Rusty Diatoms... will fish eat them?

I have diatoms im my 29 gallon that look like rust, they are a Brownish red. I was wondering if any sand sifting fish would eat this algae off the sand; my hermit crabs just don't seem to be doing the trick.

 

Snails of all sorts eat diatoms, as will dwarf angelfish, blennies and ctenochaetus tangs-but they are too big for your tank. Stick with a blenny, like a lawnmower or snails.

Happy reefing!

 

How old is the tank? Most new tanks go through algae bloom stages. Brown algae/ diatoms is usually the first and it goes away by its self ... "usually".

My Regal and Yellow tangs would eat them but not enough to put a dent in it.

 

Astrea snails love diatoms

 

The tank is acually about 5 months old so it's not a cycling kind of thing. Would Lawnmower blennies sift the sand free of the diatoms?

 

I have a lawnmoer and it only eats off the glass. I see it nipping at glass even though the glasss is clean? I have snails from reefcleaners.org that made a dent in my diatoms on the sand.

 

My first lawnmower loved the brown algae. I doubt it will solve the whole problem though. I just bought a yellowhead goby and he sifts sand all day long.

 

Great pics av8 I have one of those too but it doesent come out too ofton. I often wonder if its still alive.

 

Nerite snails will eat that up - when it's gone, they can find enough other stuff to live off too. But, in my case at least, they went for diatoms first.

 

Really?... I'm starting to wonder if he's gonna jump.. they're know as jumpers and he's been scouting the surface a lot. I've only had him since yesterday ... he hid yesterday evening and today he's very active.