Brown hair algae and skimmer question
 

I have recently had a brown hair algae outbreak, my tanks been running for about 6-7 months now although it was seeded with my prior tank which was running for over a year. My protein skimmer has never actually collected anything and actually does not produce a foam or bubbling, at first i thought it was cause there was nothing to skim but now that i have this brown hair algae outbreak there has to be something in the water for it to skim does it not? iv never had to empty the tray or anything like that.

What kind of skimmer?
No foam at all?
Is it sucking air? Venturi could be plugged

What are your params?

Time for a WC to help with the nutrients

Not a skimmer if it doesn't create skimmate or bubble. Pump prob doesn't work

It depends. My Aquamax only skim from time to time in my 30 gallons mantis tank. When I stir the sand it skim, then it can go for many hours without producing any skimmate. This is what happen when the skimmer outperform the aquarium and the bioload.

So the amount of organics in the water must reach a certain concentration before the skimmer start to skim again, problem is that diatome and other algae need only trace of organics to grow, whereas the skimmer probably need a higher concentration to have a good foam head.

I do get a little bit of diatom on my glass but since I don't have lights on my mantis tank it's not too bad. I recently added some fish and it skim more but still not all the time, and it is many hours per day without producing any skimmate. I tried 2 skimmers with the same result, a deltec 300 and the aquamax.

What is your aquarium size, skimmer brand and capacity and bioload?

If your skimmer never produced anything there must be something wrong because it is surely broken in after 6 months. Must be a too powerfull skimmer for a too low bioload?

FYI. Post a pic of your brown hair algae.

My "brown hair algae" turned out to be dinoflagellate.

And it is very toxic to fish if disturbed. I tried cleaning mine and it went poorly.