Green Hairy/Fuzzy algae

[alexb518]

I recently setup my tank a week ago. It's a 50 gal, with 70 lbs of live rock and 60 lbs of sand. my question is that i have brown algae growing everywhere, which i believe is normal, but there is green hair like algae growing on the rocks...how do i get rid of it? i have 12 hermit crabs and they don't seem to be eating it. any ideas?

 

[magdelan]

Hmm...your tank is one week old and you have hermits? What are your params? It is possible that your hermits are "flying high" right now with amonia and nitrite levels high and are only interested in surviving the amonia spike.

 

[alexb518]

haven't bought any test kits yet...so i don't know. i guess i should do that, but i was gonna wait a few weeks before i did any tests on the tank cuz i know it's gonna go crazy for a while. i've had other tanks in the past and have never had this hairy algae growing before. should i pull the hermits out and just let the tank be for a while?

 

[drummereef]

Your tank is cycling. I would highly recommend you getting some test kits to monitor the cycle. The hermits probably won't make it if you leave them in the tank. Once the cycle has completed it is safe to add the cleanup crew. As for the algae, diatom and hair algae blooms are totally normal and part of the cycling process.

 

[TekCat]

I agree, unless you can confirm that your tank had cycled (amm and trite = ZERO), I'd remove hermits and return them to where they came from immediatelly. And dont worry about algal blooms at this point.