Fake Plastic that Grows Algae

[tbone212371]

OK this Just a question...
I have some ornamental Plastic stumps in my tank that constantly grow algae (Green Hair) on them..
But there is hardly any algae on my Live Rock nor on my dead ornamental hard coral...
Is this solely because they don't have enough live bateria within them like live rock does to battle the algae???
Just curious to get a little understanding on this...
These items are in my tank till I can afford more Live Rock.

 

[Hawkeye]

Green hair algae will pretty much find it's way on any surface - but it will be a lot faster on items that do not already have coralline or other algae growing. That stated, I've seen plenty of people with plenty of coralline have trouble with hair algae later. Hair algae is really just a symptom of an underlying issue.

The root cause of the hair algae could be: amount of food, bioload (poop) and frequency of water changes. Good luck!

 

[Phyl]

If the algae is growing primarily on the plastic, there's a chance that it is releasing phosphates into the water. I know when I put the plastic egg crate into my tank it grows hair algae instantly and then after a period of a couple of weeks the HA dies out and doesn't come back (PO4/food source depleted). If you've had the plastic in the tank for more than a few weeks and you're still seeing HA, I'd be inclined to remove it as there may be no end to the leaching of phosphates.

Is this "reef safe" plastic?

 

[mellowyellow4lyf]

I remember when i had plastic tubing in my fresh water tank as housing for Black Ghost Knife fish, the ph would sink to like 6.4 and i took me a good week to realize what was causing it.