Help with hair algae!

[wtusa17]

This hair algae has taken over in my 20 gallon low low low tech tank. How can I get rid of it?

 

[Colin_T]

any pictures?

 

[wtusa17]

any pictures?

O yea sorry I forgot to include

 

[Gargantuan The Oscar]

My friend has had this sort of problem, I suggest taking the items with the hair algae on them, and start taking the algae off. Hope this helps!

 

[wtusa17]

My friend has had this sort of problem, I suggest taking the items with the hair algae on them, and start taking the algae off. Hope this helps!

I’ve tried. This stuff is very hard to get off. Does hydrogen peroxide work?

 

[PheonixKingZ]

No... I don’t suggest using hydrogen peroxide.

How long do you leave the lights on for? What are your water parameters?

 

[wtusa17]

No... I don’t suggest using hydrogen peroxide.

How long do you leave the lights on for? What are your water parameters?

Unfortunately I don’t have a timer but they are on for 12 hours. It’s been like this for the 7 months the tanks been running and I’ve never had an issue until recently. I’m not home but they are usually 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and about 10-20 nitrates

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Remove as much as you can by hand. Reduce lighting to 10 hours a day.

 

[wtusa17]

Remove as much as you can by hand. Reduce lighting to 10 hours a day.

Ok I’ll try.

 

[StevenF]

I struggle with this for years. Over time I learned it was caused by nutrient deficiencies. I have not seen it when nitrogen, phosphate, magnesium, chlorine, and molybdenum deficiencies. Meaning it is caused by calcium, sulfur, iron, manganese, boron, zinc, copper, What fertilizer are you using and what is your daily dose? Also how often do you do a water chant and how much water do you change out? My experience is that once the deficiency is corrected hair algae often melts away completely in a few days.

 

[wtusa17]

I struggle with this for years. Over time I learned it was caused by nutrient deficiencies. I have not seen it when nitrogen, phosphate, magnesium, chlorine, and molybdenum deficiencies. Meaning it is caused by calcium, sulfur, iron, manganese, boron, zinc, copper, What fertilizer are you using and what is your daily dose? Also how often do you do a water chant and how much water do you change out? My experience is that once the deficiency is corrected hair algae often melts away completely in a few days.

Ok. I just dose seachem flourish. Ik it sucks. I dose what’s recommended once a week after my 50% wc.

 

[StevenF]

I was also using flourish comprehensive. And i was using RO water (for very good reasons) and an inert substrate (quartzite). So in my case I needed a fertilizer to provide all the nutrients plants need. After working through multiple macro deficiencies and an iron deficiency I was stuck with hair algae, and no plant growth.

If you follow flourish comprehensive instructions according to a fertilizer calculator your water will have :
Ca 0.03082ppm
S 0.06105ppm
B 0.00198ppm
Cu 0.00002ppm
Fe 0.07045ppm
Mn 0.0026ppm
Mo 0.0002ppm
Zn 0.00015ppm

Note: I have not listed the N, P,K that are also in flourish.

There are 5 nutrients on the list that are dosed at 2ppm or less. Calcium and sulfur are only 2 of the macro nutrients . After doing some research on google I determined that the only element that was close to what plants need was iron (Fe). After looking around for a better fertilizer I gave up and tried to making my own based on information I found on the web.

i am currently making my own GH booster auto of calcium chloride, and magnesium sulfate (3 parts calcium to 1 part magnesium and generally maintain a GH of about 60ppm. As for the rest

B 0.02ppm (boric acid)
Cu 0.01ppm (copper sulfate)
Fe 0.1ppm (iron DTPA)
Mn 0.5ppm (manganese sulfate)
Mo 0.004ppm (sodium Molybdate)
Zn 0.02 (Zn sulfate)
All mixed in DI water with a ph of 5 or less (I add some citric acid to acidify the water )

Note I dose zinc at 133 times what flourish provides. Regular tap water will have some zinc and copper due to water pipes. many homes have close to 0.01ppm of copper in the tap water. Some people have even have much higher levels zinc and copper.

And then I maintain nitrate at 5ppm (potassium nitrate), posphate at 2ppm (Potassium mono phosphate). Since making my own micro fertilizer hair algae only shows up when I make a mistake.

If you are using tap water you might want to try aquarium coop easy green. It doesn't have Cu and Mo but that is probably not an issue for you if you use tap water.