I have a question about cycling. Can you have your lights on when you cycle your tank? My tank is done cycling and I had my regular light cycle on during the whole process. Now I have a lot of hair algae. I am debating to either cut out the lights for a week or so to kill the algae or just let it be. I don't plan on adding a clean up crew for another month or so. Thanks.

i cycled mine with the lights on...some snails ate up all the algae

I cycled with the lights off for that very reason. Algae blooms are a normal part of a tank cycle, but if it's going to be a while before you add a CUC, I don't see any harm in killing the lights to help get rid of it. Just keep in mind, as the algae dies off, it's releasing nutrients back into the water. Make sure your skimmer is running well, and keep up with regular water changes.

Thanks for the info. I will leave the lights off and kill the algea. I will plan on doing a couple of 25% water changes and have my skimmer running well.

How MUCH hair algae do you have? What size tank it this? I ask because if you have a lot of HA, even if you starve it for light, it can lay dormant and come back later. Most people have to "cook" their rock to rid it of HA. BUT, if you are going to have a lot of herbivores, to include tangs and such, you could be okay.

Dave

There is quite a bit of hair algae in my 90 gallon tank. The growth has slowed in the last week so it is using up all the excess nutrients. I don't plan on having corals in the tank for another few months and then I will start putting fish in a few months after that. My fish list does include a small tang. I am debating between trying to kill most of the hair algae now or just get a clean up crew to eat it. I know that I will not be able to kill it all but I figured that clean up crew and the tang would take care of it.

Keep the lights off. There's no need for them at all right now. If you are setting up a good clean up crew, and a tang, any that "sprouts" should be taken care of in quick time. The clean up crew, and tang, would not like the long, shaggy algae. As it grows, it probably becomes somewhat unpalatable. They tend to like it better as short shoots etc.

Dave

Thanks for all the help.