Hair Algae

[brian1]

Looks like I have Hair algae, got most of it off with turning a tooth brush round it,(wife's not mine.. )so will look again when I do my water change,I bought a new plant and think it must have been on that last week.....any suggestions welcome.....

 

[deftuch]

Looks like I have Hair algae, got most of it off with turning a tooth brush round it,(wife's not mine.. )so will look again when I do my water change,I bought a new plant and think it must have been on that last week.....any suggestions welcome.....

I recently posted a similar thread to this. Turns out i have black beard alage. There is some good advice on that thread from other member. Check it out on my content!

 

[daz4321]

Typical causes of hair type algaes are:
low CO2, low nutrient levels (or excess light which gives the effect of the previous reasons)and ammonia spikes. Nothing to do with excess iron as is sometimes commonly thought.
Removal
Can be very difficult to eradicate at times. A high plant load with good CO2 and flow of around 10x volume as well as a good supply of nutrients along with constantly removing the algae by twisting around a toothbrush or similar seems to pay off after a while. Overdosing Flourish Excel can help. Amano shrimps, Rosy barbs and mollies will often eat it.

 

[DrRob]

Aye, it's an unsightly pain. It's one of the major hassles with the higher tech tanks, with a tendency to like any imbalance between flow, light and CO2.

What are your lighting/plant/fertiliser set ups?

 

[daz4321]

Ewww I hate the term imbalance used in association of planted aquaria.

I tend to explain a planted tank to you in a car being chased by the police!!! explanation

police car = plants(particularly the light they require)
air drawn into your car engine = CO2
Fuel into your engine = Ferts
Finally your foot on the throttle/accelerator = lighting

the police car is at a certain speed / your plants require a certain minimum of light

to keep in front of the police car you must have air and fuel into your engine and must hold the throttle at a certain position to maintain speed / for your plants to grow you must have co2 and ferts to supply the plants the speed they use these is governed by the amount of light

if you accelerate too hard put your foot down you will use more air and fuel / if you have more light you will need more co2 and ferts
if you run out of fuel police catch you / if you run out of ferts algae grows
if you run low on air you slow down the police catch you / if you run low on co2 algae grows

the controlling force is the throttle/accelerator / the controlling force is the lighting (the limiting factor)

plenty of air and fuel will not cause the police to catch you / plenty of ferts and co2 does not cause algae


I am sure you get the idea.

Happy fishkeeping

 

[brian1]

Thanks guy's for your answers, I have read your post Deftuch, thanks, it does read similar,........

Dr Rob,
Baccopa & twisted Vallis Either Cabomba or Limnophila , Java Fern in font of it, and

Ludwigia, not sure about the lighting on the aqua 600 would need to look that up,the ferts are nutrafin plant grow



Dazz.... I like the car explanation, I have reduced the light and increased the ferts,to weekly instead of fortnightly, so will see what happens