Hair alge help!

[teckt]

I have a 20 gallon eclipse tank running now for about 3 months or so. About 20 lbs of LR and a 3 1/2 inch SB. I have a few corals too. A pretty large frog spawn, a finger leather, a galaxia frag, and some mushrooms and pollops. I also have a hawk fish and a large Mantis shrimp. I have 1 powerhead and i custom fit 75 watt PC's. I recently (about 2 weeks ago) removed the bio weel from the eclipse filter. The next week i removed the filter cartridge. Ever since i upgraded my lighting from 36 watt PC's to 75 watt PC's i have noticed a extreamly bad outbreak of hair alge. I have a red slimy alge on the sand and some of the rock and a green hairy alge all over the rock. I guess i was wondering whats the best way to get rid of these alge problems the fastest? I have also noticed a slight murkyness of the water too. i was thinking of buying a skimmer tommarow and a large clean up crew. The Last clean up crew i put in about 15 astrea's and 2 or 3 turbos and after time the all were blugened to death by "Virgil" (The Mantis). Could not having a clean up crew in the tank for a week have caused the outbreak? I have tested the tank recently and everything was normal. I'm willing to do whatever is needed to fix this problem. Can anyone give me some sugestions?

Thanx

[olgakurt]

I think a skimmer would be a great help to you. You could also introduce some macro algae to compete with the hair. Your water could also be an issue. Are you using ro/di water? IMO, you will have a hard time establishing a clenup crew with the mantis. I think you may need to prioritize what you want to keep in the tank.

[Kevomac]

A mantis with a hawk? Sound like a sitting duck to me. I can't imagine those two getting along, but stranger things have happened. As for the hair algae, did it appear before or after you removed the bio-wheel and filter cartridge? Removing those items may have hurt your bacteria population. The hair algae usually grows in response to a rise in nitrates. The slime algae, however, grows in response to phosphates. When was your last water change, and do you use RO/DI water? That could make all of the difference. I have no idea what, if any relationship, there could be with the lights as I have no experience with pc's, but that does sound like a large upgrade. As for the clean-up crew, they clean up the algae caused by nitrates and phosphates, but their absence should not have caused that big of a jump. Anyway, you'd need something to clean up that's as tough as the mantis shrimp. Oh, that's right, there is nothing!

[Kevomac]

A mantis with a hawk? Sound like a sitting duck to me. I can't imagine those two getting along, but stranger things have happened. As for the hair algae, did it appear before or after you removed the bio-wheel and filter cartridge? Removing those items may have hurt your bacteria population. The hair algae usually grows in response to a rise in nitrates. The slime algae, however, grows in response to phosphates. When was your last water change, and do you use RO/DI water? That could make all of the difference. I have no idea what, if any relationship, there could be with the lights as I have no experience with pc's, but that does sound like a large upgrade. As for the clean-up crew, they clean up the algae caused by nitrates and phosphates, but their absence should not have caused that big of a jump. Anyway, you'd need something to clean up that's as tough as the mantis shrimp. Oh, that's right, there is nothing!

[Reef Maniac]

1. Turn your lighting duration way down (about 6 hrs on 18 off)
2. Pull out as much of it by hand as possible.
3. Use only RO/DI for top off.
4. Make one of these for water changes:
http://www.rmgconstruction.com/equipm7.gif
I invented this neat little gadget, to scrub the hair algae off the live rock and siphon it out at the same time. Its made using a 10" piece of 3/8" rigid tubing, a 8' piece of 1/2" clear poly tubing, and the bristles I got from an old broom (plastic bristles). And just taped the bristles on the edge of rigid tubing letting them extend about 3/4" past the end of the rigid tubing. It works Great!
And bye bye hair algae!