Foxface for hair algae with black back bfly?
 

I bought a lawnmower blenny, but no, they don't eat hair algae...

The tank is only 65g, so I am reluctant to add a foxface as I well know how large they grow.

I might try it for now though, if I can find one that won't be miserable with a 12 year old resident butterfly.

I'm thinking one of the blue lined, orange spot or scribbled since they are less similar in color.

Any thoughts?

I went through hair algae a couple years back, and I tried several biological solutions -- Tangs & Sea Hare were the most notable, and ultimately a dissappointment......

At the end of the day, your best bet is to manually remove as much as you can, find/remove the source of the nutrients (eg. ensure good RODI water), and then allow the fauna to clean the tiny remains that you could not remove. A yellow tang for example is a good algae eater, but only for small stuff... same thing with crabs/etc.


You could get very lucky and get a solid fish that will eat everything perfectly, but without removing the nutrient source causing the algae you won't win the war ;)

blue leg or left hand hermits work

Unfortunately most species of fish/inverts will not eat thick mats or heavy concentration of hair algae but they will eat small areas of infestation and do quite well with containing and controlling it.

Sea Hares are as far as I know the only one that will gleefully attack hair algae as it is the only thing it eats.

Best bet is manual removal

I had really bad really long hair algea everywhere. I used a long spined sea urchin and everything was spotless within 48hrs. Worth a shot if you can find one to borrow. After my tank was spotless i had to give mine to another member on here as he was much to large for my 55g tank.I also tryed the lawnmower blenny and it was useless. My hair algea was much to thick and long for it.

A Foxface won't help you. All the so called algae grazers in my tank (Foxface, Scopas Tang, Lawnmower Blenny) don't do jack sh*t.