Hair Algae-what's the permanent solution?

[StanChung]

Don't know how i got this algae but it seems to come with mosses and fern roots. Once it's in the tank, almost everything gets it.

I've tried removing infected plants and doing 10% bleach dips[30secs] but that only sends it into remission.
Nothing eats it and it grows fast.
The annoying thing is it breaks easily to float and infect wherever it lands.

The only good thing about it is it doesn't damage the plants and it's fairly invisible in wide shots.

So, since I have excel, peroxide, clorox and phyton git, i'll detail my experiments on my favourite algae.
Stay tuned!

[PeterGwee]

You need to be unforgiving to this algae and remove all traces of it be it trimming off infected parts of plants or removing the entire plant if you want to get rid of it. Like a lot of algae, they do well once established and grow well like plants in good condition. Killing them off is what you should do and correcting the condition would prevent future inducement.

Regards,
Peter Gwee

[KeIgO86]

You need to be unforgiving to this algae and remove all traces of it be it trimming off infected parts of plants or removing the entire plant if you want to get rid of it. Like a lot of algae, they do well once established and grow well like plants in good condition. Killing them off is what you should do and correcting the condition would prevent future inducement.

Regards,
Peter Gwee

Agreed. They should be removed on sight before their mass reaches a significant size. When they do, they will be spreading like wild fire and will never stop.

[Jungle-mania]

Like what Tom Barr always says, get your nutrient level right. Work for me with my green hair algae.

[StanChung]

Ah! Thanks for the replies.

1. First of all, I suspect my error was keeping marimo balls. There could have been mutation or transfer. The texture of this algae feels like cotton fibre when you pull on it. I have pix from the gallery here...

2. This is a problem that persisted for over a year +. I tolerated it since what could be seen was easy to remove.

3. Quite sure it's got nothing to do with nutrients etc. I always do Brighty K day one and day two step 2 or ECA. WC is regular. Every 7-10 days. Maybe once without CO2 for two days. That's it.

So since I don't want to tolerate it anymore I'll just do a few experiments for the benefit of everybody. [It's making my moss look yuck!] Hate that!

Perhaps somebody's done this before.
BTW, I'm not really sure it's Clado. Have a look.

[PeterGwee]

I would say ADA's line of product dosing is towards the lean side (No NO3 nor PO4? except in the later Step series I think). It's up to your personal view on that but if you feel you can live with that algae, I'm fine with it. Seriously, it either has to be the nutrients or CO2 and since you cannot be sure on both, you have a problem. We can rule out nutrient deficiency by dosing at max uptake rate (EI method) and all that is left is CO2 issue.

Regards,
Peter Gwee

[StanChung]

I would rule out CO2. The plants near diffusor is coated with mist.
This thing is ok for the first few months but it also means all my moss are fit for the bin.
So yes, I'm gonna make an effort to clean it out of the tank. 100%.
Nutrient wise there's occasional GSA on the glass and BBA on the filter out but nothing serious that would stunt plants badly.

BGA is a fine dusting on the white sand last two weeks so that was a clue for me to dose Green Brighty Lights Special.

[valice]

Seems like you are on the full ADA system.
So nutrients can also be ruled out since Green Brighty Lights take care of the NO3 and PO4 that we usually know in the EI system.

[StanChung]

Agreed. They should be removed on sight before their mass reaches a significant size. When they do, they will be spreading like wild fire and will never stop.

Hmmm the thing is, my tank is so welcoming to this fella that it just loves the conditions in there.
Just a small fragment and it will grow into a bunch in two weeks. grr.

Like what Tom Barr always says, get your nutrient level right. Work for me with my green hair algae.

Yes, but i believe it doesn't care. No nutrient, it goes on stasis, got nutrient- yay! lovely!

[PeterGwee]

Seems like you are on the full ADA system.
So nutrients can also be ruled out since Green Brighty Lights take care of the NO3 and PO4 that we usually know in the EI system.

How much of NO3 or PO4 is there in the Green Brighty Light series is the issue. Amano's tap water standard is another (is it another source of NO3 or PO4?).

It is hard to convince one if he is confident that he never falls.

Regards,
Peter Gwee

[StanChung]

I seriously don't think nutrients are the issue and even Tom says they don't compete in a similar race for plants.

If you really want to analyze it, it's like getting a pest that flows and ebbs with the tide. I'm just saying it loves it when I overdose the nutrients ala EI. As I'm only on medium hi lighting 230W 72G for 8 hours, with mostly ferns and mosses it's should be GSA and slow algae overgrown in my tank but they're not.

No I don't have an outbreak. It's just something I'm going to rid of permanently-physically and chemically.[dips]

[KeIgO86]

It doesn't look like claudophora to me. It looks too stringy and soft. Claudophora that I have encountered usually form in rigid tangled messes.

[valice]

How much of NO3 or PO4 is there in the Green Brighty Light series is the issue. Amano's tap water standard is another (is it another source of NO3 or PO4?).

It is hard to convince one if he is confident that he never falls.

Regards,
Peter Gwee

Who never falls? Amano? or Tom?

But we all can see the end results of his tank based on the full ADA system. Even for tanks features in the ADA competition. Most of the winners are using the ADA system when it comes to fertilisation.

Remember the ACU people from Hong Kong? Quite a few of them are using the ADA system and we still lush growth. Deficiency?

Can't be that Hong Kong's water also got high NO3 and PO4 right?

[StanChung]

Thanks for the thoughts.

Keig, I really don't think it's clado either. I've got clado in my marimo ball tank. It spreads from the ball. Perhaps it's trying to create another ball? hmmm. I don't have problem with this. My CRS will love it.

Valice, I agree with you that it's a general statement by Tom that the ADA system is on the lean side and it's probably based on what dosage that's written on the packaging.
In the aqua journals, Amano doses a lot of ECA in his tanks, and I think it's incorrect to say ADA system is on the lean side. It really depends on the type of plants and your lighting.

Anyway, mine's mostly shade plants plus med-high lighting and I'm not rich... and I'm only on 8 hours lighting a day

[StanChung]

Ok here's the results of the semifinals of chemicals vs hair algae.

ADA Phyton Git-does not kill [after 4 hours]
Seachem Flourish Excel-does not kill [after 4 hours]
Peroxide-H202-does not kill [after 4 hours]
Only left over 12 hours the HA changed from dark green to medium green.
Chlorine bleach-Takes only seconds to kill the fella straight off the bottle! Whitens in minutes and disintegrates! YAY!!!

Winner is hands down your familiar and cheap household Chlorine Bleach!

Next step in experiment is to determine exact amount + time to administer lethal dose for plant dips!

[grey_fox]

Really all out to rid the hair algae huh Stan?

[PeterGwee]

Plant tissue damage is more likely and the plant leave would not do much good later either if you dip them in bleach. It would be more of a substrate for algae to attach to since the plant leave is unlikely to recover.

Regards,
Peter Gwee

[hii]

everytime I got hair algae, I reduce the light and do blackout for 2-3 days. It help to reduce hair algea.

I guess we all have to experience something to become more expert. I never have green water for 2 yrs in planted tank and unlucky new setup have this problem after I setup 1 month ++ very sad...

[StanChung]

Greyfox-Muahaha! Going mad already so might as well take it out on the hair algae!It's tiresome to comb this fella out every week.

Peter-I'll need to do it together with mosses, ferns etc. so that the approximate dose and dip time can be noted down.
Some tissue damage is expected. It is hoped that the algae be killed to the last cell so that it may not hang on to any leaf, branch or root.[especially ferns] I'm not hopeful for the mosses as I'd expect it to be almost as fragile as the algae.

Hii-Blackout does help if it was infected mosses. friend says he kept his mosses in the fridge for a month and the hair algae was dead but the mosses survived. I've got some infected mosses in the fridge for two weeks already.

[grey_fox]

Hehe Stan, can see you are waging war on the hair algae in your tank. I only had hair algae once, when I first setup my tank. Probably due to an already infected bunch of mosses. Think I've documented this somewhere in the forum when I first joined.

After clearing up the moss (dumping it all away), going E.I, the growth of the hair algae is minimal, if there is, probably obscure enough to just pick them out. All I know is that once you get hair algae in the moss, getting all of it out will do this to you >>

However, something else I've noticed, going low-tech during my wedding preparation/honeymoon trip duration, my tank was literally algae-free, I of course reduced the lights down from 8 T5HO tubes to just 4, I remembered seeing BBA attached to some of the java ferns before going through my rites. I got my dad to help with the feeding of fishes + top up of water but no dosing of fertilization, CO2, or water-change done. When I came back from my honeymoon trip, I found that the tank, although having skinny looking plants and whatever algae that was previously present, had disappeared.

Also it solved my green dust algae problem I had before going low-tech. I've switched back to the "high-tech" end and will have to eyeball the condition.

Now I've got peacock + taiwan moss in my tank and of course, this time, being more careful, will lookout for visible signs of foreign items (algae & bladderwort weed) attached to these mosses/plants that I have before attempting to plant/tie them down.

Looking forward to the next installment of your experiment.