black hair algae

[PumaWard]

I am looking for a "solution" to the black hair algae mainly present on my anacharis. It doesn't seem to be inhibiting growth of the plants, but it does look pretty bad. On top of that, brown algae grows over the black hair algae and makes it look even worse :mad:.

I would like to avoid buying fish if at all possible.

The problem is in my 38g. I am planning on buying 3 otos to combat the small amount of brown algae in the tank, buy they are it for me buying any more fish for it. There is 1.9w/g at the moment. I have 4 copper sensitve plants in the tank, 2 ozelot swords and two radican marble queen swords. I also have java fern, java moss, hornwart, 3 aponogetons, and featherwort in there. The are 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites, I don't know how many nitrates but I do 20% weekly water changes. I don't add any fertilizers and I don't do CO2 injections. Any ideas on how to get rid of the algae?

[Starry]

Yes, add CO2 and fetilizers! :)

Which you obviously don't want to do, so let's look at it another way. Is the algae only on that one plant? Then get rid of the plant, it's not particularly good looking anyway. But even so, you may get algae elsewhere. How old is the setup?

Really, you should consider CO2. Do you cook? 5 minutes in the kitchen once every 2 months or so, less if you're lucky. Then put it in the fridge overnight, take it out the next day, add 1/2 tsp yeast, and you're good to go. The only real effort is making your initial gadgetry, which involved drilling a hole the size of an airline, sticking the airline through so about 1" is inside, then seal all around to make it airtight. Stick an airsone on the other end of the airline, and it goes in the tank, somehow kept at the bottom. You can do something more sophisticated later on. Think about it. Here's the recipe http://aquaplants.web1000.com/art1.html I apologize if the site doesn't work, what can you expect from free servers.

Adding a little traces and some potassium will help a lot as well. Flourish products are good.

Good luck

[PumaWard]

The algae is on all of the anacharis... probably 16+ stalks of it.

The tank has been set since mid October. I haven't had any true algae blooms, just the persistant, slow growing stuff.

I would like to avoid fertilizing until this problem is over, and I'm not going to do CO2 until after Christmas (to be sure that I don't get a CO2 diffuser).

[PumaWard]

Are rosy barbs good for getting rid of hair algae?

[djlen]

Is this stuff BBA(Black Beard Algae)? I looks just like the name.
Very coarse black or dark brown stringy stuff or short coarse stuff that gravitates on the edges of the leaves? Very difficult to remove?

Len

[PumaWard]

It starts at the edges than works its way in. It's difficult to remove off the plants but not off the glass.