Brown Algae/ Hair Algae

[russelljew]

I've been getting for about 6-8 weeks brown hair like algae. It had grown very thick on the back glass and had bubbles coming off of it. Not as thick on the rock and sand. I got it off the back glass with a water change. I had since that water change done 20% water chage with ro/di and changed the filters every week, maybe missing a week. I changed my lights to 5 hour days and feed the fish 1 every 2 days. All test at the end of the week are good. Its a 55 gallon w/ 12 sump. Been set up for around 9 months and has 50 lbs of rock and 80 lbs of substrate. My next step was to buy new bulbs. They are only about 3-4 months old, t5's. I do have a clean up crew, but cant tell you how many of what. Snails fall and die from craps and craps kill craps. I lost count after the 1st day

. Anything would help, just throw out stuff. Thanks.

 

[deejeff442]

what are you testing for.phosphate?t5 should last 12-18 months .is there any natural sunlight hitting the tank?
i have alway liked hermits for hair algea.alotof them .in a 55 i would get 25+ hermits and add bigger empty shells for them or they will kill your snails for theirs down the road.
what do you have for flow in the tank?
also add carbon that will help.

 

[bizzmoneyb]

how often do you do water changes? try more often to see if that helps. what kind of flow do you have?
ive never had any luck with hermits and algae. ive heard mexican turbo snails mow it down.

 

[russelljew]

Ive been doing water changes every week. My sump is pushing about 450 gph and I have 2 intank pumps that alternate, one on at a time. They are rated at 350 gph.