Algea so bad, it becomes good?

[fishboy]

I don't scrub algea off any tank walls but the front. The result has been a large amount of algea, and some on decor. Now the algea's being to die, and I think I found the cause, bigger competion. A large algea like substance has grown on my heater and seems to be taking the nutrients from the spot algea on the tank walls, as well as "suck up" old food that floats by, It doesn't bother me, should i leave it?

PICTURES:
My tank naturaly grew mossball algea? wtf?

Tank shot, algea on heater

[shev]

lol, no, unfortunately not "moss balls". or marimo moss balls, just a wadd of hair algae it looks like.


I had a terrible hair algae problem in my java moss, after established its a real pain to get rid of. I just grabbed as much as I could and stuck it into a tupperware container with little holes and floated it at the top. The algae stopped regrowing on my moss and I havent seen any at all. problem solved, well almost, now I have a tupperware container floating in my tank. like a mini refugium.

[Damon]

I would also remove it. While algaes depend on imbalance of nutrients, they perfer different imbalances. What is happening is the tank is stabalizing itself and thus the green spot is slowly dieing off, but there is a new imbalance in a nutrient(s) that has triggered the growth of hair algae. Livebearers eat it. Otherwise remove it.