BAD ALGAE

[dedhed]

HELLO FOLKS, and sorry this post got so long!
i am new to this board. my old board dissapeared into the WWW somewhere!
anyway, i have a hair algae/ red slime algae problem. well, i'm pretty sure i know how to get rid of it, but my question is why is this growing in my 30-gallon and not my 40-gallon? i use ro/di water and i don't add any chemicals. all test results are identical for the two tanks. here are a few parameters
pH 8.0
SG 1.022
Ammo 0
trate 0-2
trite 0
i do %10 h20 changes every week.lights stay on both tanks for ten hours daily. the 40 (which has no bad algae) has been setup a couple months longer than the 30. the 40 has 6 watts per gallon (half white half blue) the 30 has two watts per gallon (power glo, 18,000k i think)the 30 gallon has been setup about 4 months. i hope i have included enough info. thanks in advance for your help!

 

[clayton]

Are there more fish in the tank with the algae problem?

 

[broomer5]

Welcome to the board !
I would be interested in knowing what your phosphate levels are in both tanks.
Nitrates/Phosphates + Light = Algae Blooms
Broomer

 

[dedhed]

actually that's a good idea. i will be investing in a phosphate test kit soon. actually the tank with the problem algae has a lighter bio-load. it only has three very small fish!
could lighting be an issue? spectrum, or age of the bulbs?

 

[jimos]

difinetly get a phosphate test kit. what type of lights are you running. ihad the same problem with hair algae. added some phosphate remover, cut down on my lighting to 7 hours a day and added some more astrea snails. no more hair algae problem. give it some time to go away you should start seeing a difference in about a week or so.
[This message has been edited by jimos (edited 07-02-2000).]