Black hair algae

[cgpics]

I have a small patch of black hair algae (about 3 inched round)...
should i be worried? Its small enough i could just scoop it out with
my big net.

Tank specs:

20gal long

Emperor 280 filter

Just added a Fluval 204 canister filter yesterday ... power filter
wasn't doing enough mechanical filtering and it is boosting water
circulation.

Live sand and about 18lbs of live rock. 2 of the little chuncks of
rock were introduced in the last 3 weeks ... might have been the sourse
of the alage. They had a little brown algae but the emerald crab
gobbled it off.

10 gallons of the water is like 2 years old and 10 of it is 2 month old
..... never really had issues with water so i have never done any water
changes.

24" corallife bluelight bulb and 18" regular bulb that came with the a
hood. Run about 9 hours a day.

Occupants:
emerald crab
5-6 red hermits
green anenome (looks like a pink tip but is green)
3 big turbos and about 15-20 baby snails (give or take 100)
Tomato "attack" clown ... hes got a tude ... no other fish cuz he
doesn't play well with others.
1 cleaner shrimp
lotsa copods truckin around too

only chemical i add to tank is iodine (couple drops a day) for the
invert-critters ... they shed their exoskeletons a lot.

Everyone seems healthy.

[George Patterson]

cgpics wrote:
> I have a small patch of black hair algae (about 3 inched round)...
> should i be worried? Its small enough i could just scoop it out with
> my big net.

Hair algae can take over the tank. I would remove it.

It also indicates, however, that your water quality isn't very good. In
particular, you have high phosphates and possibly high nitrate levels. IMO, the
phosphates were probably introduced with the last water change. If your nitrates
are high, that may be the result of lack of water changes. You have enough live
rock, I think, so the problem may entirely be introduced phosphates.

If the problem gets out of hand, red-leg and blue-leg hermits love the stuff.

George Patterson
There's plenty of room for all of God's creatures. Right next to the
mashed potatoes.