Tangs Eat Long Bushes of Hair Algae Right?

[TinkL]

This might be a dumb question, but I recently picked up a tomini tang to clear out the remaining bushes from my ugly phase and I just wanted to make sure it'll eat big bushes of hair algae (I'm talking big). I thought about pulling it before I added him, but if he eats it why am I gonna deny him a nice fat meal? There is quite a lot of it left with bald patches from pulling / urchins eating it, but these bushes left over are long and thick.

 

[Solo McReefer]

Depends on the fish

A waterproof toothbrush will definitely eat it, tho

They cost 10 bucks

 

[Spare time]

Mine didn't bother with hair algae

 

[VintageReefer]

Nope
Chances are extremely high he won’t touch it

My tomini shows zero interest in hair algae

 

[KrisReef]

Most tangs like a neatly trimmed bush and will ignore the grossly overgrown ones completely.

 

[JGT]

Most tangs like a neatly trimmed bush and will ignore the grossly overgrown ones completely.

Don’t we all?

 

[gbroadbridge]

This might be a dumb question, but I recently picked up a tomini tang to clear out the remaining bushes from my ugly phase and I just wanted to make sure it'll eat big bushes of hair algae (I'm talking big). I thought about pulling it before I added him, but if he eats it why am I gonna deny him a nice fat meal? There is quite a lot of it left with bald patches from pulling / urchins eating it, but these bushes left over are long and thick.

He may eat some if he's starving, but even then only pluck a string or two.

The solution to big bunches of hair algae is elbow grease and a toothbrush

 

[Solo McReefer]

He may eat some if he's starving, but even then only pluck a string or two.

The solution to big bunches of hair algae is elbow grease and a toothbrush

+1

 

[TinkL]

Depends on the fish

A waterproof toothbrush will definitely eat it, tho

They cost 10 bucks

Alright... I've been really struggling to finally get rid of my GHA completely. Patches that I cant get down to the rock grow back after a bit while others never grow back so its slowly getting there, but the remaining bunches are a PAIN. My nitrates did drop to 0 while phos has been stable at .05... This tank is pretty understocked since I recently moved a smaller tank into it so I'm slowly working on stocking it to get those nitrates back up and stable. Since there's a ton of areas that have cleared up entirely, it kind of tells me that it's getting there so I'm trying to find good ways to reset this dang algae completely. I've heard of flux RX if I'm desperate, but I don't usually like to lean into chemicals unless I absolutely have to... anyone had experience with using this stuff? I might consider it for a quick reset on the leftover bushes

 

[vetteguy53081]

This might be a dumb question, but I recently picked up a tomini tang to clear out the remaining bushes from my ugly phase and I just wanted to make sure it'll eat big bushes of hair algae (I'm talking big). I thought about pulling it before I added him, but if he eats it why am I gonna deny him a nice fat meal? There is quite a lot of it left with bald patches from pulling / urchins eating it, but these bushes left over are long and thick.

I have 25 tangs and Maybe Two will Nibble on algae. Nori seaweed- thats a whole different story

 

[TinkL]

I have 25 tangs and Maybe Two will Nibble on algae. Nori seaweed- thats a whole different story

Nori aka crack for those tangs

 

[Idech]

A tuxedo urchin will love it and eat impressive quantities really fast.

 

[TinkL]

A tuxedo urchin will love it and eat impressive quantities really fast.

Yeah I have 2 in the tank in question, they're responsible for a lot of clean patches but they're a little too slow for how much I still have.

 

[Solo McReefer]

A tuxedo urchin will love it and eat impressive quantities really fast.

Urchins eat right through coralline algae(which grows back)

And cable insulation(shocking to many people)

 

[Solo McReefer]

I've been really struggling to finally get rid of my GHA completely.

I don't think that's possible in a tank that also grows corals

The cells are always going to be in the tank. And it just takes one cell to divide

My Tunze cheato stopped spinning 2 days ago

Opened it up, and GHA was growing down from the lid and 'caught' the chaeto.

Guess what, that's perfect. Scrubbed off all the GHA, grabbed half the chaeto. All of that was exported to the trashcan. It was growing in the reactor, not the tank, perfect

And I still have the caulerpa 'leaf' in the reactor, alive. I didn't put it in there. That's illegal. But it goes to show how tenacious algae is

Stop trying to wipe it out. That's impossible

Learn how to manage it

Or don't, I'm not your boss

 

[gbroadbridge]

Alright... I've been really struggling to finally get rid of my GHA completely. Patches that I cant get down to the rock grow back after a bit while others never grow back so its slowly getting there, but the remaining bunches are a PAIN. My nitrates did drop to 0 while phos has been stable at .05... This tank is pretty understocked since I recently moved a smaller tank into it so I'm slowly working on stocking it to get those nitrates back up and stable. Since there's a ton of areas that have cleared up entirely, it kind of tells me that it's getting there so I'm trying to find good ways to reset this dang algae completely. I've heard of flux RX if I'm desperate, but I don't usually like to lean into chemicals unless I absolutely have to... anyone had experience with using this stuff? I might consider it for a quick reset on the leftover bushes

Already told you the only answer that works.

Chemicals are for lazy reefers, and lazy reefers get overwhelmed eventually.

Toothbrush and scrub.

Once it's under control the herbivores will keep it controlled.

 

[TinkL]

I don't think that's possible in a tank that also grows corals

The cells are always going to be in the tank. And it just takes one cell to divide

My Tunze cheato stopped spinning 2 days ago

Opened it up, and GHA was growing down from the lid and 'caught' the chaeto.

Guess what, that's perfect. Scrubbed off all the GHA, grabbed half the chaeto. All of that was exported to the trashcan. It was growing in the reactor, not the tank, perfect

And I still have the caulerpa 'leaf' in the reactor, alive. I didn't put it in there. That's illegal. But it goes to show how tenacious algae is

Stop trying to wipe it out. That's impossible

Learn how to manage it

Or don't, I'm not your boss

I don't think anybody means to wipe it out LITERALLY because its obviously impossible lol, I'm just trying to get it under control.

Already told you the only answer that works.

Chemicals are for lazy reefers, and lazy reefers get overwhelmed eventually.

Toothbrush and scrub.

Once it's under control the herbivores will keep it controlled.

Which is something I've done a handful of times now, but another issue is getting the herbivores to control it which is what I'm trying to fix. Even a sea hare failed somehow despite loads of info online saying otherwise. This is the only tank I've had that I've had this prolonged issue in and I want to point towards using dry rock as the blame, but again its slowly getting there so I'll just keep doin what I'm doing and we'll get there... finding that reset button just has been rough

 

[blecki]

The only place I have any algae growth in the display tank is on power heads and cords. My tangs will pick one powerhead spotless and completely ignore the other right next to it. They are not very smart and cannot be counted on to even recognize hair algae as food.

 

[Solo McReefer]

Snails, lots of them
Hermit Crabs
Tangs, herbivores (my filefish picks at algae)
Algae reactor/scrubber
Wire brush, toothbrush
Waterproof toothbrush
Minimize white light

Control nutrients, N and P

Eventually coralline and corals covers the rocks. When this happens GHA has a hard time "rooting" to rocks

And your tank looks marvelous

 

[klc]

Nothing will eat long hair algae, you have to manually pull it out. Once you have it pulled down close to the rocks the tangs and rabbitfish will eat it. It's a continuous cycle that will never go away.

Watch the Rich Ross MACNA presentation, it has a lot of good info for controlling hair algae from a guy who makes a living studying it.