Brown hair like algae taking over

[Saumann7]

Going dark will knock it back, but once you bring the lights back, it'll grow again unless you control nutrients. I'm doing that, plus cutting back my photoperiod...

I got a coralife protein skimmer for the nutrients and that seems to have helped a lot. It's not the best, the skim is a lot of water but it definetly gets some stuff out of there, I just had to top off the water a couple times but I don't keep it ru

nning all the time because my tank is only 5 gallons but I left it for a few days while the lights were off and that seemed to do it. Now I'm almost 100% algae free with just a few areas that are lightly covered on the glass but I'm afraid if I scrape it that it might catch hold again, probably an irrational fear but. Now my corals are happier and my zoas are slowly but surely starting to open for the first time in 2 months, not sure how they're alive tbh.