Hair algae starting

[Jake_the_reefer]

I've noticed a few spots where hair algae is starting.. nothing too bad but how can I fix this? I'm thinking it started cause my protein skimmer stopped skimming for a few days (got bumped and messed up) and my nitrates jumped up to 20ppm would my protein skimmer and refugium fix this or should I drop my red green and whites in my ai prime to reduce growth.

 

[Bhor217]

Bump

 

[Hermie]

pics?

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

pics?

Note: my green "favia???" Doesnt have much on it because I put some peroxide on it to see if it would help (which it did)
Also it's only on frag plugs no rock or sand

 

[Hermie]

Note: my green "favia???" Doesnt have much on it because I put some peroxide on it to see if it would help (which it did)
Also it's only on frag plugs no rock or sand

this is, as @Paul B says, in my opinion:

honestly, it's a reef tank, so you are going to get algae at some point (from now until infinity), so while you can't treat every "occurrence" unless you are obsessive about it, it's good that you are keeping an eye on your tank and noticing these things. You said you already dosed peroxide on it, so that's a great start. See if it works, it might do the trick. The other option is to slightly increase your cleanup crew, or to place the frag in a "fenced in area" with a snail or hermit crab and see if they will eat the algae for you (like a car detailer), in goes the algae, out comes the shiny spotless frag. The second option here (after simply monitoring the peroxide application), I kind of just made up on the spot and have not seen anyone actually do it before, but it's something I'm thinking about... maybe make a plastic mesh "box" and just stick it over the frag and stick a hermit crab in there and see if it works... What do you think about that idea? I might try it myself tbh...

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

this is, as @Paul B says, in my opinion:

honestly, it's a reef tank, so you are going to get algae at some point (from now until infinity), so while you can't treat every "occurrence" unless you are obsessive about it, it's good that you are keeping an eye on your tank and noticing these things. You said you already dosed peroxide on it, so that's a great start. See if it works, it might do the trick. The other option is to slightly increase your cleanup crew, or to place the frag in a "fenced in area" with a snail or hermit crab and see if they will eat the algae for you (like a car detailer), in goes the algae, out comes the shiny spotless frag. The second option here (after simply monitoring the peroxide application), I kind of just made up on the spot and have not seen anyone actually do it before, but it's something I'm thinking about... maybe make a plastic mesh "box" and just stick it over the frag and stick a hermit crab in there and see if it works... What do you think about that idea? I might try it myself tbh...

I should consider hermit crabs. My emerald crabs dont touch the algae at all and neither do my astria snails or cleaner shrimp. The idea of a box definitly can be good especially in a large tank. My tank is 20g so I'm not worried about crabs being able to locate the algae. This post was moreso to identify the algae as hair algae. I may spot treat with peroxide because that one frag has almost no hair left and it was the worst.