Hair algea

[EmilyB]

Alternatively, you could deal with the cause of the algae, which likely lies in insufficient nutrient removal.

Not feeding much simply isn't an option for many people with fish and coral, you must find some way to export nutrients, whether that is skimming, macroalgae harvest, frequent water changing etc. etc...

[reefhawk]

Had a bad bout of hair algae for a bit there. Firstly removed as much as humanly possible. Used a bottle brush on the end of that stretchy stuff they sell at the hardware store for stringing curtains. (sorry i dont know what it is technically called). Put it on my drill on very low speed and it wrapped around the brush quite well. Bought a lawnmower blennie who seemed to like the stuff pretty well. Stopped feeding my tang nori and he even picked at it a bit. Put my skimmer from second tank in my sump for a while and that helped too. This brought it pretty well under control. What really fixed it was switching to a very blue bulb in my metal halide and finally a foxface that has picked at every little bit of hair algae left anywhere he can reach it. Main casuality was my colonial polyps that got choked out. They seem to be recovering slower than my pipe organ which has come out stronger than ever. Good luck.