eschaton
Fishaholic
Hey all,
I've had 55-gallon tank set up for two years now, and over the last several months, the hair algae has gotten out of hand. Previously I only had hair algae growth on two small rocks near the bottom of the tank, both of which were bought with algae on them. Now it's pretty much everywhere in the tank that's a horizontal surface which hasn't been colonized by a coral. I admit for awhile I was being a bit lackadaisical with water changes. However, more recently I've been doing 20% water changes on my tank every week, and I haven't noticed a major change. Nitrate and phosphate readings are zero, although I know that this may be because the growing algae is absorbing the nutrients. I have a skimmer, but it's quite finicky and doesn't often produce skimmate.
One thing which has majorly changed is all of the turbos I bought to deal with the initial bout of algae except one have died over the past several months. Now, they were monsters when it game to consuming the initial bout of hair algae. But I've always heard algae eaters don't really solve the problem, and I know now that turbos are actually colder-water snails. I don't want to consign them to a shortened lifespan just to improve the look of my tank. But could it be as simple as not having something to eat the hair algae any longer?
Edit: Should also say my tank otherwise is going pretty good. A few gobies went missing over the last year, but they are short lived and I think they just reached the end of their lifespans, as two years is pretty normal for gobies IIRC. The rest of my CUC, including my urchin, seem hale and healthy. Corals have been doing fairly well - oddly some zoas which were healthy are now dying back (including yellow polyps, thank god), while other zoas which never did well in my tank are actually taking off. Might be a normal part of tank maturation.
I've had 55-gallon tank set up for two years now, and over the last several months, the hair algae has gotten out of hand. Previously I only had hair algae growth on two small rocks near the bottom of the tank, both of which were bought with algae on them. Now it's pretty much everywhere in the tank that's a horizontal surface which hasn't been colonized by a coral. I admit for awhile I was being a bit lackadaisical with water changes. However, more recently I've been doing 20% water changes on my tank every week, and I haven't noticed a major change. Nitrate and phosphate readings are zero, although I know that this may be because the growing algae is absorbing the nutrients. I have a skimmer, but it's quite finicky and doesn't often produce skimmate.
One thing which has majorly changed is all of the turbos I bought to deal with the initial bout of algae except one have died over the past several months. Now, they were monsters when it game to consuming the initial bout of hair algae. But I've always heard algae eaters don't really solve the problem, and I know now that turbos are actually colder-water snails. I don't want to consign them to a shortened lifespan just to improve the look of my tank. But could it be as simple as not having something to eat the hair algae any longer?
Edit: Should also say my tank otherwise is going pretty good. A few gobies went missing over the last year, but they are short lived and I think they just reached the end of their lifespans, as two years is pretty normal for gobies IIRC. The rest of my CUC, including my urchin, seem hale and healthy. Corals have been doing fairly well - oddly some zoas which were healthy are now dying back (including yellow polyps, thank god), while other zoas which never did well in my tank are actually taking off. Might be a normal part of tank maturation.
