Brown Hair Algae / Scrubbing Live Rock

[RISEANDFLOAT]

I am getting brown hair algea like no other in my tank right now. It is growing like crazy all over the glass and especially on the sand in the front of the tank. What can I do to prevent this or at least slow it down or kill it off.


Also, I have a lot of die-off from the live rock in my tank too. Could I actually take the rock out and scrub it softly with some kind of brush to get rid of some of this brown matter that is all over the rock? Should I siphon out all the brown matter that has fallen of the rock? My tank is exactly 1 month and two weeks old and is only 15 gallons. Is it too soon to do a water change? I have done no water changes yet. The guy at my LFS told me to wait two months before I did anything with the tank.

 

[roka64]

Do you have a test kit? It sounds like you have high nitrAtes/phosphates. I would do some hefty PWCs. How long are you running your lights? If you did a fishless cycle, it sounds like your cycle is complete (due to the hair algae). You could do some PWCs and lights out for about 4 days (assuming you don't have critters in the tank that need light).
You can siphon out the HA or tie a toothbruch at the end of the siphon and gently scrub the rock while it sucks the rest out.