Rather than looking for some organism to clean up the algae, try attacking the algae at its source and reduce nitrates. You may try a hang-on refugium with chaeto. You could also reduced your photo-period if your corals can handle it.
BIG +1
Thats what I did. My tank was starting to look pretty darn embarrassing. I had hair algae and turf algae growing up in several places. Was pissing me off.
First thing I did was replace my worn T5 tubes. They were so far out of spectrum, it was silly. My own fault but, lack of funds was preventing me from replacing them. Bit the bullet and got all new tubes.
Next thing I did was start washing all my frozen food in RO water before I put it in the tank. The little clouds of food dust did nothing to nourish my fish and EVERYTHING to pollute the water. If it's not a meaty chunk of something, it don't go in.
Then I reduced the total amount of food I put in the tank. I'm down to 1 little clown fish about 2" long in my 30g tank. I allow the frozen and WASHED in RO food to melt in the shot glass. Then I just suck up a tiny bit in a small syringe.
TURN OFF THE PUMPS SO THE FOOD DOESN'T GET WASHED AROUND THE TANK. I'm not trying to cloud the tank with uneaten food -- we're FEEDING fish out of necessity here. I put ONE drop of meaty chunks in the tank for Nemo. If he eats ALL of it, I'll put my finger in the food glass and whatever sticks to my finger can go in the tank. Usually 4 or 6 more tiny pieces of food is all that will stick to a finger. Sometimes he eats all of it and sometimes a few pieces float away or settle to the sand bed where it is immediately devoured - fought over - by hungry crabs and snails.
I feed my acans and other LPS corals about once every 2 weeks now. Was feeding them a couple times a week. Again, reduction in total food put into the tank. I don't slap a turkey baster full of food in there and blast away all willy nilly at corals. I TARGET feed SPECIFIC and INDIVIDUAL polyps just a few bits of meaty chunks. Feed each polyp a few bits and move on to the next coral. Stick the turkey baster down in there into the center of the polyp and let gravity drain a few bits of food out of the turkey baster. Move on and don't let food slip out the end of the turkey baster between corals.
I don't even feed my yellow polyps anymore. Hate the damn things anyway. They are slowly shriveling up and becoming less and less of a "dandelion" field. Damn things grow like weeds if you feed them even once a week.
I have:
1 turbo snail about 1.5"
5 or 6 -- 1" astrea snails
3 red legged hermits
1 nessarius snail
And Nemo.
I change about 5 or 6 gallons every Sunday. I NEVER skip a week anymore. I'm RELIGIOUS about the weekly water changes. I may not get it done first thing in the morning, but I DO NOT sleep Sunday night until the tank water is changed. PERIOD.
I have no hair algae anymore. I do have one tiny spot about 2" across of some kinda weird turf algae that is rough and only grows about 1/4" tall. Nothing will eat it. It's getting to be less and less with each passing week.
My cheato in the CPR HOB refugium is growing less and less. I used to cut 1/2 of it out about every 2 months. Last month I decided not to cut any of it out. Fine by me. If I can reduce nutrient levels enough to keep my cheato from doubling every 2 months I am very happy. Maybe I can go 3 or 4 months until it needs cut out again? I use cheato like an oil filter on your car. It's there to filter out undesirable stuff. Then it gets thrown away. It's not there to grow and admire. It's there to filter out excess nutrients/pollutants and then be discarded.
My whole reefing philosophy has changed in the last couple months. It sure is fun to load the tank up and dump food in there. Watching button polyps snag floating food and curl up to eat. Golly it's fun to watch little fishies chase around the tank after bits of food here and there. I just loved watching my crabs snag meat off rocks and sand.
Not anymore. It's a tough world in my tank. :D The whole idea is that any nutrients introduced actually get TARGETED and nothing is left to float free and settle here or there. Nothing is left to get sucked into the refugium pump. Nothing is left uneaten. The crabs and snails fight over food. Thats exactly what I want. I want those little bastards so damn hungry they try and eat each other. I'm sick of the damn crabs because they don't actually EAT any algae until you start starving them to death. They are lazy and will happily eat meat if it's provided. They will tromp right over algae to get at the meat. It's not until the "steak" gets scarce and hard to come by that they start to eat the "salad" in the tank. I'm trying to starve my remaining hermits. The snails can stay as long as they keep the front glass somewhat polished. It's AMAZING how much better job they do when there isn't any food floating around. I still have to scrub my front glass, but it's not as heavy as it used to be. The reduction in nutrients has reduced the overall growth and the snails are hungry enough to actually spend time cruising the glass after a bite to eat instead of waiting on the rocks for a piece of mysis to land in their lap.
Concentrate on nutrient reduction and nutrient export.
Sorry for the ramble. I'm just so excited to see my tank shaping up and I want to share my methods and experiences with others. It's so hard to force myself to only feed what can be eaten and NO MORE. I tell ya..... it WORKS!!
:Cheers:
