Hair algae on chaetomorpha?

[krazedkazoo]

It seems like my chaeto that I bought online seemed to develop moderate amounts of hair algae on it. I had no idea how to effectively separate the hair from the chaeto so I just tossed it.

Is this common? I have it behind my LR (hence me not noticing until it was fairly advanced in growth) and use it for amphipod shelter so my mandarin dragonet doesn't wipe out the population.

The hair algae seems to have spread to a couple pieces of LR and my filter intake. Any suggestions on how to eliminate it or keep it from growing on my good algae?

I removed what I could reach and scrubbed as much as possible off my filters.

[Plan B]

im having the same issue with my tank right now, i bought some zoos and the rock that it came on had the algae on it and i didnt notice it till later, but in my case it looks more like some kind of plant, kind of like a calurpa but not really.it hasnt carried to any other rocks but it is growing quite fast. the only thing i could think of is replacing my year old bulb and see how i could eliminate phosphate in the tank... if any. Good luck.

[krazedkazoo]

Originally Posted by Plan B

im having the same issue with my tank right now, i bought some zoos and the rock that it came on had the algae on it and i didnt notice it till later, but in my case it looks more like some kind of plant, kind of like a calurpa but not really.it hasnt carried to any other rocks but it is growing quite fast. the only thing i could think of is replacing my year old bulb and see how i could eliminate phosphate in the tank... if any. Good luck.

Ugh, I still need to replace my bulbs... better get crackin'.

[tcwayne]

I think that stuff will grow on anything if you let it. It WILL take over corals, especially branching SPS if you let it get that bad. Change lots of water, reduce feeding and test your nitrates and phosphates and eliminate them. Nice run on sentence huh?

[damac20]

I have the same problem but I just leave it. As long as there's not hair algae in my display thank then I'm ok with it in my fuge. I pull it off when I do h2o changes but I have seen no negative effects from it being there.

[Plan B]

i wouldnt mind it either if it wasnt to the point that its smothering my zoos so bad that i cant see them any longer. lol.

[TampaSnooker]

Others will argue it, but I've seen algae issues go away by getting the bulbs up to date - esp if they are old. Check the chem of course but I saw you mention bulbs recently... I think that restoring the proper wavelenths of light gives the corals the upper hand in photosynthesis. Algaes seem to be more adaptable to light frequencies as they are simpler organisms, hence their tendency to thrive under less favorable light spectrum.