hair algae
 

hi everyone i recently got hit by a major hair algae problem
my parameters seem fine, i do a 5% w/c everyweekend on my 75 gal with r/o from safeway
and i have my pc's on for 12 hours a day
everything used to be fine for a year or so and now i cant seem to stop the growth ive even tried taking the rock out and scrubbing :confused:
i only have 2 clowns a mandarin, and a goby in there with some various inverts
what can the problem be???
any help you guys can give will be much appreciated

Hi and welcome to the board! If your lights have shifted spectrum in the year you've had them, they could contribute to your algae problem. Just one possible factor, there's also a thread in the Reefs forum now asking these same questions.

Do you have more details regarding your system - filtration, skimmer, circulation, bioload, rock, substrate, etc?

Also what's your snail/hermit crab population like?

Maybe cut the photo period down by a couple of hours until it's under control.

ive tried cutting the photo period by a few hours a day and its done nothing, i have a aqua C remora skimmer and an ehiem canister filter and i run carbon i have changed the bulbs recently
still clueless
thanks for the help so far though

I have 2 snails and no hermit crabs in a 270G and previously in a 300G and never had a hair algae problem ... too many nutrients and detritus buildup has always been my guess as far as hair algae goes ... my cousin in JA had a outdoor saltwater pond and huge hair algae problems and he had natural sunlight so I am disinclined to think spectrum alone contributed to it although it may be a contributing factor. The only nuissance algae I have had is valonia and I have no clue how I got it but it never got to plague proportions ( would find one behind a rock or something if I was fooling around in the tank :rolleyes: )

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Maybe you can rent Albert's sea hare after its done cleaning up may hair algea problem. :biggrin:

I have a question for you, do you use RO water or conditioned tap water? I have a theory about Calgary water in the winter and PO4 levels.

Danny ,

You can request a water faq from the City, there Seems to be more of a difference during the Spring due to the run off I have an old copy around somewhere I should dig it up.

You can't forget the ammount of algae eating fish you have Steve.
That would/could account for a huge diffrence in his tank compared to yours.

But Tomini doesn't like to tell us how many he has anyway :razz:

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Tomini said: I've heard that this can actually spread the algae diatoms around. :question: