Sudden explosion of hair algae!?

[bogusmove]

Following a 30% water change... I have a sudden explosion of green hair algae! This has never happened before... can anyone give me a clue what might have happened? It seems to like infesting the Eloda Densa mainly.

I've had hair algae before, a little, can usually find it somewhere... but except when cycling i've never had it like this.. and so suddenly!

Thanks.

 

[bogusmove]

Oh... this isn't good... my new topic appears to have been appended to this other thread and knobbled its title, etc... erk!

 

[William]

I removed the "ghosts" what sort of lighting is your tank getting and also what are your nitrAte levels... I think they are probably too high!

 

[Exiled]

Yeah I'd definatly take a nitrate test, but also maybe your tap water contained some micro-algae.... sometimes resevoirs get their own algal blooms too, and after the municipal water treatment at the source, some survived? Just a guess.

 

[bogusmove]

It's not high nitrate. I occasionally measure all my water parameters as a matter of course, and I just took a nitrate measurement just now just in case. It's less than 5ppm, which is entirely normal for my tank, which i've never seen above 10 ppm, and that when it was new.

maybe your tap water contained some micro-algae

Hmm.. never heard of that.. surely they still need nutrient to explode though? Can green hair algae eat phosphates? I don't have a phos test kit unfortunately.

 

[Exiled]

I'm not positive, but I think all plants use phosphates as a nutrient. Maybe the algae had just enough nutrient and light to bloom but will die off as nutrients get depleted.

 

[bogusmove]

Okie, thanks, I guess i'll see what happens for a few days.. it's logical to assume it was something in the water that caused it, but it's kinda odd, cos I've done bigger water changes before and never had this.. I suppose water isn't always the same though.. maybe I had a bad water day!

 

[Dragonslair]

I have had this in my tank, and it is terrible to get rid of. The reason is that if a strand is left in the tank it will mutliply and strand out. It usually starts off slowly and before you realise it your tank is infested with the blasted stuff.
The cure is radical. You need to strip down the tank and scrub everything with a special disinfectant designed for aquariums, and then pour boiling water over everything to steralise it, the return the items back to the tank. Putting algaecide in the tank merely kills off your other "greens", hair algae is quite resistant to algaecide. There are two main reasons you get in your tank. One is you've brought it in from the outside.ie. buying plants and some has sneaked in that way and the other is you've encouraged it. Encouraging algae is easy, have enough fish waste, uneaten food, and plant fertilisers in the tank water, and forget to do regular water changes. This leads to high Nitrates and the phosphates levels rise and plants can't take in anymore neutrients and so minute plant life starts to form and with the presents of light be it artificial or natural this "slime" starts to form into strands as it starts to grow and flourish. Hair algae.