Can lighting cause Long hair algae?
I have massive quantities of long hair green algae and some dark green “carpet algae.” That’s what I’m calling it anyways. The carpet algae are on the bed of the tank, dark green and looks like velvet. The long hair is just everywhere. I don’t deed, I have nothing TO feed. A few months ago I put about 150 cleaner crabs and snails in an effort to get rid of it. I see only a few so I suppose they could have dies contributing to the problem… It’s a 125 gallon long. Something like 6 feet long.
A friend told me recently that since the tank has been up a little over 2 years I need to change my lights. On one side, covering about 2 feet I have a metal halide lamp. The kind that clips on the back of the tank not rests on the top. Covering the other 4 feet I have one set of T 5’s and one set of T 8’s. Seems to me if it were lighting, I would see a difference between the metal halide side and the T side. I’ve tried running the lights as little as 6 hours a day. All the critters seem happy. Even the clam, right under the halide.
Opinions?
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Can lighting cause Long hair algae?