Hair algae

Question
Hi, i have a 55 gallon tank with a ton of fancy guppies and one small pleco.  I also have a few small snails.  I was just woundering is there something that will eat the hair algae?  My pleco wont touch it.  Its growing off one of the plastic plants.  Thanks for your help.

Answer
Hi Dustin;

If it's isolated to just the one plant, soak the plant in a mild bleach solution in a large bowl or a bucket to kill the algae. I would say maybe 1/2 teaspoon of bleach to a gallon of water. After soaking for an hour or two, scrub the algae off with an old toothbrush, rinse well, let the plant dry out and smell to be sure the bleach is gone. Don't let the bleach water touch your clothes, carpet, furniture, etc. It causes permanent stains. Hopefully the algae won't grow anywhere else. That stuff can become like a plague!

There are a few fish that will eat hair algae, but only one that wouldn't be harmful to your guppies. It's called the Siamese Algae Eater. Don't mistake this one for the "Chinese Algae Eater", as they are aggressive predators when they mature. SAE's (Siamese Algae Eaters) are usually pretty nice and they eat all kinds of pesky algae that other fish don't touch. Here is a page about them;

http://groups.msn.com/LyreTailsAquarium/sae.msnw

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins