Hair Algae

[phil lock]

My tank is infested with little clumps of green hair algae ,im on my second bottle of treatment which doesnt seem to be working . the worst areas are the bottom of the tank were its attaching itself to the gravel and as fast as i scoop the individual affected gravel out it seems to be there the following day.
I just cant get rid of it. I do weekly 50% water changes and the light is on for 10 hrs ,i have quite a few plants in the tank and half of these are affected. when it gets to bad i replace the plants. its a 120 litre tank with a built in filter and ive added a second one . i also have an air stone running .
Any ideas would be most welcome.
Regards Phil

 

[Dave Spencer]

My tank is infested with little clumps of green hair algae ,im on my second bottle of treatment which doesnt seem to be working .

Forget adding treatment, it will not get to the root cause of the problem and it won`t be doing your plants any good.

the worst areas are the bottom of the tank were its attaching itself to the gravel and as fast as i scoop the individual affected gravel out it seems to be there the following day.

Keep up the hard work. You have to keep hassling this stuff.

I just cant get rid of it. I do weekly 50% water changes

50% water changes every two or three days will help a lot.

i have quite a few plants in the tank and half of these are affected. when it gets to bad i replace the plants.

Your best bet would be to remove the affected leaves and add fast growing stem plants such as Rotala sp.

i also have an air stone running .

All this will do is drive off any CO2 you have in the water, which is detrimental to your plants.

How many Watts of light do you have?

Do you add CO2 or fertilisers?

I am asking these questions because it could be that your best line of attack on the algae is with your plants. Algae is best kept suppressed using a mass of healthy plants.

Dave.

 

[phil lock]

My tank is infested with little clumps of green hair algae ,im on my second bottle of treatment which doesnt seem to be working .

Forget adding treatment, it will not get to the root cause of the problem and it won`t be doing your plants any good.

the worst areas are the bottom of the tank were its attaching itself to the gravel and as fast as i scoop the individual affected gravel out it seems to be there the following day.

Keep up the hard work. You have to keep hassling this stuff.

I just cant get rid of it. I do weekly 50% water changes

50% water changes every two or three days will help a lot.

i have quite a few plants in the tank and half of these are affected. when it gets to bad i replace the plants.

Your best bet would be to remove the affected leaves and add fast growing stem plants such as Rotala sp.

i also have an air stone running .

All this will do is drive off any CO2 you have in the water, which is detrimental to your plants.

How many Watts of light do you have?

Do you add CO2 or fertilisers?

I am asking these questions because it could be that your best line of attack on the algae is with your plants. Algae is best kept suppressed using a mass of healthy plants.

Dave.

 

[Sysiphus]

Amen to all of the above and as a survivor of a hair algae attack I can recommend that if you fertilize you add potassium to your fertilizer regimen. I have helped a couple of people beat back green and brown algae by increasing their weekly dose of potassium to the tank. It seems to allow plants to compete very well against algae (even hair algae). I was getting some strands off my pump inlet that were 4 or 5 inches long. Some of it was even coming out in deadlocks!!!

The Siamese Algae Eaters seemed to be working on it, but sometimes I was not sure if they were playing with it or actually eating it. Anyway the potassium turned the corner for good on this and most other algae in my tank.

 

[Sysiphus]

OO here is a before and after:

Now you can see the stump and the algae gets less every day!

 

[nry]

Curious, I am dosing EI and have been for ~5 weeks now. I am only dosing Mono Potassium Phosphate and Potassium Nitrate at present but have got a fair build up of hair algae now, possibly triggered by unstable CO2 whilst I moved from DIY to pressurised. I wonder if it is worth me dosing Potassium Phosphate aswell?

 

[themissingelf]

Curious, I am dosing EI and have been for ~5 weeks now. I am only dosing Mono Potassium Phosphate and Potassium Nitrate at present but have got a fair build up of hair algae now, possibly triggered by unstable CO2 whilst I moved from DIY to pressurised. I wonder if it is worth me dosing Potassium Phosphate aswell?

Do you mean Potassium Sulphate (K2S04)? If so, I'm similarly curious about the answer to this question...

 

[nry]

Curious, I am dosing EI and have been for ~5 weeks now. I am only dosing Mono Potassium Phosphate and Potassium Nitrate at present but have got a fair build up of hair algae now, possibly triggered by unstable CO2 whilst I moved from DIY to pressurised. I wonder if it is worth me dosing Potassium Phosphate aswell?

Do you mean Potassium Sulphate (K2S04)? If so, I'm similarly curious about the answer to this question...

Yep, sorry, potassium sulphate