Algae Identification & Removal?

W

watertownsalt

AC Members
Oct 1, 2004
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Watertown, CT
With the addition of new lighting (135 PC) I have noticed a new algae growing all over everything.

It is a really fine, whispy hair like white algae. It is on everything - especially the live rock.

What is the best way to rid of this stuff or should I even bother?

My clean up crew is small right now. I bought a yellow banded hermit that has eaten a few snails. Would a shrimp help at all - I always wanted a fire shrimp or cleaner. :rolleyes:
 
More snails--and a few other cleaners. Most shrimp aren't great for algae consumption, but they do help by reducing the food available for the algaes to use. You might want to look at your nitrate levels as well.
 
i dont think you need mroe crew, i just think you need tocut down on your lighting. Killing my lightin, and having lighting on for about 4-5 hours really REALLY helped. it went away in a couple of days. How long do you have the light on for?
 
I leave my lights on for approximately 12 hours. I would like to keep an anenome eventually, so I would imaging 4-5 hours is nowhere enough light for this invert.

I will check my nitrates tonight. But, on my weekly check, there never is a trace of nitrates.

I will try more snails, but I think I will need to get rid of that hermit. He is loving the escargot (spelling?).

Thanks
 
There will not be any nitrates showing on your test kits because the bad algae absorbs it all which means you might have high nitrates just won't show up on your test kit.
 
That's interesting... I will do water changes more often incase this why I am getting no nitrates.

I just hope I will not get more algae from my local water supply. I could buy water from a bottle company. It is distilled water and then minerals are added back to the distilled water. Has anyone had any luck with this type of water?

Thanks,
 
One thing you can do is check with the water company and see what they put into the water, by law they must list everything present in your drinking/tap water. You want to look for Nitrate and Phosphate, as well as copper. If all 3 are high R/O or Distilled water would be best.
 
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