Green algae goo on tank light

[myriam]

Is it just me, or does anybody else here have a problem with green algae-ish stuff growing on the tank light? The water doesn't touch it, but I guess just the evaporation is enough to get something growing on this. On mine it grows like a green slimey sheet and if I don't get at it regularly, it'll rip and then it looks like a piece of seaweed is hanging down my tank. It's disgusting and I can't imagine what it might do to my water (though my water always tests fine...).

What is the best way to clean this off the light? Any way to prevent it from happening, or at least from growing so fast?

Thanks,
Myriam

 

[lmw80]

Do you have this type of algae anywhere else in your tank?

 

[Strikh]

I have one tank that seems to get that green sheet on the light cover...

Dunno what caused it, and it doesn't appear anywhere else in the tank.

I just wipe it off when doing cleanings...

 

[aridiar]

I used to have that problem alot, but I stopped having that problem since I got my snail infestation. Gotta give those buggers one piece of credit, they keep my tubes on my UGF clrystal clear of algea

 

[myriam]

lmw80, no, I don't have this anywhere else on my tank.

aridiar, what kind of snails do you have? My light doesn't touch the water--how would the snails get on the light to eat the stuff?

 

[aridiar]

I have no clue what they are, I bought a potted plant from one of the tanks in Walmart and just saw one a few days later....now I have a few hundred stuck to the sides of my tank. Water slpashes up on the glass cover from the air stones I have running and they just go where it's wet and hang out anywhere they can...