Algae issue

[Swiftler]

I was wondering what kind of algae these are and what would be the best reef safe critters to help clean it up

 

[kdpuffer]

Looks like hair algae, emerald crabs eat it.

 

[Patrick93]

Green hair, emerald crabs eat if u want it gone take the rock out into a bucket of water from ur tank and scrub it off with a brush (best done during a water change)

 

[bavass]

Green hair, emerald crabs eat if u want it gone take the rock out into a bucket of water from ur tank and scrub it off with a brush (best done during a water change)

I'll second that!


Also how old are light bulbs?

 

[Swiftler]

The lights are brand new. The emerald crab doesn't even seem interested. I'll probably just take the rock out during my next water change and scrub it with a toothbrush. The other stuff according to reefcleaners.org is called Cladophoropsis and is ridiculously hard to get rid of. Nothing really eats it and it has to be pulled out by hand with dentist tools. The site also said its rare to see in a home aquarium.... Guess I'm just lucky

 

[kdpuffer]

I have been battling algae in my tank I set up recently and have gotten some good advice which I'll share. If you don't have a rodi get one, the extra nutrients in tap water is like steroids to algae. Also if you don't have one get a skimmer, it strips excess nutrients from the water. Having some carbon is also helpful, depending on your setup you can add it to a filter or anywhere else that water will circulate around and through it. GFO is also really good to use as it strips all the nitrate and phosphate from the water (this is what feeds the algae) another consideration is the amount of time the lights are on and if the tank gets any sunlight, once nitrates and phosphates are removed it eliminates the lighting issue though. Also watch your feeding because overfeeding puts the nutrients right back in the water. Another thing to consider is either a refugium or algae turf scrubber. Both systems give algae a protected place to grow and strip the nutrients from your water that is out of sight. Algae is helpful in an aquarium it just looks like crap.