Sounds good, I do have 6 in there now but ill see of I can find some different size ones too.hermits would be better to deal with stringy algae. See if you can find bigger ones at a LFS.
I would guess the Australian rock released a lot of nutrients if it was shipped to you and promoted the algae it brought in.
It will go away eventually, or here’s a potentially more aggressive method - let it grow uncontrolled under full light until the algae turns white and semi-translucent (nutrient low enough to starve it out), then take the rocks out and give it a real good scrub.
Very different strategy to whats already mentioned, but could result in a quicker turnaround tho especially when you don’t have corals to worry about. Be sparing on your feeding never hurts when the coral load is low.
I picked up the rock at my LFS, so hopefully there was some good nutrients brought with it.
I never had a massive ammonia spike however, just a mid range rise and decrease so maybe a mini cycle. Either way I plan to ride this out and sort things out along the way. If the no light, snail and neophos combo don't do anything then I will give your method a go.
Thanks for your help!