maybe once a week just to get the little bit of film off and the rocks are completly clear of anything green.