Hair Algae?

[Mitch]

i've got this strange type of algae growing in my tank. its dark green and ripples slightly in the flow of the water. i was wondering if it could be hair algae. i'm not sure as i can't find any pictures of it any where. i heard that american flag fish are good in controlling it. is this true?

please help.

 

[aquamanis]

Goodaye Mitch, sounds like you do have hair algae. Florida flag fish are supposed to eat this type of algae but I don,t know if they are available in Australia or not. Have a look here to see what this fish looks like. Flag Fish

 

[benzonar]

I had a similar problem and after researching through the internet and speaking to my LFS I purchased a pair of Siamese Flying Foxes. They are munching through the algae at the moment and the tank is starting to look lots better after only two days.

They seem to love the thread algae. However when you are buying these make sure it is the Siamese Flying Fox you get as the other types don't touch the algae.

 

[Mitch]

i have read that the siamese flying fox does the job. do u no if they are any good with discus?

 

[Alien Anna]

i have read that the siamese flying fox does the job. do u no if they are any good with discus?

I'd imagine SAEs would be OK, provided the discus weren't too large and the SAEs weren't too small. Get a school though, since they are schooling fish. They grow to about 5" when adult.

The only real problem with SAEs is getting the correct species - they can be very hard to get hold of.

 

[Kossy]

I've also recently had a bit of an algae problem but the snails really have helped...what I did today was got a magnet cleaner (I've read here that there really good) so I got one and true THERE GREAT

 

[Rose]

The other thing you could do is get a bristle nosed pleco. They will eat every algae you can throw at them (except for the red algae). THey grow to about 5" and they can be kept as a single fish.

Rose

 

[benzonar]

Bristlenose will not touch hair algae though