What are good algae eaters?

I would really Really avoid getting Fish or inverts to resolve an algae issue.
Best course of action is to elliminate the cause
You have Algae because of high levels of Nitrates and/or Phosphates or your tank is in a state that promotes the growth of Algae.
this can be caused by over feeding, under cleaning via Skimming, water changes or a lack of good biological filtration, Old bulbs.

I would check and ensure all these things are in line prior to buying a fish or invert

Just my 2 cents

J

 

You are correct Jason, in my case it was P4 in the 1.0 range. Everything I tried could not lower it. It was coming from my source water.

Since I could not lower it, the 3 snails balenced it out so it was a good solution tot he problem and kept it at bay.

 

Jet they got it right about finding the problem..but while you are doing that you can get just about any fish to eat the algae. Just have to convince them it is food!

Any time I've had an algae issue I find the problem like Jason and Double said but I also do this. Stop feeding the fish for a day or two to get them hungry. Then when you go back and start feeding them, use some flake food. Feed them about half of what you normally do, introduce some flakes to if they are not the norm. Also when you feed them take a small pinch of the flakes and grind them up in your finger to small pieces so that the fish will ignore them. You may have to play with your flow a little bit too. The idea is that these small negligible pieces will get caught in the hair algae. Eventually the fish will see them and eat them.... guess what else they get? A mouthful of algae. When you do this cut your feedings back to every other day or every two days. They will eat what they can when they are hungry.

I’ve gotten just about every type of fish in my tank to help battle algae at one time or another.

 

Why not run a phosban reactor on the tank or your water storage container

J

 

I did, also added phosphate reduces, and ran phosphate pads.
I had the super industructable phosphate, imune to all but kyptonite.

With all that and a few snails, I keep the Algae at bay.

Someday i will switch to RO/DI and hopefully rid myself of the P4 problems.

 

oi I feel for you buddy. That Sucks!

J

 

Getting some snails is good with me either way because I only have about two or three left. This has been an issue for quite a while, despite my weekly water changes.

 

If you know the phosphates are in the water this is just adding to the problem. Try backing it down to monthly and keep an eye on the other params. Your just fedding the algae as much as it can eat.

 

I love my mexican turbo. He is huge and I can actually see him mowing over any algae he comes in contact with.

 

Here's a possibility I'm considering also:
http://www.3reef.com/forums/reef-scavengers/hairy-sea-hares-back-hair-algae-eaters-45135.html