Is this hair algae

[dangerfish]

So I have some algae growing in the sand. None of my clean up crew have really eaten any of it. I'm doing a 50% water change right now to lower my phosphate(at .1 ppm) and nitrates(at 2 ppm). I'll also try picking some of it out. But I didn't know if it was hair algae because most of it is growing in the sand. There is even some growing on this coral plug, it doesn't seem to be harming the coral but it does seem that the coral is irratated by it.

 

[dangerfish]

One sec let me try to get these photos attached

 

[dangerfish]

 

[dangerfish]

sorry I had to finish my 50% water change and make these images smaller by cropping each one of them.

 

[dangerfish]

can anyone confirm that this is green hair alge

 

[dangerfish]

I'd also like to note that this stuff came right after I got rid of a nasty cyano invasion

 

[jay0705]

Looks like a moss ball lol but yes thats hair algae. Emerald crabs love it

 

[lmforbis]

If it is kind of stiff I'd say it is Bryopsis. That is what it looks like to me. If it is really soft it is hair algae.

 

[dangerfish]

ok, and I put an emerald crab in there to see if he'd eat it but he wouldn't and he starved to death because he just hid in the rocks.

 

[lmforbis]

In my experience it comes and goes with nutrients. I'd pull off what you can manually and try to reduce phosphates and nitrates. I don't know if anythin that will consistently eat bryopsis.

 

[dangerfish]

I checked it's definitely soft so it's probably hair algae

 

[dangerfish]

I'll pull it out and do a small water change