How to get rid of Hair Algae???

[saugata]

Hi! All,

Following is my tank specification:-

1. Size-20G (Actual water volume-18G)
2. Light - 108 watts of PLL @ 12 hrs/day
3. pH- 6.5 +/- 0.2
4. CO2- Pressurised @ 3 bubbles/sec diffused through DYMAX Reactor
5. Filter - Eheim Professional 2224
6. Ferts (Macro) - Dosing 5 mls of KNO3 (stock sol. of 100 mls with 3 teaspoons of KNO3) on every second day after checking the Nitrate level.
7. Ferts (Micro) - No Trace Elements to avoid Hair Alage
8. KH - 5
9. Fauna - 2 medium size orandas
10. Water Change: 50% every week
11. Flora: Java Fern, Anubias Nana, Anubias Afzeli, Amazon Sword, Nuphur Japonica, Lily, Echinodorous osiris, Baby Tears, Vallesneria, Ludwigia etc.
12. Substrate - 3 inches of Calcium free sand with 2 mugs of laterite as the bottom-most layer
13. PO4 level - 0.5
14. NO4 level - 5 to 10 PPM
15. Water Change: 50% once a week

How to fight the Hair Alage that is present in almost 90% of my plants and also seems to spread on the equipments? Any help woul dbe highly appreciated.

Regards,

Saugata

[|squee|]

Welcome to AQ saugata!

You need to dose trace elements. Dosing trace elements doesn't cause hair algae. I dose trace elements every other day and my tank is almost hair algae free. You're providing high light at long hours, trace elements are even more urgently needed.

Meanwhile manually remove as much of the hair algae as you can. If it's too much trouble, I'd highly reccomend that you throw away all those infected plants and buy new ones en masse and plant.

[saugata]

Hi! Terence,

Thanks for your reply. But then I am totally confused as I have read at many places on the Net that there shouldn't be any dosing of micros in case there is Hair Algae outbreak. I guess what this really means is that dosing micros will not cause Hair Algae however, it hair alage is already there one shouldn't dose any more micros as it will become more prolific.

Your comments pl.

Regards,

[|squee|]

Imho, that's true to a certain extent. Algae already present will use those nutrients, however if you limit the nutrients, plants will suffer (plants need higher levels of nutrients than algae) and if plant health suffers algae has a even bigger advantage. That's why I asked you to remove as much of the present algae as you can, while correcting conditions for the plants.

[saugata]

I got it. But removing manually is quite difficult as almost 90% of the plants are covered with it. Can you suggest some way by which I can remove them? Will start dosing of micros as per yoru advice.

Rgds,

[bclee]

1. Clear as much algae as you can manually.

2. Do a big water change.

3. Lower your lights level. Your lights are too high. You can do with 1/2 or 2/3 the level of light you have now.

4. Check your CO2 distribution round the tank. Make sure you have a good circulation. If possible, try pushing the CO2 a tad higher.

5. Dose ~5ml-10ml of the KNO3 solution you have 2x a week. Dose a tiny pinch of KH2PO4 at the same time. Dose your traces too.

6. Keep up with the water changes.

Additional: add some shrimps, they are good at keeping the hair algae in check.

BC

[|squee|]

That's why I suggested that you remove the plants instead of painstakingly removing the algae. But if you do remove them, you have to plant in back the same mass of plants or more.

[aquarius]

Why not do a COMPLETE black out for 2 days than do 50% water change and dose whatever ferts you need to dose. It worked for me but sadly don't know why after a week or two the stupid algae returned again!

I've stopped doing the blackout cos i'm afraid that doing it too often will kill my plants. I just don't seem to be able to get rid of this algae permanently.

Water parameters are as follows
1. Tank size : 3ft x 1.5 x 1.5
2. Kh4
3. CO2 : to fast to count the bps
4. Ph b4 lights on : 7.5
5. Ph b4 lights off : 5.6
6. Lights : 39W x 3 T5 with parabolic reflectors
7. Water change : 40% every week

Fert regime
TMG : 8ml
KNO3 : 10ml plastic spoon
KH2PO4 : 5ml plastic spoon
Seachem Iron : 2ml

I add half the dosage for KNO3 and KH2PO4 every 2 days and it still doesn't help. Would appreciate if anybody can advise.

[Plantbrain]

I use an intergrated management approach much like weed control in agriculture.

Each thing I suggest is like a little hammer beating the algae down.

CO2. This is a huge issue.
Manual removal
Water changes: algae do not like them, plants do as a rule
Good nutrients: favors the plants.
Add herbivores.
Some folks use Excel or H2O2.
Clean equipment completely.

All the work involved in manual removal is not good if you do not correct the CO2/nutrient issue though..........you have to do that first, then do the other things. Otherwise the new spores will keep germinating and growing. You stop the spores from growing, you stop the algae.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[bclee]

I got it. But removing manually is quite difficult as almost 90% of the plants are covered with it. Can you suggest some way by which I can remove them? Will start dosing of micros as per yoru advice.

Rgds,

I think there is no other way, except maybe to use H2O2 as Tom mentioned. The algae will not disappear by itself.

But if you tank is 90% covered by algae, the amount of H2O2 to use is going to be hazardous to the fishes. Therefore, I shall not recommend it.

The key is to give the plants the edge over the algae.

If you dose the nutrients without removing the algae, it is going to feed both the algae and the plants.

The trick is to make it difficult for the algae. Remove them, scrape them away, add algae eaters (yamato shrimps, SAE, etc.), ...

Once the plants settle in, they should keep the algae away...

BC

[bclee]

Why not do a COMPLETE black out for 2 days than do 50% water change and dose whatever ferts you need to dose. It worked for me but sadly don't know why after a week or two the stupid algae returned again!

I've stopped doing the blackout cos i'm afraid that doing it too often will kill my plants. I just don't seem to be able to get rid of this algae permanently.

Only apply the blackout method for BGA and greenwater... The other types of algae are too tough to be beaten back by blackout.

BC

[aquarius]

Only apply the blackout method for BGA and greenwater... The other types of algae are too tough to be beaten back by blackout.

BC

I did the blackout for the hair algae and though it did not kill them, all of it dislodge from their host and were sucked up by the filter. After the blackout, you can see all the hair algae stuck to the inlet tube. It was not sucked in by the filter because i use a green mesh to rap round the inlet tube to prevent the shrimps from being sucked in by the filter.