u have no explantion to why it will disapperer
and i didnt think hair algea liked fast current
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Morgan I diden't say I diden't know why it would disappear. It will disappear because all at once there will not be enough nutrients in the water to sustain it. It could be a lack of iron, phosporous, nitrogen or some lesser elements that plants need. I have no way of knowing when any of those elements will be exhausted. They are constantly being added through food and they are also constantly being locked up in algae and removed through skimming and water changes. It is an ongoing complicated system that changes from moment to moment. Also hair algae loves fast current, the faster the better as you can tell by it growing on the outflow of the powerheads, you may be confused because some people "incorrectly" believe that red algae or cyanobacteria does not like fast current.
Sausage fingers, I certainly believe that we will always have algae and lucky for us as it makes our oxygen and grows in any shallow water. Every element on this planet is disolved in seawater and there will always be enough of everthing to grow algae. It grows on all healthy reefs everywhere.
You don't see it because the sea has plenty of animals that are there just to eat algae. If you dive at night you will see the seafloor covered with urchins. You don't see many in the day because guess what the favorite food of triggerfish is? Urchins. Triggers and other urchin eating fish are active in the day so urchins evolved to be active at night. Urchins eat algae almost exclusively, if there is no algae, there are no urchins. Besides urchins there are large schools of 8" tangs. Guess what they eat? Algae. These animals eat what little algae grew that day, we can hardly see it but it is growing. Did you ever see Sally Lightfoot Crabs on a tropical shoreline? They are eating algae, as are snails, cowerys, slugs, limpits, abalone's, sea hares etc. If you do not see any algae growing in your reef, it may not be as healthy as you believe.
We don't want it growing on our corals as it would shield the light and kill them and we can't have a thousand tangs decend on our tanks or keep dozens of urchins. If we could the wastes from these animals would still be locked up in our tanks and we would accomplish nothing.
Algae is the bane of reef tanks because the wastes are in the tank too long before the skimmer removes some of it or we eliminate it through water changes. By the way, skimmers don't remove a lot of the chemicals that grow algae. Algae can grow overnight, it can grow very fast. I don't believe we can eliminate nutrients in all tanks fast enough to eliminate all algae.
I do believe the best method is to let it grow outside our tank then harvest it. It is the most natural method even though some of it will still grow in the tank. Algae is not a disease, just a friend that needs training. :lol:
Have a great day.
Paul
