Bad Hair Algae

[likwid]

Originally Posted by Slick Fork

Clean your skimmer weekly. Make sure you get the neck clean, I find mine skims best about a day or so after a good scrubbing. Being that prolific, I'm thinking your algae may be a bryopsis strain rather than straight hair algae. Could we get some close up shots?

I'll second the boiling RO water suggestion. Just do a small bit at a time.

Ya it definately looks like hair algae, but has the bulletproof characteristics of bryopsis. I can try to get some close ups, but my camera really sucks.

What do you mean by boiling RO water a small bit at a time?

[Reefer Rob]

The key to basting with boiling water is to get the end of the baster right next to the rock, and squeeze the baster very slowly while doing small circular motions. If it's done right nothing can live through it. Sometimes I push a short piece of 1/2" tubing over the end of the baster to cover a larger area with a slower flow.

[Slick Fork]

I meant baste a small patch of algae at a time. If you try to nuke it all at once you'll run the risk of a mini cycle as I'm willing to bet that at this point the algae is absorbing large amounts of the ammonia produced by the critters.