hi guys.. you guy's dear planted tank having too much hair algae? as i guess HA(hair algae) being one of the most common algae in tank. i have a great and cheap way to deal with it.
many of you would think of using the famous yamato.
but well.. i bought 10 big big piece for my 2ft. most of my hair algae on my gu jing, blxya japonica, us fissiden and HC are still intact even after having 10 big yamato in the tank over 1 week.
just yesterday. i bought 50 piece of small malayan shrimps at less than a green note at c328. after dropping them in my tank. they immidiately get to work.
to my greatest surprise. this morning woke up at 9am. and found most if not ALL of my hair algae on my plants being totally cleared. within less than 24hours, compared to 10 big yamatos in my tank for 1week.
just a simple writeup by me being shocked by malayan shrimps as such a fast algae cleaner. thanks
Glad that you use both malaya and yamatos to contain algaes. when you add the malaya shrimps, the lazy yamatos will immdiately work as they knew that malaya shrimps will makan all their food!
if you add another 500g-1kg of peat media(an effective algae reducer) for your canister filter...will improve for a long time.
i forget to add that, i remove the yamato once i added in the malayan shrimps. so its the malayan that cleared the algae.
anyway, wont the peat turn my tank yellow?
Your CO2 is either too low or you have not been dosing enough nutrients. They are main triggers of hair algae. I have not had that algae for ages.
Regards,
Peter Gwee
Plant Physiology by Taiz and Zeiger
i was told by a bro that bps of 2ft high lighting should be 1 bubble per 3second. i put it at 1bubble per 2 second. is it too low? and i dose wondergro ferts micro and macro+ using EI and dosing the exact amount with a syring..
Every tank is different and there is no fixed bubble rate. You need to dose accordingly to the amount of light. The drop checker would help but you must be able to differential the colour intensity among the green range as well. Do you have good current throughout the tank as well?
Regards,
Peter Gwee
Plant Physiology by Taiz and Zeiger
Evo,
Malayan shrimps more effective meh? They have been known to eat mosses if they go hungry, same as yamoto. I had 2 cherries in my nano tank months back and they cleared hair algae overnight as well.
If you want them to clean algae for you, probably have to stop feeding them.
petergwee : yes i agree with you.. i used to have the sera co2 test kit. used 4kH solution for the drop checker. at 1bubble per 3 second. it still shows me yellow which means i have too much co2.
mine is a manual regulator so on 24/7 attatched to a ADA beetle Replica ceramic diffusor which makes very mini bubbles.
and how do i dose according to the amount of light?
i have 2x36watt lighting over my 17gallon tank. and i used ehiem 2213(440l/hr) with rainbar.. please enlighten.
torque6 : i find malayan shrimps much more effective leh.. i only have us fissiden in my tank. no mosses.. so i don't really have to worry..
EvolutionZ, get as much of the hair algae off the infected plants by trimming and etc and then clean the filter (clogged? flow slowed down?). Drop the light down to 36w rather than 72w in total. Yes, the growth would be slowed down quite a bit but you can get algae free growth much easier since the demands for CO2 and nutrients are dropped as well.
For the CO2 part, hook the CO2 tube to a powerhead intake (get a powerhead with say 150-200 gal/hr) and hook the powerhead up to a timer. Remember to place the powerhead in an inverted position such that the intake is facing the water surface so that the CO2 bubbles would burp out to the surface when the powerhead is off. You can crank more CO2 in during the day then 24/7 with this method without a solenoid.
For the dropchecker, make sure to change the 4dKH liquid + reagent every 2 weeks or so.
Regards,
Peter Gwee
Plant Physiology by Taiz and Zeiger
thanks for your advice. but im growing HC and gu jing in my tank. dropping to only 36watt which is only around 2wpg is not enough for them. for time being, i'll use the malayan and manually trimming. thanks
Suit yourself then. I have tried to talk sense but non listens.
Regards,
Peter Gwee
Plant Physiology by Taiz and Zeiger
what do malaysian shrimps look like? My tank is haunted by hairgrass also =.=
Thats good then, i'll try 1 or 2 of them couple with 1 nerite once my tank stablises.Originally Posted by EvolutionZ
Peter, how to see if a tank has good current?
Any one has a few malaysia shrimp to share? Buying pack of 50 for my 1ft nano is too much
. I live in Clementi area
i willing to take 20 - 30pieces. but must see when i can collect from you.
I live in Clementi. Can buy at C328. I only take 2-4 shrimps only...
I didnt see any malayan shrimps, found a few packets of cherries, 1x yamoto and numerous orange shrimps.
Hi evo,
There is no way to eradicate them completely, however, i had tried and experiment it and I find this is one of the effective methods to reduce hair alage down by filtering the 4 ft planted tank through peat is to help the water softer and increase its acidity(water turns a little brown but will go away in 3-5 days).Hair algae infections will not multiply rapidly are controlled more naturally by the water chemistry like nitrates and phosphates had reduced.
Since you are using high lighting system, this method will help you as i using a powerful T5 7x54watt for my planted tank, now my glosso and red lotus grew rapidly with this water condition. But now i have to reduce my lighting system to 4x 54w for 7 hrs to slow down the plant's growth.
hope this help you.
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