Green Hair Algae

[fishycouple]

Hi all:
Just today I noticed a patch of green hair algae growing on a piece of my live rock in my FOWLR tank.
The tank has been up and running for about 6 months with no problems.
It is a 30 galon tall with the eclipse top and filter. Also there is a powerhead in the tank. The only thing different in the past couple of weeks is I added a BakPac 2 Protein Skimmer to the tank.
The ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all zero, and the alkalinity is about 200, where my lfs says it should be.
Is there some critter that will graze on and eat this algae? If not, what should I do to get rid of it before it takes over?
Thanks, in advance.
The adventure continues...........
Rick

 

[fishycouple]

MORE INFORMATION:
The water parameters I gave you in my first post were from the last time I did a test about 7 days ago...I just did a new test just now and the Ammonia is .2 mg/l; the Nitrite is at .3 mg/l and the Nitrate is at 20 mg/l !!! It has shot up since my last test!!
The only thing that I can think of to cause the increase in readings since I only have 3 small fish and one sebae anemone,and I do not overfeed (feeding every other day), is that at night I have been turning off the skimmer since it is so loud and the tank is in our bedroom.
The skimmer has the blue material in the return (supposedly a biological filter) and it dries out overnight...I do notice a musty smell when I turn on the skimmer! Could the bacteria be dying on the blue stuff..then when I turn the skimmer on..it introduces dead stuff into the water????? Should I remove the blue stuff from the BakPak skimmer since I only run it during the day? Or should I stop skimming altogether?
There have been no changes in population in quite a while and all of the live rock is beautifully purple and fully cured!
I'm doing a 20% water change tonight which will help the bad readings, but would an urchin or a star eat the hair algae?
The adventure continues!
Rick

 

[beth]

I think you hit on the problem, Rick. Can the skimmer do with out the filter? If so, remove it and see how it works without it.
Good luck!

 

[fishycouple]

I think thats the problem...I took out the blue stuff from the skimmer and not only is the skimmer much quieter...but I think I can tolerate a 24 hour skimmer now!
since I did the water change, and now the skimmer is running 24 hours...maybe I'll see a difference..I'll let you know!
The adventure continues!
Rick