Wierd Stringy Algae

[smith6ar]

Recently some wierd stringy green algae has been growing at a fairly rapid rate on a couple rocks in my tank. I have two pieces of live rock (one 5lb piece and a half pound piece) and this stringy light green algae has been spreading to cover the rocks. It's light to dark green, and very hairlike. It "blows" in the stream of the powerhead.
I heard somebody say that this type of algae grew when a water change was needed, but my nitrates are fine...
My tank is about 5 months old, one clown and 1 cleaner shrimp is the only bio load
I'm buying a lot of inverts (snails, hermit crabs, and a few other inverts) later this week, and I was wondering if they would mow down this green hairy algae?
Any ideas on what it is, how to get rid of it, or why it's in my tank?

 

[sepulatian]

What is your water flow?

 

[smith6ar]

I've got a used maxijet 1200, but it has only been running in the last 3 weeks. The first four months The only water flow was from the return pump from my wet/dry filter.
I didn't see any of this green algae at all until about 2 weeks ago, and it hasn't been growing very fast until just the last couple days.

 

[sepulatian]

It sounds like normal new tank algae (not diatoms). You said you have a cleanup crew comming right? They should take care of it. Is the algae only growing in one area of the tank? Is your PH pointed toward the sand?

 

[smith6ar]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
It sounds like normal new tank algae (not diatoms). You said you have a cleanup crew comming right? They should take care of it. Is the algae only growing in one area of the tank? Is your PH pointed toward the sand?
The algae is only growing on my two pieces of live rock. I have a lot of dead rock in the same areas, but no algae (either coralline or the stringy stuff) is growing on those yet.
What do you mean by the pH pointed toward the sand?