I was away for a couple of weeks on business, leaving my reef tank in the care of an (unfortunately) inexperienced friend. While they did a good job(feeding, providing nutrients, topping off, etc. as instructed), I came back to a pretty bad hair algea bloom. So bad, that I noticed hair algea attached to my Bubble Coral and Pearl Coral (around where the plates are).
I tried picking away as much as I could, but it's really leached on and in between the plates. I don't want to dig into it either, for fear of damaging the flesh. Is there any direct treatment I could use (such as a dip of some kind) that would kill off the algea but wouldn't harm the corals?
...and yes, I did perform a 30% water change yesterday, changed all my filter media (including adding Phosphate and Nitrate sponges), scrubbed the glass and took a large amount of hair algea off the sand bed. I also unplugged the lights, and will them off for a couple of days. There is still hair algea on some of my rocks, which I'll probably have to scrub off.
I tried picking away as much as I could, but it's really leached on and in between the plates. I don't want to dig into it either, for fear of damaging the flesh. Is there any direct treatment I could use (such as a dip of some kind) that would kill off the algea but wouldn't harm the corals?
...and yes, I did perform a 30% water change yesterday, changed all my filter media (including adding Phosphate and Nitrate sponges), scrubbed the glass and took a large amount of hair algea off the sand bed. I also unplugged the lights, and will them off for a couple of days. There is still hair algea on some of my rocks, which I'll probably have to scrub off.
