[Delphinus]

Hair algae is going to find its way into your tank one way or the other. I probably would clean the powerhead a little, but I wouldn't be freaked out if any hair algae makes its way into the tank ... Personally if my tanks were so sterile such that the algae spores aren't there, I'd be suprised if anything could live (like you said: "Biodiversity now!" :D ) ... I'd rather just have conditions that don't promote the excessive growth of the nuisance algaes. But a little bit here or there doesn't bother me (maybe I'm weird?)

I dunno .. does any of this make any sense? I guess what I'm saying is clean it off a little but don't sweat the hair algae. If you're tank is ripe for it, it will grow anyways. If your tank isn't ripe for it then it's not going to do anything.

I don't think I've cleaned the outside of my powerheads in years. Once in a while I'll clean out the strainer, the impeller housing and the impeller itself and such ... but the outside I leave as-is. I have one powerhead that has been running for 4 years now (except for power failures and cleaning and etc.), and it is so encrusted with stuff that it literally looks like a chunk of liverock that spits out water. But it works fine ... I get a kick out of my pink/purple powerhead actually ... :D

Now, there are other things though. If a person had an ick problem for example ... I'd not throw that powerhead into a tank with ick-prone fish like tangs ... or if there were .. I dunno .. those mutant mushrooms or aiptasia or other pesty things (flatworms?) then yeah, give that thing a good scrubbing.

Unfortunately, your tank is new. You're going to have a hair algae bloom, and a cyano bloom, and other stuff ... unfortunately it's all part of the natural tank maturing process! Anything goes before the six-month mark. After six months and anything like that is tank-management ... but before that, it's nothing personal, it's all just part of the path towards equilibrium...

Jeepers I go on, don't I? Babble babble babble ... does any of this help? Probably not... Sorry.

[ 26 April 2002, 09:44: Message edited by: delphinus ]