Green Hair Algae issue?

[TheyCallMeButch]

So I believe I have a Green Hair Algae issue. Most of my live rock is now green and for a little while there were spots where the algae would grow fairly long. I don't see much of the longer stuff anymore besides little stuff on the walls of the tank. I've become much more careful of how much I feed the fish so there isn't much extra after.

I'm curious if anyone has any suggestions and ideas to get my tank back on track. Also, since everywhere I've read green algae is bad, what algae should I be looking for?


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[Sniperhank]

It isn't that the algae is bad. It is a nuisance in the display tank, that is for sure. Algae feeds off of excess nutrients in the water column. This can come from uneaten food, like you mentioned, as well as poop from what you feed as it decomposes.
There are ways of using algae to your advantage as the consumption of nitrates (primarily) is the goal in our tanks for wanting to be as low as possible as above 40 can be toxic towards fish, some much hardier than others of course. Through the use of refugiums and algae turf scrubbers, people have used the nuisance algaes that grow in our tanks to their benefit. It simply removes the algae growth and moves it somewhere else where it can't be seen.
There are two articles in my signature that discuss battling algae issues that are worth the read towards helping your situation as well.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Need a Hanna Phosphate Low Range Checker.
Get a GFO reactor and run GFO.
Use SeaKlear liquid phosphate remover, which can remove all the phosphate in just a couple of days, whereas GFO can't do that, and would cost you a bit more to run.
Once the phosphate are down, get a Sea Hare, they will take care of that Hair Algae in no time.

 

[Krely]

Here is how I got rid of my green hair problem.

Added a protein skimmer
Added a reactor and run GFO
turned lights off for 3 days.

That cleared mine up, and haven't seen it since. Also my wife wanted a emerald crab, so we got one. He will eat green hair, but not really enough to control it.

 

[alex07]

Do you have a skimmer?

I would skip the gfo and do more frequent water changes, less feeding and add more to your clean up crew.