algea problem

[thegrimreefer]

I'm having a hairalgea problem in my 29 gal reef tank. It's been set up for about 4 months now and has had no problems nothing has died exept for a peppermint shrimp died about a month ago. Just recently I've been getting a whole lot of hair algea. Here's all my tank stats, hopfull some one can tell me what to do.
29gal tank
filtration- cascade 1200 and a power head
40lbs live rock
40lbs live sand#ed_op
temp 78
Amonia, nitite and nitrate all 0
slainity 1.022
suplemented with sea lad 28 blocks as needed and kent marine liquid calcium, stonium, and tech 1 (not as often as I should)

inhabitants
yasha gobie
lawn mower blenie
6 line wrase
cleaner shrimp
peppermint shrimp
randli pistol shrimp
about 15 hermit crabs
5 turbo snails
about 6 nasarius snails
yellow sea cucumber
britle star
and a small asortment of polyps and soft corals
some people at the LFS recomended chemi clean and a poly filter. I did the chemi clean two days ago and the poly filter yesterday. Its made my water very clear, but hasn't seemed to affect the algea. They also recomended a small tang or pygmy angel to eat the algea, would anyone else recomend this?

This is my first reef tank so any recomendations would be helpfull.

[KG]

It's important to keep in mind what feeds hair algae in order to control it - phosphates, nitrates, and lighting.Phosphates are in every living thing and one of the problems with testing is that we can only test for one type of phosphate. Also, if you have hair algae, you have high phosphates - no need to test. I'd research the root cause of the fuel and try your best to limit them. Some suggestions would be: be sure to use RO/DI or distilled water only, increase the amount and frequency you change water (to naturally reduce the level), turn up your skimmer so it produces a wet skimmate, ditch any flake or pellet food, reduce your feeding, rinse your frozen food really well with SW prior to feeding, reduce your lighting (even a few hours can make a big difference), and then as a last resort, put in a phosphate binder. Good luck!

[davejnz]

I'd bump your SG to 1.025-1.026,lower salinities can be stressful to reef inverts/corals.Most of all though,increase your flow.you need to be at 750gph(25x) inside the tank with multiple water outputs(at least 4 IMO).My guess is your filter(Cascade1200) is causing this water quality problem.I didn't see any mention of a skimmer either

[Whoyah]

Grimreefer,

Really what you need to do is determine the cause. Two main causes of hair algae is caused by nitrates or phospates. Are you using RO water? If so have you tested the water direct from the RO unit for both of these?. I would cut back on the feeding and light period and see the effects. These are both easy things to do and play a major role.
Heavy feeding can produce both nitrates and phospates. Light will just fuel the problem. I don't think it is your filter since your nitrates are at zero, of course the hair algae may be sucking up the nitrates created by the filter. When was the last time you changed the filter pads?

[zoo-a-holic]

a couple reefers have said this but i wana stress it! Cut back your lighting!! thats what i did and it worked great for me. Also you can bump up the salinity!

[davejnz]

I wouldn't recommend a tang or a Pygmy Angel for a small tank.Take the advice given,locate the source of the phosphates then stop adding them.In the mean time,do waterchanges.Take whatever LR that is affected and is accessible and swish it vigourously in the bucket of tank water that you remove while doing the WC's.This will help remove the stored organics/detritus in the rock that could be fueling the algae's growth.After swishing,you can use a small stiff brush to scrub the algae off.