How to remove hair algae from a coral?

[djmuzzi]

I have a blasto colony that was given to me by a friened. It has some encroaching green hair algae on it in my refugium. The polyps are very healthy but the algae is on some neighboring dead skelitons & too close for comfort.

What is the best method of algae removal that will not dammage the coral. Do you guys use a toothbrush & then fill the hospital tank with cleaners?

[Bkndsdl]

I bought a rock of zoas from a LFS for $17; it had about 75+ polyps on it. I got it so cheap bc of the red hairy algae growth on it. I got a pan of water, and took a plastic fork to dig out the algae from between / around the polyps. Rinsed it off in the pan of water, then did it again. I did it about 3 times until all the algae was gone. It's algae free, no probs.

Hth........

[theyeg2]

My Yellow and Purple Tangs don't allow any hair algae in my tank. I can move a live rock from another tank with hair algae on it and it will be cleaned off within a few hours. They leave zoas, leathers, etc. alone.

[djmuzzi]

I wish I had room for tangs...

[455cutlassdave]

I have used a soft brissled tooth brush

[carolinareefs]

Red-legged Hermit crabs will make quick work of this hair algae. You can take the colony out and pull it off pretty easily, then the hermits will keep it under control. Or just get the crabs and let them go to work. They are cheap too.

[wds21921]

If you have snails I'd not go with hermit crabs. The crabs tend to kill off your snails to get the shells.
I use a combo of snails a tang and a couple urchins. The urchins desimate algae to the point where your rock will literally be srubbed :). They're not always selective abot the algae though so if your trying to maintain coraline be careful.