how to prevent hair algae in a sh tank?

[Vital Idol]

I have kept a reef for years, kept a sh tank for a while but had hair algae problems.

How do you keep hair algae out, without causing your other plant life to die off?
My formula for keeping hair algae out of my reef has been maintain high calcium and ph, and keep nitrates out.
If I let up on any of the 3, hair algae starts growing again.
Will this be the same formula for a SH tank? I'm worried that keeping the nitrates out will prevent any other plants from growing, like prolifera (spelling).

 

[BradL.]

My tank is BB so every few days I blow off the rocks with a powerhead. Let it all settle to the bottom And do a partial water change, sucking all the crap up..I also run a good in sump skimmer 24/7.

 

[AIMFish]

I keep macro and snails in the seahorse tank that I take care of. Macro to remove some of the nutrients, which you will have a decent amount of in a SH tank, and snails, (siphon too) to keep hair algae down.

 

[LisaD]

I keep a HOT refugium. The plants in the fuge tie up the nitrates and outcompete the hair algae. I use that in conjunction with a decent skimmer. I have no nuisance algae, and other plants in the display grow fine.

Also:

Keep lights fresh, change as often as recommended, spectrum shifts with age

As you do for the reef, keep pH and calcium up, control nitrates

Don't overfeed, and keep a cleanup crew for excess food - peppermint shrimp, small serpent stars, snails that eat mysis shrimp

Keep algae eating cleanup crew as well - astrea snails, scarlet reef hermits, etc.

Decent flow so you don't get dead spots. Not too much, but "just right"

If nuisance algae starts getting established, up your water changes and use chemical filtration to remove nitrates and phosphates (if necessary)

 

[Fredfish]

Strong skimming can work. Macros can also outcompete hair algaes IF there are enough nutrients going into the tank for them.

I experimented with dosing nitrates and phosphates for a while earlier this year and found that once nitrates dropped to close to undetectable, the macro stopped growing and hair algae and cyano bloomed. My macro was also phosphate limited at one point.

Right now, my macros are growing nicely and I have no hair algae and very little cyano, despite running the tank skimmerless.

What works for one person does not nescessarlily work for another so you have to tinker a little to find what works for your tank.

Fred