Brown Hair Algae... any suggestions?

[NbMaxx13]

I went out of town for 3 days and now i've got brown hair algae growing in my week old 30 ... the tank has a bunch of zoos , a Fuzzy Dwarf Lion , and a 250 w retro halide ......Havent got the skimmer running yet ...Going to do a water change tonight ... My question is ...any suggestions on how to stop this before it really takes off? ...Are there any fish/crabs or anything I can throw in to help control it? ..I took about 4 rocks out that had the worst of it on them ...... Thanks everyone

 

[HOC]

Is it completely brown or kinda green. Algae blennies eat the green stuff. I usually have hair algae in new setups for a couple weeks. It should go away if you're using RO water and the tank is clean and not overfed.

 

[NbMaxx13]

Yeah its a light brown ....Have hardly fed the tank overall w/ just the one fish in it .Using Ro and other than the brown algae the tank is clean ..lol .... And i'd love to put a blennie in but from what i've read they aren't compatable w/ the lions..I'm going to double check that , because the blennies are on of my favs anyhow ...

 

[reefdadx2]

Eric, Chris has a lawnmower blennie that is huge. Chris, do you think a lion could fit that thing in his mouth? Michael R

 

[NbMaxx13]

yeah that thing is enormous .... I'd be more worried about IT fitting in a 30 ... It took a while for me to spot it but when I did I was impressed ... That thing eats better than I do ...lol

 

[NbMaxx13]

This is my first tank that i've started w/ barebottom ... could that be contributing to the problem?

 

[ade]

If it's hair algae, you would be better off with a fox or rabbit fish. Lawnmowwers tend to shy away from hair algae. Can you post a pic, so that it can be better ID'd.

 

[HOC]

Every Algae blenny I've had chows down on the type of hair algae I get in new systems. It really depends on the type it is though as to if anything is gong to eat it. IME it will go away with time even if nothing eats it. It can take a while though.

 

[ade]

Eric what are nitrates reading? hair algae thrives on nitrates that re over 10 ppm. Algae needs three things to live. Light, nutrients and water. You could have got the algae spores from anything that you placed in your tank. Fish snails corals ect. Depending on what type of fish you place in there they ted to like the new growth of algae. The algae that you say is brown is most prob old hair algae with some diatom dusting.

 

[NbMaxx13]

Well I did a good size water change last night and took a few of the rocks that looked the worst out...When the lights come on we'll see what it looks like ... If it's still bad I will post a pic.

I checked the Compatability of Lions and Blennies and it said it was no good... And a Fox or a Rabbit are out for the size of the tank ...

 

[NbMaxx13]

Another quick question ... Anyone know where I could find another good Compatabilty chart? I use the one from Fosters and Smith but I wouldnt mind having another to use for reference.

 

[NbMaxx13]

Tested for Nitrates and it read 0