Scrape it or leave it?

[stumpdog]

My hair algae is starting to get out of hand. My tank is still very young, and I am not sure what to do. I scrapped it off the front because I literally couldn't see in. It is very thick on the sides and rear as well as on some of the rocks. Do I scrape it off or leave it? My parameters are all okay, except my Ph is still a little low. For clean up crew I have (pardon the spelling) 14 nass., 14 astrea, 5 trochs, and should be getting 15 cerith. in the next few days. All the other snails have been in for about a week. What do you think?
Tanks-
Jeremy

 

[nacl-man]

I'd scrape it off. What kind of water are you using and how long as the tank been set up?
I had hair algae problems when I first set up my tank, but no where near as bad as you are describing.
Good luck! Algae is a pain.

 

[stumpdog]

Like I said it is a young tank, month old, but this stuff is wild. I am using RO water from the LFS. I will be back in a second with a picture and tell me what you think.
Jeremy

 

[stumpdog]

Look how thick this is.

 

[stumpdog]

And another, what do you think caused all this? I just turned on my skimmer a few days ago. If I would have turned it on sooner would that have mattered? The bulbs are only about 1 month old and they are on for a total of 10 hours including dawn and dusk.

 

[lobstergrabber]

No on the skimmer question. Did you use the Ro water so set up the tank or use tap and then switch to RO like I did. If so you are probably burning phosphates from the tap water. I put a phosphate sponge in my filter when my algae outbreak happened and I think it helped substatially. I still have some algae but not like what it was.
Rich

 

[stumpdog]

RO the whole time.
Thanks-
Jeremy
PS: Maybe I should try a phosphate sponge.

 

[bdhough]

It could also be feeding off of your live rock. If your live rock had alot of waste initially all that will eventaully become nitrates which algae likes as well. Get some mexican turbos to clean/eat it if your levels check out.

 

[birdy]

Algae problems are very common in a new tank, there are a lot of nutrients present during the cycle. here is what I would recommend.
1. pull as much of it out every day as possible.
2. Reduce photoperiod to just a couple of hours a day.
3. Test for phosphates or you may want to just run a phophate sponge. Look for the phosphate removers that are not aluminum based.
4. Do weekly 5-10% water changes sucking out as much of the algae as possible.
When the tank starts to stablize and the algae is no longer growing out of control the cleanup crew should take care of the aglae.
Just out of curiosity. Do you have your own RO unit or do you buy your water. You may want to test the water just to be sure you have pure RO water.

 

[hondo]

definitely scrape it and remove it from the tank as this exports the nutrients that it has fed off of. It's real common for a new tank to have an outbreak even if your using RO water. just to be on the safe side though you might want to check your RO water for nitrates and phosphates just to make sure it's not a filter problem.
you can also remove the rocks one by one and scrub them gfood with a tooth brush and rinse them in some salt water and then put the clean rocks back in the tanks. Your clean up crew is pretty good but they usually won't touch the Hair algea when it gets long and the nassarius won't touch it at all.

 

[michaeltx]

I agree with everything above try to get a handle on it as soon as possible mine was that way only 100% worse and casued me to break my tank down and start over. nasty stuff.
MIke

 

[steelchromis]

Definately scrape it!

 

[stumpdog]

Thanks for the replies. I just returned back from class. A few more questions.
With only leaving the lights on a few hours a day do I need to worry about the fish?
These darn clowns won't leave the upper right hand corner of the tank, is this normal? I have plenty of circulation and they don't seem to be breathing hard.
I was good on phosphates for the tank, but I may buy a sponge anyway. Do you have any suggestions?
What should I do if the RO water from my store is bad? Do I tell them or do I just get it else where?
Tanks-
Jeremy

 

[michaeltx]

it wont hurt the clowns but there something up if they are staying at the top in the corner. not sure why though.
you may have phosphates in the tank but are collected into the hair algae.
if you are getting it from the store yeah tell them its not supposed to . they may or may not do anything about it though.
Mike

 

[steelchromis]

Your fish will be fine. Just gradually bring the light back up to its normal hours. As for your clowns, don't worry. Mine do the same thing when the light is off. It is only a prob. when they're doning when the light is one And the RO Water, if it is bad either tell that it is bad, or if they won't do anything, then go somewhere else.

 

[azeritis]

WOW!
Now I understand what a hair algea problem is!
I do not want to freak you out stumpdog, but why did you let it get out of control?
But seriously now, I think that scraping it off, and reducing the light hours will not solve the problem permanently. Try to find what causes the problem rather than ways to fight it once it develops.
Otherwise you will always be fighting some kind of algea. And there are so many...

 

[dreeves]

Azeritis...did you fall off the marine tank boat yesterday?
A hair algea outbreak like his,
1) isn't really that major...
2) can happen in a matter of 10-12 hours, and
3) would get far worse in a very very short time.

 

[michaeltx]

yep. very quick. I could pull all of it out of my tank one day and 2 days later it doesnt look like I did a thing to it.
Mike

 

[cindyski]

my tank will be a room divider and therefore see through on both sides. i can picture a big green blob in the middle of the room now would it be ok to do a daily glass cleaning from the beginning or does the tank need some of that stuff to grow?

 

[michaeltx]

yeah you can clean daily. hair algae is something that if you can avoid it do it. my tank was alot worse than the one above if my tank was like that I wouldnt have broke it down that amount is manageable but if you dont manage it then it can take over the tank quickly.
Mike