yet another hair algae story

[Dr.Nate]

Well, I've read tons of stuff on here about hair algae and I've never had a problem with it until recently. At least I'm fairly sure it's hair algae anyway. It's most just on the substrate and it looks like grass growing.

I first suspected my Ro/di needed filters changed, so I started there. After that, I've been vacuuming up the agae and I've done 2 water changes, but it's still getting worse. Now, I have to vacuum every 3 or 4 days to keep it at bay....very frustrating.

My readings are perfect....trate and phosphate are 0.

But here's the weird part....it's only on one half of my tank...and it's the high flow side of my tank, too, and yet there it grows, just waving in the current.

I only feed three times per week and I can't remember how old my lights are, but they are around 4 or 5 months old.

Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated!

 

[runway1]

When mine favored one side of the tank, it was influenced by the bulb. If you have bulbs that came with a "kit" type of light setup, they're like tires and batteries on a new car - they last far less than the replacements.

What I mean is the bulbs supplied in lighting kits tend to be cheaper and need replacing sooner than the brand names you buy directly. Just my observation. Good luck.

 

[HoopsGuru]

Could you post a pic?

 

[Dr.Nate]

Yeah, I should have......but I just vacuumed up the substrate and it looks better at the moment. I'll give it a couple days to grow back and then post the pic.

 

[seaham358]

Have you tested your ro/di water for nitrate and po4? The kits we use are not the best and sometimes will not pick up readings even when it in the water. My friend had ha bad and he tried several kinds of kits and never got a reading. after trying every thing he could do he ended up using AZNO3, that killed it off.

 

[Scottm]

my bet is on the bulbs, I would bet the bulb on the side of your tank that is growing algae is coming to the end of its usefull life

 

[NewInTown]

funny thing is the only place green hair algae grows in my tank is on the tip's of my power heads. I do not think high water flow slows their growth like other algae's

 

[DragonForce]

funny thing is the only place green hair algae grows in my tank is on the tip's of my power heads. I do not think high water flow slows their growth like other algae's

Haha I have patches of that on my power heads and my surface skimmer cup. My snails do a pretty good job of keeping it well trimmed. I was thinking of actually building a small ramp up to my powerheads with some LR rubble peices so my hermits can have a stab at the stuff.

 

[Dr.Nate]

I'm ordering new bulbs today, thanks! And, yes, I did test my ro/di water and it was starting to show traces of nitrates, so that's why I changed all the filters and the di out. I'll let you know if the bulbs help.

 

[Brad]

I went through all of that. In my case, a newer larger skimmer did the trick. I couldn't find anything wrong with any water parametre, changed my RO/DI filters and replaced my bulb. If you've also done all that...look to the skimmer.