running t5 lights and algea

[kwirky]

handling your detritus is a big boon to combating hair algae as well. Old tanks usually have built up detritus in the rocks and sandbed and it takes a long time to remove that.

Just blowing your rocks off daily is a big help against HA. Hair algae tends to grow where the detritus settles on the rocks. You'll notice when you do blow at the hair algae TONS of crap is released, because the hair algae catches detritus, snowballing the problem.

And once you've blown it off, you gotta get the detritus out. Siphoning the bottom if it's bare bottom is great. If you have sand, you could completely remove the top 1/4" layer of the sand and replace with new sand.

A 2 year old sand bed is usually ridden with phosphates and nitrates and they're quite difficult to deal with. Nobody wants to remove their sandbed, and removing it can release all sorts of nasty chemicals stored in the deepest areas of the bed.