Hair Algae Starting To Outbreak! What Can I Do?

[aibo210]

Hi

I switched from my nutrafin kit to a pressurised co2 system this week and 2-3 days in im experiencing a hair algae outbreak! I dont have seachem florish excel to hand at the moment only seachem flourish im doing EI doseing and my lightings on for 8 hours a day.

Any ideas on how to calm it down in the meantime? its wreaking some plants closer to the light and is covering my spray bar

Carl

 

[fozziebear]

try and lower your lighting, it sounds like you have too much light for your co2 level, up the co2 and drop the lighting and keep on with your dosing, try and remove as much of the algae as you can, whipe the leaves with your finger and thumb to get the algae off, if they are too far gone then cut off the leaf, also keep up with water changes, maybe do changes 2 to 3 times a week, dosing after the change.

 

[Themuleous]

Any chance you could get some shrimp? They love hair algae.

Sam

 

[aibo210]

yeah I have amano shrimp but there lazy just clinging to rocks doing nothing lol. so dropping the lighting you mean time or intensity? I have 3 11w compact pl lamps in at the moment I can control them seperate.

 

[aibo210]

try and lower your lighting, it sounds like you have too much light for your co2 level, up the co2 and drop the lighting and keep on with your dosing, try and remove as much of the algae as you can, whipe the leaves with your finger and thumb to get the algae off, if they are too far gone then cut off the leaf, also keep up with water changes, maybe do changes 2 to 3 times a week, dosing after the change.

try and lower your lighting, it sounds like you have too much light for your co2 level??? I thought i would have plenty now im running a pressurised system with a glass diffuser? ive dumped my yeast based one I only had issues with hair algea soon as i switched.

 

[fozziebear]

are you sure your new co2 is working properly? basically it goes like this, you have to have an equal level of lighting to co2, if those are out of balance it = algae, id say check your setup make sure its all working, also what are you using to measure your co2 level? most algae problems in planted tanks are linked to co2 and lighting being out of kilter, basically too much light and not enough co2 the plants can only use the light if they have enough co2, you need a drop checker to get an accurate co2 level, also what pressurized co2 system are you using, 8 hours for your photoperiod is fine, id drop 1 tube for a while and see how that works, also up the co2 a bit but be careful not to add too much if you have fish in the tank.



ps. is there any way that there could have been ammonia/nitrites released into the tank, like a big substrate disturbance, that can also lead to algae.

 

[fozziebear]

sorry to double post but it wouldnt let me edit my post again, can you also give me a full rundown of what equipment you are using on the tank, lights co2 filter ferts and fish stocking, thankyou.

 

[aibo210]

sorry to double post but it wouldnt let me edit my post again, can you also give me a full rundown of what equipment you are using on the tank, lights co2 filter ferts and fish stocking, thankyou.

yeah sure im using disposable welding gas with a regulator and needle valve connected to a glass spiro 3000 diffuser from aqua essentials this is running when the lights are on im using PH/KH chart atm to cheak co2 as my drop cheaker aint arrived yet. The lighting is 3 pl 11w compacts makeing 33 watts so 1.9 watts per gallon i think? Im not sure if compacts are more powerfull then there rated wattage?

I got 6 fish and 12 amano shrimp

Lighting is on 2 till 10 co2 comes on hour befor

Im doseing 10ml kn03 and 5ml k2po4 sun,tue,thur
and 2 ml seachem flourish mon,wed,fri

rest day saturday 50% water change sunday.

 

[john starkey]

Hi there, the best hair algae eaters i know of are flying fox,s in a setup like yours four would do the trick but the secret is not to feed them every day that way they will be hungry and clear it up in know time, regards john

 

[fozziebear]

k one more thing what is the Kelvin rating of your bulbs? are they in the daylight spectrum (between 6000 and 10000k)

what i would do is drop down to 2 tubes for the same photoperiod and increase the co2 a little, judging the levels with a chart is notoriously tricky, once you get your drop checker it should be fine, basically the more light you have the more risk you have of algae and the quicker it grows, so dropping the lighting should slow the algae down even if it doesnt stop it completely.