another hair algae concern....

freeride7

freeride7

Member
well this thread has been done before but here I go anyway.
I have a 50 gal and hair algae is starting to get out of hand. Red and green. 3inch sand bed with about 45# of LR. Tank is 2 months old.
I do NOT use tap water.....I use bottled water (reverse osmosis)
I have macro algae - grape cap in a corner of my display. Growing like crazy.( I know, I shouldn't have it in the display but have no choice right now)
Protein Skimmer - works great, constantly emptying the cup.
I feed every other day. When I do feed, the 3 green chromis and 2 false percs plow everything in sight......cleaner & pep shrimp get the rest if any.
Water Temp is 81-82 and and 1.022 salinity.
Have pulled out the rocks and scrubbed the algae off with a toothbrush - just comes back.
Light is on for 6 hours per day....no direct sunlight hits tank.
So what is causing this? How can I rectify?
Tks
TS
 
aarone

aarone

Active Member
Protein Skimmer - works great, constantly emptying the cup
This means your water is still not the clenest. Concentrate on getting your water nie and pure. Try using a phosphate sponge, if you have high po4
 
hondo

hondo

Member
new tanks almost always experience a Hair Algae out break. sounds like your doing everything you can do. Remove as much as possible by hand or by taking rocks out and scrubbing them (rinse them with salt water though or you will kill off the bacteria).
skimmer cup should not be filling and needing to be emptied every day. Is the cup full of stained colored water or foul smelling sludge? If your skimmer is working that hard with that bioload then I would guess your LR experienced quite a bit of die off at some point so there is an over abundance of nutrients in the water feeding the algae growth. This will clear up once your skimmer gets it under control.
You have not mentioned a clean up crew? do you have one and if so list it.
3" sand be is nice but was it LS or dry sand that is being made live by the LR? If you started with dry sand then it will take several more months for the sand bed to truely become alive and start to help reduce nitrates (these feed the algae). You can help jump start your DSB by adding some worms andother detrivores to help populate the sand.
Your lighting period is not excessive but you failed to mention what type of lights you have and the bulb type. The light spectrom could be at fault as I once knew someone who was sold the perfect aquarium light by a LFS guy. turned out to be a grow bulb for freshwater plants, what a disaster.
bottom line a new tank for the first 6months to a year can experience quite a few problems even if you do everything right. Just hang in there and try not to get discouraged.
 
freeride7

freeride7

Member
thanks for the feedback. I missed a few items:
clean up crew consist of about 15 zebra snails, 6 hermit crabs, 2 Pep shrimp, 1 cleaner shrimp.
Lighting is just the basic flourescent.....3 bulbs 2 10000K and 1 18000 actnic. Total of 90 watts.
Confusion on the skimmer, I didn't mean I was emptying it every day, more like it fills maybe to a quarter full per week or two....it is just producing dirty brown water, no sludge per say.
The sand was dry, leaving it up to the rock to make it live.
Thanks again for the comments.
TS
 
armageddon

armageddon

Member
silicates are also a food source for hair algae. My guess is its phosphates that are causing the problem. keep an eye on your nitrates as well.
 
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