Hair alge problem????

[starkissed]

Hello, My 18gal high tank has been running for about 9 months. Till now I have never had hair alge. I havn't made any changes to the tank recently. I got a new 96watt pc light about 3 weeks ago. Today I noticed the first signs of this hair alge. I run the light for 8 hours a day. Could this be the problem'??? Any ideas how to control this before it gets bad?? The solution MUST be reef safe. thanks.

 

[sly]

Your lights sound fine. Are the bulbs new? If they are used more than a year then replace them...
Chances are since you added more light, the algae now has enough light to grow because of some polutant in the tank. Under less light the algae was not able to grow. So I guess the thing we need to find out is what is in your tank...
What are all your water parameters? Have you added any suppliments to the water? Are you running carbon? Have you made any other changes to the tank other than the lights?

 

[starkissed]

all perameters are good. The tank hasn't made any changes in months. I havn't added anything except the usual calcium that I add. no new fish or anything. The only thing that is new are the lights, and they are brand new so the bulbs are new. It isn't bad. I can barely tell it is there, but i don't want it to end up out of hand. The only thing I can think as that my protine skimmer isn't working and maybe it was helping clean something out of the water to keep it from growing before... any ideas??? or anything to add in my tank to eat it??

 

[starkissed]

Bump :happyfish Thanks

 

[az]

What is the Kelvin rate of your lights? What type of water do you use to topoff of change your tank water with? what kind of cleanup crew do you have? Is this hair algae dark green or bright green? What is your salinity at and does it change through out the day? Do you have any corals and what are they doing? How are your fish acting? Do they move from top to bottem hang more in one area? What kind of filtration do you use?
I will probably have more questions later depends on what you can answer.
Most will start to see this happen when a build up occures of CO2, phosphates and or silicates in the system. But something else may be the cause not sure yet from what has been said.

 

[sly]

Tangs will eat hair algae.

 

[starkissed]

Originally Posted by Sly
Tangs will eat hair algae.
I only have an 18 gallon (to small for a tang)
AZ: I don't know what the Kelvin rateing of my light is all I know is that it is an aqualight 96watt pc with 50/50 bulbs .... I top it off with water from the machine at meijer (and always have) My cleanup crew may be the problem cause I only have like 2 snails, a sea slug, and a pepperment shrimp (that may not be enough maybe I should add some more snails) My salinity is at 1.022 and my fluctuate slightly due to evaporation, but nothing out of the normal. The hair alge I am guessing is more bright green then dark green in there is barely any of it ... you have to look close at a few places it is just starting. I do have corals they seem to be fine and my fish I only have one he is a royal gramma is acting really active and normal. i am useing a protine skimmer and a back pack filter with a carbon filter in it. I think this should answer all your questions. thanks.... I am thinking I may just need mroe of a clean up crew....... do you agree???? I think I will go to my LFS tomorrow and pick up some more snails

 

[starkissed]

oh yeah any sugestions on a good clean up crew for the size tank I have that are all reef safe??? Or fish that eat hair alge that will live in a tank this size??

 

[d. mix]

Hey, I am a newbe, but I have a runnaway hair alge problem, along with the tangs I was told at the lfs that a foxface rabit fish is good for hair, they are venomous though, I have been looking for one in my area. I have a 55 gal, and I know these are small but I do not know how big they get. good luck!

 

[starkissed]

thanks .... any ideas for a clean up crew .... I really would rather add that then a fish I really dont want.... ( i don't have much room for many fish ) thanks

 

[az]

You can start with the clean up crew of more snails and crabs. Scarlets are nice but expensive and generally go after hair algae. Hair algae is the least favorite of foods for most animals so a slight overload of the cleanup crew may be needed if the problem gets worse.