Who is the ultimate algae eater?

[lexatomic]

What "critter" should I get to destroy my unsightly algae?
Yes...I know I can clean it, but I'd rather some hungry animal have a meal instead of just cleaning of my coral and wasting enough algae to feed a small country.

 

[lexatomic]

turbo snail eh? okay...so are they big snails, cause i think i've seen them in my LFS. do they have another anme i should ask for?

 

[pyro383]

Is there a preference in size of snails? Is it better to get 10 small instead of 5 large ones?

 

[battlecat316]

Is there anything besides snails that eat algae? My puffers will make a meal of those snails.

 

[nacl-h2o]

I'm with you Pyro, more smaller snails are better than a few larg ones.
I like Margaritas and Ceriths.
They can right themselves when they fall upside down, their small enough to sqweeze into smaller areas, and their hardier than those mex turbos or astreas.

 

[jim672]

lexatomic,
I agree that snails will clean up your algea...cerith and nerite do a real good job with green algea on glass and rocks. You might consider some red leg hermit crabs too.
I'd also suggest trying to determine what is causing your algea situation. Is your tank cycled? Are you overfeeding? How long are your lights on? What's your substrate? What are your water parameters, especially phosphate? Isolate the cause of the algea and you should be able to eliminate most of it and help your clean-up crew.
Jim

 

[jakob4001]

possily a large lawnmower blenny or large tiger cowery has huge strong shell & retracts totally into it; we call it a sea cow because it crazes like one...butit can become large & is kind of clumsy

 

[jim672]

ijji,
I had a hair algea outbreak and nothing I had went near the stuff. I had blue and red-leg hermits, about 4 different kinds of snails and a lawnmower blennie. I had to hand harvest and then reduced my phosphates with Phosorb and it has not come back.
Jim

 

[jacksonpt]

Depends on what kind of algae you have, and where it's growing. For example, snails do not do a good job cleaning algae from sand, and hermits do not do a good job cleaning the glass. Emerald crabs are great algae eaters, but only certain types of algae. Tangs, snails, and hermits are typically consered good algae eaters... but it depends on the type of algae you are having problems with.

 

[blennybabe]

I have a red lip blenny and he eats algae off of the glass. its leaves little lip prints all over. hes an interesting fish!

 

[cowfish]

a sea hair i found one at the beach but my lfs sales them also they are algea eatin machine. they are big but they dont have a shell like the crowy (sp) so they dont nock over rock. but the need a lot of algea.

 

[joshh]

iave a tang that eans my tank of hair alge

 

[starfishjackedme]

none of the little

[hr]
I hired to eat the hair algae are doing their job. This inlcudes yellow and blue tang, lawnmower, hermits, snails, and emerald crabs.
I heard a Kole tang is good for it though.

 

[bradsmack]

Yeah i was going to suggest a Kole Tang, they do a really good job, they are all over the place eating algae all the time! The snails are probably the second best, the Cowry was a really good idea, I used snails and hermits to totally rid myself of hair algae, they totally knocked it down and out! Kole tang would probably do best if you can have snails, but they get somewhat large..

 

[catera]

lawnmower blenny absolutely decimated my green hair algea and i had a ton!!!

 

[new]

my bahama star eats all the types of algea in my tank, just need to figure out why i have so much i think its phosphates but still working.

 

[lexatomic]

Hermit's clean glass? Mine only pick through the substrate and clean the coral. I clean my glass frequently, so I guess I haven't given them a chance. I like the look of natural "good" algae, so that's why I wondered what ate it, so I could put this stockpile to some use.

 

[superman]

I have had a lawnmower blenny for 2 days now, and he has completely cleaned three of my rocks from all the hair algae, and other unsightly algae on those rocks. Everyday when I look at him he is eating/cleaning.

 

[lionpicasso]

The only thing I've had that kept alot of algea under control was my Lawnmower Blenny, He did a good job on keeping it down on my LR also.

 

[y2says]

I just bought a lawnmower blenny a few days ago and it hasn't done much yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed though.