Battling Hair Algae

[dnsfpl]

are these hair algae?



what is the root cause for such problem?
is pl 36w 6500k, 8 hours a day too much light for my tank?
what is the best way to clear them in a crs tank?
my NO3 is below 5ppm

some solution i gather

nuke with chemical eg seachem excel or h2o2 OUT
large water change OUT
add fauna to consume them are amano/yamato or malayan shrimp CRS friendly? any other type i can consider?
blackout for days good idea but might stress the plants

thinking of blackout + malayan shrimp + 1/2 recommended dosage of seachem excel

any better solutions?

thanks

[TyroneGenade]

I've read that the root cause is too much Iron and the best way to deal with this pest is manual removal + algae eaters (shrimp, guppies, rosy barbs, mollies) + water changes. You may want to increase the NO3 to help the plants take up the excess nutrients.

I am experimenting with Cabomba to deal with my hair algae woes... Cabomba is a rich source of allelochemicals to kill the algae. Myriophyllum is apparently even a better algae killer but can't be obtain locally.

Good luck in your battles with hair algae. If you find a way to win, please let me know.

[jiajuen900]

Hi, i had the same problem with a whole lot of algae in my 80L tank, especially with hair algae. What i di is probably not suitable for a tank with shrimps but may help. I bombed the algae with AZOO alage treatment along with blackout for a week. All my plants survived.

Did a 80% water change and cleared as much algae as possible and refilled water. Dosed ferts properly and added double dose of excel.

My hair algae turned from black to brownish green and most algae is gone now. No fauna died.

But excel is not the best treatment i cant see much improvement after adding it.

[barmby]

Tooth brush and elbow grease is the best for your kind of setup.

Btw, add:-

Hygrophila difformis is beautiful and undemanding. A plant for beginners which can help create a balance in the aquarium from the start. Its rapid growth helps prevent algae because the plant absorbs a great number of nutrients from the water. The shortage of micro-nutrients leads to pale leaves, which may be an indication that the aquarium needs fertiliser. In large aquariums its lobed leaves can create a distinctive group.

- from www.tropica.com

And try hortwort.

[dnsfpl]

added 20+ malayan shrimps and did a 3 days blackout

[Biofeedback]

haha, your before and after picture looked like you took out the bunch of HC

[TyroneGenade]

haha, your before and after picture looked like you took out the bunch of HC

I thought the same thing but am fed up of being accused of being a cynic...

Add some young/baby platies (variatus if you can find them) or mollies and see how that works. When young they are voracious feeders and don't turn up their nose to algae.

tt

[dnsfpl]

i did try to remove some manually, but give up
here is a better picture, 100% cleared

[mackeith]

does black out for 2 days clear these?

[jiajuen900]

Try black out for longer periods. But for hair algae blackouts are not the most effective.
I did it for 6 days with slight results. For hair algae, you can try overdosing excel, this does not work well for shrimp tanks.

[Rayong]

Hi bro i am having the same problem .

My tank is a CRS setup please advise how to get rid of the algae with out any risk .

Thanks....

[barmby]

Rayong,
1) Tooth brush and manual removal is the best for your request.
2) Add hortwort

[TyroneGenade]

Hornwort? What does it do, out compete the algae for nutrients?

[barmby]

Yes, hornwort. There is something about this plant. keep algae growth to a minimum.

[TyroneGenade]

@barmby

Well, I guess I will go home and put some hornwort in my planted tank and see if it can kill of my hair algae.

[barmby]

Just like filtration - It slow down pollution, It does not prevent pollution. Likewise in this case, slow down algae growth, it does not prevent algae growth. In the end, I still have to remove what is in there.

Hornwort ain't no silver bullet

[StanChung]

I believe if any of the plant growing 'elements' are missing with the exception of light, algae will start to grow.
The seed of the type of algae is present or not present depending on your luck. So when things go wrong those seeds will start to colonise your tank.

Just last week my CO2 tank was empty and I wasn't around for a week. Hair algae started to grow on the glass and I had started to get green water.
Luckily I have a spare CO2 tank. Quickly siphoned out the green hair algae from the glass and 50% WC. Plugged in the UVS and green water was stopped in two days.

[beetroot]

Hehe... hornwort can help? I dumped in some hornwort a few weeks ago to cycle my new tank - to absorb excess nutrients, and guess what... algae was growing on the hornwort too . Put in some malayan shrimps + yamato + water change and that reduced it tremendously, plus throw away some hairy hornwort.

[barmby]

DO NOT GET MISLEAD

No. UV will only kill algae that floats in the water column. It means it kills the spores only.

One I am very certain. Whatever that is already there, you have to remove it:- be it mechanically or chemical warfare.

Stanchung did was. Kill off the offspring (spores) by UV. Kill off the adult algae by manual removal

Beetroot did was. Manual removal by sending an army of shrimps to do it. one or two will not help of cos. For example, you buy a bag 100-500 shrimps, it will definitely conquer all.

It does not mean a certain shrimp species eat hair algae or etc. Just that they are too many and everyone eat abit. Algae just cannot propagate fast enough. Therefore, I always tell myself to slow down algae growth. The point is to work harder than the algae. If they are slow, it means I don't have to work very hard or spend money on more shrimps.

I was told by Gan Aquarium. Some Aquascape business people, simply buy Otocinlus and shrimps by the hundreds to nuke their customer's tank.

[TyroneGenade]

It would probably kill the spores and fragments that are in the water column.