green water and hair algae

[Roxanne Bittman <RBITTMAN at hq_dfg.ca.gov>]

Green Water:
I posted a green water problem a couple of weeks
back, which has since cleared up, due to several
water changes, the use of a flocculent, and a System
1 diatom filter (phew!).

Some additonal notes:
1. I use R/O water, and no water changes had been
made for the month I was on vacation, so tap water
problems were not the cause.

2. No sun reaches the tank, no matter what season it
is.

3. One small fish died during my vacation.  Also, I had
done a significant water change (30%) along with
trimming before I left.  I suspect that the severe trim of
the plants plus the fact that the plants ran out of some
essential nutrient, caused the problem.  Conditions
became fine for algae, and they took over. 
I don't have a clue which nutrient(s) ran out first,
unfortunately.  I rather doubt it was nitrate, but that's
intuition, not science.

Hair Algae:

Now, this one seems to get established and grow well
under high-iron conditions; is that others' experience
as well?

It is a bear to get rid of; at least, I don't have the sure
cure.  If you over-prepare your substrate with too
much laterite, you can create a tank that is plagued by
hair algae for months.  The same thing can happen
with the addition of too much liquid iron supplement.
Perhaps lots of water changes would eventually fix
this situation.  Ghost shrimp seem to also keep it
under control, but you have to keep adding them,
since they don't live long.

Roxanne

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