hair algae or caulerpa floridana?

[wetone]

I have some green what looks like hair algae, it is tough to get off of the rock,
I need a toothbrush, growing in a couple of small spots on my LR. I have other caulerpa and macro growing also. I cant tell if its BAD hair algae or a type of macro. I dont like the looks of it. I have no NO3 or PO4. I run 2 250W 6500K MH about 6 hrs a day with 2 110w VHO actinics for 8 hrs.
Any ideas....also what might eat this stuff
(green emerald crabs??) I have a yellow tang who wants no part of it.
All corals, shrooms,polyps doing great.....

 

[diatom]

Long spined urchins are your best bet. The rest are hit and miss at best.
The real problem is the nutrients in your water. Are you using RO water? Do you feed your tank heavily? Do you harvest your Macro? If you reduce the nutrients in your tank the hair algae should disappear.
BTW you do have NO3 and/or PO4, they are just being absorbed by your hair algae and giving you false negatives on your test.
[ November 22, 2001: Message edited by: Diatom ]

 

[wetone]

I am using RO water (filters less than 1 yr) and feed 2 damsels and 1 tang a small pinch every other day. I "weed" out the macro at least every month when I do 10 gal water changes (70 gal tank 25 gal sump) I only add small dose of iodine once a week....
ideas to reduce nutrients??
I have about 150lbs of LR with about 1/2" of sand on bottom...filled with nassarius snails, starfish, bristle star and other crew