too much hairalgae?

[torque6]

Agree with eddy, after my research with BGA for the past couple of weeks, its true that algae dont do too well in acidic or softer waters, but as usual, each tank is different and some may experience varying results.

[raytan12]

but i have long hair algae, looks like thread, in my crs tank. feel like giving up. tried many ways to contain hair algae but can't... so will these shrimps help?

[alechim]

yamato helps

[raytan12]

this is the pic of the algae...
tried yamatoes but dun think they eat those algae.

[eddy planer]

hi raytan,

Its seems that you didnt read our replies to this thread carefully.

Tell us more about your parameter of your CRS tank? any plants, CO2, lighting systems, filters and water chemistry and so on..

we're all will try to help you...to overcome this pesky hair algae infection.

[raytan12]

pH 6.5
Temperature 22-23 degrees celsius
Tank size 2 FEET X 1 FEET X 1 FEET
CO2- 1 bubble per 3sec
lighting- 36 watts Pl tube, 8-9 hours a day
KH-0
Gh-30mg/L
NO2-0mg/L
No3-0mg/L
Plants- Morrimo Ball moss, FIssiden, Christmas Moss, Hairgrass, Blyxa Japonica
Filter - 2 canisters- both filled with Biohome Plus.
Left 2 CRS

[dialow]

my tank has quite bad hair algae problems. may i know where can i get the malayan shrimps (they seem to be v effective based on comments)? Ask C328 but they dont seem to have. Anywhere else i can get them? Thanks!

[WaterH2O]

dialow

How bad is bad? If the hairalgea is all over the tank than getting shrimps alone cannot help much. What is the spec of your tank?

[dialow]

Hi,

I've got a 1.5ft tank, PL light that's on for 9 hrs daily, CO2 for 9 hrs, dosage of trace elements, potassium and iron once every 2 days 9 (dosage of abt 5 ml). The hair algae are affecting my HC and other plants. Tried the manual method of removing them but my plants get uprooted whenever I try to do that.

[WaterH2O]

Watt of your lights?

[dialow]

i think it's 2 x 36W

[WaterH2O]

Bro I suggest you fill up the help feedback form in one of the sticky and start another thread so that you can gather more feeback.
Also need to know what plants you have in your tank and how much you plants you have in the tank, what fert you using etc.... So far from you have told me you only dose trace elements,potassium and iron. Plants need Macro elements such as Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potassium NPK for such to out compete. Fert may not be enough.

[torque6]

Just gave us a couple of shots like someone who posted his "very" bad attack of algae a while back.

[alechim]

Personal experience when starting up a new tank:

1. Never dose fert, leave the water column as lean as possible. Dose only after 4-8 weeks.
2. Plant lots of fast growing plants, so the extra nutrients can be absorb.
3. High lighting means a balance of high CO2 as well. (best to use drop checker to confirm if CO2 is sufficient in water column)
4. Make sure KH is at least 2-4ppm (aids in plant growth)

Recent my tank went through all the "wonderful" experiences. Thread/hair algae, green algae, staghorn, BBA.All because

1. I never plant enough
2. I dose at the very first day (Iron prompt thread/hair algae growth)
3. I had 3 x 24w T5 with only 1bps CO2. (insufficient CO2 and high lighting. Caused Green water boom)
4. Dose PO4 according to EI and even calculator. But BBA growth still.

Remedy:
1. I throw in floating plants.
2. Reset tank by doing 75% wc and dose leanly. Thread/Hair algae stopped growing. Threw in yamato and SAE to clean up the mess. Done in 2 days.
3. Reduce lighting to 2x24w T5.increase CO2 to 2bps. Green water stopped after another 50% wc.
4. Stopped dosing PO4, BBA growth reducing.

[PeterGwee]

What you are doing is plain wrong for some steps like not dosing. You will never limit algae even down to the ppb range. The plants will down regulate the needs based on the most limiting nutrient and you would not get best growth rate. Drain it's reserves further by limiting will kill it sooner or later.

Regards,
Peter Gwee

[alechim]

Okie. Because I tried many methods to zero in what is wrong and by not dosing PO4 actually minimise the growth. Therefore I thought PO4 is the culprit.