Black Hair Algae?!?

[peacock madness]

So ive got 3 tanks as of right now, all 3 of which are having issues with what I was told is black haor algae?! My 36 planted and my 55 community both have alot more growth present compared to my 125, but the 125 has far less vegitation and is a predator tank more or less with my pbass and gars. My question is, why is it my tanks have this stuff growin like crazy. All 3 tanks have different lighting so ive more or less cancled out that, and well im religous on my water perims. and use my master freshwater test kits twice weekly just because of my investments of time, money, and of course emotions with my babys lol. Does anyone have any ideas on controlling this stuff or atleast managing it? Or any additional information as well would be apprecitated. The attached picture is in my 36 planted, sorry it was taken after a feeding.so dont mind the blood worms.. But as you can see, its really obvious what im dealing with.

 

[bbortko]

When I have an issue like this I start doing 40-50% water changes every other day and replace my lamps if they are over a year old. This typically will fix the problem in a week or two. The algae grows because there are more nutrients in the tank than your plants need.

 

[peacock madness]

So i can understand the nutrients being over abundant, but why is it you replace the lighting? im running 3 diff lighting set ups, one for each tank, and well it seems that each one still manages to grow it. they range from the standard full spectrum old school florescent, up to a Coral Life compact t5 with double 10k's..should i just keep up with the water changes and go from there?

 

[bbortko]

Over time lamps loose power, the less light the less the plants consume nutrients. Sorta like humans getting fatter from being less active but consuming the same amount of calories

 

[peacock madness]

ok i was thinking on the lines of over powered lighting makin an algae bloom and so forth, well i guess its true, u really never stop learning..