Hair on my Tank Glass

[beth]

I'm in the process of setting up my first reef. All I have in there now is LS and LR. I'm getting small green patches that are somewhat "hairy" all over my aquairum glass. This looks plant-like not animal. If you look at it thru a magnifying glass you can see little individual distinct hairs on these "hair balls". The color is olive, not the same green that you see with green microalgae. They don't appear to be moving at all.
Can anyone tell me what this is?

 

[lionfish]

LionFish says.......
This is a common form of hair algea. It can spread to ecedemic porportions in no time. I had this when I set up my first reef. It is a ncommon thing when first setting up a tank. I skimmed a lot and it eventually disappeared. It usually disappears after a short while. For now, let the tank cycle and one everything balances out it should disappear. If not, you might want to try a herbivore such as trochus, astrea, or trubo snails. They usually mow the stuff down. Then there are tangs, foxfaces, or pygmy angels. Or you could try emerlad crabs which eagerly eat the stuff off everything. Just some suggestions. Hope the helps.

 

[javajoe]

Sally lightfoot crabs are good for eating hair algae, but on your galss may bea little tough-- my sally lightfoot will eat the hair algae down low on the glass, but anything higer than an inch or two i scrape off with a magnetic alge scrapper.

 

[q]

I like the emerald crab too. They will also eat bubble algea.

 

[justinl]

I had this same problem when first setting up my tank. What the snails didn't eat disappeared after the tank balanced out.
Too much light has also caused some minor outbreaks of hair algae for me also.

 

[diatom]

Beth~
lets here more about your setup:Lights, skimmer, sump/fuge?
Basically, if it's a hair algea problem, it can be controlled by nutrient export so lets see if we can identify the best way of eliminating it.

 

[josh]

Also, you could check your phosphate level, phosphates will feed hair algae to grow and grow. If you do have phos present you could do a phos sponge and that will definatly help.
Josh

 

[beth]

I'm just in the process of setting up a reef tank. It is/was some sort or algae, but it was not of a variety I am used to seeing. In any case, I wiped it off the glass. I'm not sure it was hair, as I saw a piece growing out of the substrate, and it was growing more "stalk-like". Also, as an olive color to it, rather than the deep slimy green you see with hair.
I only have trace phates. All other readings at 0