Algae Problem!!!!!

[hab2001]

I've been fighting long hair algae for about 3 months now and I'm not sure what else to do. To give a little history, I had my tank for 2.5 years and I have a 90g FOWLR with wet/dry filter system. I have 4 powerheads in my tank at various locations. I have 1 blue tang, 1 yellow tang, 2 clowns, 1 chromis, 1 shrimp, snails, hermit crabs. I have been doing my water changes monthly and I even took out some of the live rock and scrubed it to help remove the algae which didn't help much. I even added a PhosBan Reactor about 5 months ago just to head off problems like this and it hasn't helped. I checked my water specs which seemed to be ok which were Nitrate=20, Nitrite=0, Alk=120, PH=7.0 (roughly and a little low). I'm thinking the problem might be my lights which I haven't changed in over 1.5 years and thought that they might be out of phase

 

[fishstick4sale]

nitrates r a bit high, have u tested for phosphates? your lights will get weak over a long period of time, algae love strong lighting.

 

[pastor b.]

Dear hobbyist,whenever you have problems with hair algae growing out of control,there could be one of the following problems that should be looked into.
1. Location:make sure that your aquarium isn't near a window getting direct sunlight.Direct sunlight will create plenty of algae and will even turn your water greenish.
2. Phosphates could be to high. Cut down on the amount of food you are feeding your fish. High phosphates will cause algae blooms.
3. Excessive lighting,or bad bulbs . You can either reduce the amount of time that your lights are on ,or change your light bulbs. When light bulbs become weak,although they may still light up, they'll give off a different color spectrum which will cause hair algae to grow.
Enjoy the hobby

 

[hab2001]

Thank you. I will start by replacing the bulbs since I haven't replaced them in 2 years.

 

[small triggers]

I would do Bi-weekly water changes instead of monthly, that could help. What are you running in your Phosban reactor and how often are you changing the media? Do you rinse your frozen food off first , then discard the water/ how often do you feed? Is your water turning yellow or green at all? And do you have a protein skimmer?

 

[dragonboy]

Is this a reef tank? If its then you need to watch those nutrient level carefully because alage can easily grow on them. If its a fish only tank then you don't need to have the light on that long I don't even leave mine on that long. I only turn them on 4 hours a day and I feed heavily on my fish so I haven't really gotten much algae at all.

 

[hammerhed7]

I am battling hair algae in my reef right now as well (due to not changing my ro filters on time even though I know better). I have corrected the problem, and I have added a sea hare to my tank. Sea hares are incredible algae eaters, and will clean a tank in short order.
The only catch is once the algea is gone the sea hare will starve to death. The sea hare that I added to my tank is the biggest I have ever seen, about 8". I have a friend who owns an lfs who sells the sea hares, and then takes them back for store credit when there is no algea left in your tank so that they don't starve. You may want to ask around to see if you can find a similar deal, but this won't help until the cause of the algea is located and corrected first.
Good Luck