How to combat hair algae

[Yeaulman]

Just wondering how everyone in here gets rid of hair algae or better yet, how they not even get it introduced into the tank.

I read on a site that the hair algae should be removed by removing the entire leaf. I did that on the plants that had the algae and it is still growing. My concern is... if I up the CO2, will the algae be taking the CO2 or will the plants be trying to out-compete with the algae?

Any help is appreciated muchly

 

[Yeaulman]

I just got off the phone with a LFS and the guy there said that with the amount of light I have (130W 6700k) in a 48 gallon tank... I should cut back on the wattage to about 1 watt per gallon... but with the plants I have, they need high light to keep their color. So do I get a new lighting system with less watts or do I keep the hair algae and trim back a lot?

I am begining to get really frustrated with this hobby

 

[Nisha]

Try to cut down the hours that your lights are on. Usually 8-10 hours is sufficient and any more than that will support your algae growth.
Another option is to try a full blackout on alternate days to cut out the algae. This may impact on your plants or it may not. Some people recommend upto 3 days of light blackout but it will be too much for your plants.

Try not to get too frustrated. You just have to be observant and try to find the right balance of light/dark for your own tank. Also, if you're cutting down on light, you may not need as much CO2. It's all trial and error but you'll get there.

Hope this helps.

 

[Yeaulman]

I am down to 5.5 hours a day of light...

If I do go with a blackout period, do I do it constantly or just a one or two time tryout?

 

[pebbles]

hi , i have read that it sometimes helps to have a'break' during the day , turning the lights off for a couple of hours then back on again. pebbs

 

[Joviella]

I got rid of hair algae from my tanks by adding siamese flying foxes.They eat it!! Have not had a problem since.

 

[pebbles]

siamese algea eaters help a lot ,but depends how bad it is too start with , they certainly will keep it under control but my trio couldnt handle it without some help to clear it in the first place..

 

[CFC]

Hair algea is one of the biggest asthetic problems fish keepers have to deal with and once it is present it is very hard to deal with.

The first course of action is to reduce the nitrates and phosphates in your water source to cut off the algeas nutrient source, this can be done by using R/O water or by using one of the many pre filters available to filter them out of yur tapwater.

The next step is to cut down any water turbulance, hair algea thrives when there is a lot of surface movement on the water and the co2 is driven out of the water and replaced by oxygen. Remove any air stones or air driven ornaments and push any powerheads or filter outlets further down into the tank so that the water is gently moved around but there are no ripples on the surface. (note this is not recomended for heavily stocked tanks or those with large fish)

Thirdly reduce the lighting times down to no more than 10 hours a day, the use of a additional light tube which comes on for just a few hours during the day will counter act the plants having a lesser lighting period. For example have the usual 2 or 3 watts per gallon on for a 10 hour period but boost the wattage with the extra tube to 3-4 watts per gallon for 2 hours from 11am till 1pm.

Lastly hair algea seems to grow best (or worse) in hard alkeline water, by either using the R/O water or using peat filtration and co2 (or all 3) lower the pH and hardness of your water to a pH of less than 7 and a hardness of below 10GH.

Good luck with your algea problem, it is hard to beat but if you follow these guidlines you should see a marked difference in a couple of months.

 

[chkltcow]

Everything CFC said is spot on. Once you have it, you can either deal with it by just using a stick or something to kinda twist it around and remove it..... or if you can find Amano Shrimp, they'll eat it right up. My algae scraper is the cheap Petsmart kind, but it has a forked end to it... works SO well for taking out hair algae if I ever get it. It's like spaghetti

 

[luxum]

I had a problem with hair algae (the long type, not the short beard algae) before i switched my filtration type and restocked my tank. At the time, the pH was neutral, the nitrates were unmeasureable (only had 2 small Von Rio tetras left in the tank, and about half the plants as i have now, all low light types then), phosphates were low, and i wasn't overfeeding. Yet, there was still hair algae. At the time i was running the filtration in my Eclipse hood which is a very splashy biowheel affair. I switched to a canister and minimized surface disruption, and at the same time began a manual removal campaign, wrapping the hair algae on an old filter brush (old toothbrush works too), which causes the strands to pop off at the attachment point instead of breaking and leaving short pieces that can regrow. After about 2 weeks of removing any that i saw each day, it disappeared and never returned. At this point i ran my fishless cycle and restocked the tank. Haven't seen any since.

Because of my experience, i feel that the surface disruption and driving off CO2 (in a planted tank) is the greatest factor in hair algae control, because my parameters were otherwise well within normal ranges.

 

[Bangin]

I had a problem with hair algae once. I increased the bps of CO2, and decreased the amount of surface disturbance. You should try the same. As previously mentioned, surface disturbance reduces the amount of CO2.

 

[Yeaulman]

See here is my problem with the ideas that some of you expressed. I have a coldwater tank, and I am guessing that CAE's are a tropical fish. And as for amano shrimp.... I have some large calicos and black moors in there that would probably love to eat them up.