Hair Algae?

[wwfstyle]

I'm not quite sure what hair algae looks like but from the name I gather it looks like hair lol. Are there any type of a clean up crew that will help this from happening? I have heard alot of negative things about this and I would like to make sure I get out before it starts. My tank has been up for a long time but start out as a fish only then swapped to reef due to being more relaxing and interesting to watch. Any info on what to do about this hair algae will be helpfull.

 

[bdhough]

If you have hair algae there are a number of things you can do to control it.
First is water quality. Make sure you only use properly buffered RO water.
Second is light on time 8-10 hours a day is good.
Third is don't over feed the tank. Very easy to do.
Once you get those under control then the cleanup crew will come in and do its thing. Its necessary not to over due the crew. They can eat themselves to death i.e. they will eventually starve for lack of food if they cannot be fed by you after the algae runs out.
As far was what eats it. 3 or 4 turbo snails would be good for your tank. They require substantial amounts of algae and could take care of it. Lawnmower or bicolor blennies eat it so i've heard. A foxface is another fish that will eat it. I've heard as well some hermits do, they must be reef hermits, not the typical blue/red legs.
Thats what you have to do

 

[oregonbud]

I had a hair algea outbreak a couple weeks ago, so I added some more red legs hermits thinking they would go after it, well needless to say, they didn't touch it. But I did buy some empty shells (or so I thought) from the LFS - anyway one of the shells was not empty and had a zebra hermit contained in it. The zebra hermit has eliminated all the hair algea that was growing by himself. I am not sure if this is typical behavior for these types of hermit crabs, but so far I am very happy with him, and will probably add more zebras when I decide to add a few more hermits - the red legs are great, but don't seem to be really productive in eating any of my algea.
I also would agree with bdhough, overfeeding is a big cause as well as a light spectrum shift (although I doubt thats the case for you)
HTH
OB

 

[col]

I have a few patches of hair algae.
My Turbos, blue leg hermits and Bi colour blennie just graze around it and don't touch it.