What type of macro algae is this?

[KenCotigirl]

Here is a couple of pictures. The thick dark green macroalgae is from Mustafa the fine light green just started to grow in my tank. Mustafa what is the spec. on your lighting? I use 2-8 watt 10000 k bulbs for a 10 gallon tank. 16 hours a day. Now I am being cheap. Do florescence bulbs need to be changed yearly? I do not want my algae to fail do to poor lighting.

edited for spelling error and light question.

[Mustafa]

The fine stuff appears to be some kind of hair algae. Various types of that kind of algae can appear all of a sudden. I would try to remove as much of it as possible if you don't like it. Eventually the macroalga will dominate. As for lighting...I don't change my bulbs until they don't function anymore. I just happen to have "daylight" bulbs from the hardware store. Any type of light works just fine. The macroalga are adapted to even the lowest light conditions. No fancy lights are needed. I had "stored" some of the macroalgae in a plastic container right next to my tanks. I had no overhead light, but received ambient light from the tanks nearby. The macroalgae in the container grew, albeit, slowly for several months before I put them back into some tanks. In low light conditions the macroalga becomes really dark green. I've never seen the macroalgae melt away and die...ever.

[dan d]

No fancy lights are needed. I had "stored" some of the macroalgae in a plastic container right next to my tanks. I had no overhead light, but received ambient light from the tanks nearby. The macroalgae in the container grew, albeit, slowly for several months before I put them back into some tanks. In low light conditions the macroalga becomes really dark green. I've never seen the macroalgae melt away and die...ever.

Interesting ! I was wondering how much light my macroalga needed.

Dan

[KenCotigirl]

My wife does not like the hair algae. It looks unkempt. Not that the macro algae is beautiful but it looks easier to maintain and is a nicer green. The hair algae does do a nice job keeping all other algae under control. Removing it is difficult. It breaks apart and 'reseeds' itself. I will replace the bulbs when they fail to light.

[dan d]

Hair algae can be nasty, I remember it from my saltwater reef days. I wonder if dropping your salinity would kill it off ? Mustafa says low salinity will not kill the macro algae so I wonder if this is worth trying ?

I am following your posts closely as I'm concerned I'm going to have the same problems with my wall tank & it is only 3 inches thick & difficult to get your hand in there to clean up algae so I want to learn how to prevent it in the first place. I know not feeding much should prevent it, but I am still concerned.

Dan

[KenCotigirl]

Dan in my more foolish days I was always tweaking the tank parameters. Raise and lower temps, raise and lower salinity, increase and decrease light. The hair algae would grow on a piece of coral I got with my shrimp 4 years ago. It would grow about 1/2 inch to maybe an inch then disappear. About a year ago I stopped fooling around with the tank. Room temps, 16 hour lighting, about 18ppt salinity and providing food (snacks) weekly/monthly whatever. The shrimp started breeding continuously and the hair algae started to grow. Does one have anything to do with the other? Probably not. Just a coincidence. While this algae may be a pain it was easy to remove at ping pong ball size. At grapefruit size I need to be careful not to through the baby with the bath water.

[Mustafa]

The shrimp started breeding continuously and the hair algae started to grow. Does one have anything to do with the other? Probably not. Just a coincidence. While this algae may be a pain it was easy to remove at ping pong ball size.

--Actually, there is usually a correlation. The hair alga does exactly what the Supershrimp macroalga does...it removes nutrients. The only difference is that it's much messier, harder to remove and may melt/die at any point in time and pollute the water.

At grapefruit size I need to be careful not to through the baby with the bath water.

--That's another problem with most hair alga species. They grow so dense that baby shrimp (and even adults sometimes) cannot escape quickly enough when you take the ball of algae out of the tank. The Supershrimp macroalga never grows that dense and is still course enough that with some attention and care baby shrimp should not get stuck in it all that easily when you prune it.