Hi guys, got sprouts of this hair algae growing in my rock. None of my fish seem to be eating it and I had a few questions.
1) is this going to over run the tank? If not controlled yes absolutely
2) kind of related to 1, should I be controlling it and if so how? You need to find the root cause, most likely high nutrients i.e. nitrates and phosphates. You can use a toothbrush (not yours) and grab hold of whats in there already to clean out the tank. But you will eventually need to bring your nutrients down by cutting back on feedings, running GFO for phosphates and water changes for nitrates
3) is there anything that eats this? There are some creatures that are supposed to eat it, sea hares, turbo snails, tangs, lawnmower blenny, sea urchins but most of these creatures once they understand that they get food on a regular basis from you they start to ignore the hair algae
4) does hair algae eat nitrates? Yes it does, hair algae is the same type of algae that grows on algae scrubbers which will also help control hair algae if you're so inclined. you most likely have 0 nitrates for a reading. This is because it's being consumed by the hair algae.
Thanks
