I've been battling a hair algae outbreak in my tank for a few months now. I've tried sea hares, urchins, tangs, snails, hermit crabs, etc. Nothing has put much of a dent it in besides some diligent manual removal. My nutrients aren't crazy high (no3: ~10, po4: ~0.05-0.08), but I'm also not a believer in bottoming out nutrients to battle algae at the detriment of my corals.
This brings us to a solution I've been considering: algae scrubbers. I've heard amazing things about them in terms of nutrient management, which I fully believe. I've also seen many people claim that they also reduce/eliminate algae in the display tank. This is where I'm trying to understand how that works. The claim is that it "outcompetes" the algae in the tank... but how? How does a relatively small plastic screen covered in hair algae and some grow lights out compete vast rock work and high intensity lighting in the display tank? Unless you bottom out your nutrients it would seem there would be "plenty to go around" for both algae in the scrubber AND algae in the display tank.
This brings us to a solution I've been considering: algae scrubbers. I've heard amazing things about them in terms of nutrient management, which I fully believe. I've also seen many people claim that they also reduce/eliminate algae in the display tank. This is where I'm trying to understand how that works. The claim is that it "outcompetes" the algae in the tank... but how? How does a relatively small plastic screen covered in hair algae and some grow lights out compete vast rock work and high intensity lighting in the display tank? Unless you bottom out your nutrients it would seem there would be "plenty to go around" for both algae in the scrubber AND algae in the display tank.