hair algea going crazy

[panboy]

theres algea growing on my water wysteria. its long and i guess its caleld hair algea. its not growing on any other plant. how do i stop it?
its raelly making my plant look bad
thanks

 

[tstenback]

The hair algae probably came in on this plant and that is why it is only on this plant for now. You can remove it machanically by taking a filter brush and winding the filaments around it until it pulls away. Then you could try the Bleach Treatment to rid the plant of it or it will come back and quickly. In fact it may be a good idea to treat all the plants that way. Algae can be a pain to remove Good Luck

 

[Bangin]

Do you have CO2 injected into that particular aquarium? I only ask because I had a bad hair algae problem that went away shortly after the introduction of CO2.

 

[panboy]

nope, no c02, all i use is light and a little bit of fertilizer every month or so

 

[Bol]

Seems that different people call algae different names sometimes.

If the algae you have is green, and some is quite long (say, three inches up to 12 inches), then although some sources call it hair algae, others call it "thread algae".

No matter what the name, if this is what you have, then to the best of my knowledge it is usually caused by an excess of iron.

 

[panboy]

its not that long, more along 1 cm.

 

[Silly me]

ok is it 1cm long and dark green to almost black??

 

[panboy]

yeah its a dark color, pretty much dark green

 

[tstenback]

does it look like the bristles on a brush?

 

[panboy]

nope, more like hair, waves in the water.

i did the bleach treatment, and its now rubbing off really easy.

but would it still be safe to put it in my tank making sure it wont affect my other plants?

 

[Bol]

Affect your plants how?

If you mean will the treated algae spread to your other plants, then I would guess that depends on how well the bleach dip worked.

If you mean will the residual bleach hurt your plants, probably not, but it won't help your fish (if there is some residual bleach). From what I've read, I ended up using this procedure for a bleach dip, and things turned out fine:

I rinsed the dipped plant in tap water quickly, and then rinsed them in a bucket of water with a triple dose of dechlorinator, making sure at the end that there was absolutely no hint of a bleach (chlorine) smell.

 

[panboy]

yeah its actually been soaking in dechlorinated water since yesterday.

and yeah i was wondering if it would spread to my other plants.. i dont think so anyways, since it pretty much seems the algae is dead as it falls off even if i wave the plant in the water.