Shrimpy Died and Hair Algae Problems!

[gmac]

Well my armoured shrimp finally died I think sometime today. Some may recall how I was saying he was lying on his back and side, well he did it for a week and we fed him some baby food which he caught with great delight, I only hope he died peacefully with little discomfort - hopefully he enjoyed his time in the tank. I hope I can get a new shrimp from the LFS but I think it may have been a one time thing, haven't seen them since. Still no idea what has caused him to do this though, maybe just his time - I don't know what age he was, only had him a few months.

I also have a lot of hair algae suddenly in bloom despite my scraping it off all the time... we reduced the light, especially as shrimpy wasn't doing well, and with the lights off it seems to be flourishing even more. I don't understand what is causing this, we never used to have it... it appears nearer everything thats close to the heater at the back though I've noticed. Could this mean anything!?

Thanks.

 

[czcz]

Is this a planted tank? Have you tested nitrate and phosphate levels?

 

[gmac]

It's not a planted tank, and I missed a water change one week recently and the nitrate had gone up a bit, usually no more than 20 but think it had raised considerably, think it should be correcting itself now though. pH has also dropped, it was always around the 6.2-6.4 mark but has dropped right down to 6.0 now, might seem low but all my tank inhabitants seem to be used to it and are fine.

27g Tank:
1 Betta (male)
1 Balloon Molly (female)
1 Black Molly (male)
1 Plecostomus
1 Armoured Shrimp (just left us )
12 Neon Tetra's

 

[czcz]

Sorry Shrimpy didn't make it, btw. I was thinking you could have a nitrate/phosphate/iron imbalance causing the algae (I did with po4 and no3). According to Chuck Gadd's site hair algae is a product of excess iron. I believe inverts are sensitive to metals.

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_algae.htm

Maybe LFS can test phosphate and metals for you? Perhaps its best to do more pwc, remove the hair algae again, and observe what happens.