What Type of Hair Algae?

New Tank, Cyano for sure. Everyone gets it. You can cyphon it out with an airline hose if it gets too much but it usually goes by itlself as tank matures.
 
cyano bacteria is my vote. increase flow in areas u see it most, siphon most of it out. at worst there are meds for it but they can crash the tank. chemi clean is one i have used in past along with cyano solution.
 
Thanks for the replies.
  • I've turned off the light, but not going as far as covering it with a blanket.
  • I removed what I could with a vacuum suction.
  • I changed it my sock filter, and it certainly needed changing, got to get in that habit. :)
  • Did a 5 gallons water change as part of the vacuuming.

Hope this all helps. Not wanting to bring chemicals in at this point.

Are there any chemistry parameters I should be watching for after doing all of that?
 
First of all, turn the lights back on. The reason you have Cyano is that your tank is new and it is high in phosphate. If you turn the lights off you are only delaying the algae bloom.

A media reactor (BRS has a dual one that is really good and really cheap) with a phosphate remover and carbon will help a LOT, not only with Cyano but with many different types of algae as well as removing other organics that range from toxic to tinting your water. BTW, it is a very good idea to run these 2 permanently and save yourself from a lot of trouble down the road. I swear that 90% of the threads on RC asking for help are phosphate related :)
 
First of all, turn the lights back on. The reason you have Cyano is that your tank is new and it is high in phosphate. If you turn the lights off you are only delaying the algae bloom.

A media reactor (BRS has a dual one that is really good and really cheap) with a phosphate remover and carbon will help a LOT, not only with Cyano but with many different types of algae as well as removing other organics that range from toxic to tinting your water. BTW, it is a very good idea to run these 2 permanently and save yourself from a lot of trouble down the road. I swear that 90% of the threads on RC asking for help are phosphate related :)

The tank has never had any fish or corals. What are the expected and too high phosphate levels?

What about running the skimmer? I have one, but haven't run it, except at initial startup to make sure it works.

I don't mind taking the next step of another piece of equipment, but kind of felt that was going to come once I get fish and then start moving to corals.
 
Anything organic you put into your tank will give you phosphates and the good level would be as close to 0 as you can get it, below 0.03 if I remember right. If you cycled with anything but pure ammonia you will have some phosphates.

You can run a skimmer, it will have little to pull out but now would be a good time to start it. Some take a while to get cracking anyway.

An ounce of prevention...... It is very easy to prevent pest algae and often very hard to cure it once established. A media reactor is a very inexpensive tool (well, for this hobby anyway...lol..50 to 100 bucks with a pump), the stuff you put in it will cost more probably.
 
Anything organic you put into your tank will give you phosphates and the good level would be as close to 0 as you can get it, below 0.03 if I remember right. If you cycled with anything but pure ammonia you will have some phosphates.

You can run a skimmer, it will have little to pull out but now would be a good time to start it. Some take a while to get cracking anyway.

An ounce of prevention...... It is very easy to prevent pest algae and often very hard to cure it once established. A media reactor is a very inexpensive tool (well, for this hobby anyway...lol..50 to 100 bucks with a pump), the stuff you put in it will cost more probably.

Which is a huge plus to cycling via "pure" ammonia. I'm just about at the end of my cycle and not a phosphate to be found :) Skimmer and GFO have been off the whole time too.
 
I have to second the idea of turning on the skimmer. It wont work to skim anything yet but my skimmer took a solid week before it started working correctly so this is a good time to break it in.
 
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