Lots of stringy algae!

Bender81

Bender81

AC Members
Mar 6, 2005
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Toronto
Just 1 day after a water change it starts growing again. This long stringy translucent, greenish-brown stuff. Looks kinda like seaweed. I can't really find anything like it on the web. I just can't believe how quickly it comes back after removing it, it's very unsightly stuff too. Here are my tank specs:

5.5g, 2x15W daylight bulbs.
Excel 2.5ml after a WC, 1-1.5ml daily.
1ml Tropica Mastergrow after WC, 0.5ml on 2 other days.
EI dosing of NPK, but about 1/2 the dosage 3 times a week on different days as traces.
 
How long do you leave the lights on?

My first guess would be lack of CO2, try increasing the dosage of Excel 2 or 3mL daily.

If that fails, increase your macro and micro dosage, having more is better than having less.

Cherry or amano shrimps will also help take care of the problem.
 
at almost 5.5 wpg you probably need a DIY co2 container with or in place of the excell.
 
get some SAE. they do the trick. also florida flagfish eat hair algae. mollies, platys, and most livebearers will too.
 
Possibly too much ferts and not enough CO2. I lowered my fert dosage and increased Flourish Excel (liquid CO2) and the hair algae stopped in about a month, now there is not even a trace of it in my tank. Excel prevents Hair Algae...
 
i have a horrible hair algea problem, i just picked up some black mollies because ive read in many places they will eat most any algea and even surface scum. so far they are doing a good job.
 
I see hair algae crop up when the Iron is in excess....If you dose Iron, stop for a while. Use a toothbrush to physically take off whatever you can, and prune and water change. Also, if you have the resources, dumo about 10 Amano shrimp in there, they are efficient little hair algae eaters and they don't add to the bioload~ IMO Cherrys don't go after it...you need the Amanos
 
I'm having a hair algae problem too. I'm at about 2 watts per gallon, and I was leaving my lights on for 12 hours a day. I've recently cut back to 7 hours, but so far no joy. I only occasionally (was weekly but more recently monthly) dose API Leaf Zone which I believe is potassium and iron, so iron could be the culprit. I just cleaned the tank and did a 50% water change. Any other thoughts?

justintoxicated said:
Possibly too much ferts and not enough CO2. I lowered my fert dosage and increased Flourish Excel (liquid CO2) and the hair algae stopped in about a month, now there is not even a trace of it in my tank. Excel prevents Hair Algae...
Click to expand...

According to his tank specs, he's been using Excel. If you think it will do the trick in my case, I'll pick some up ASAP. What do you think?

fresh_newby said:
I see hair algae crop up when the Iron is in excess....If you dose Iron, stop for a while. Use a toothbrush to physically take off whatever you can, and prune and water change. Also, if you have the resources, dumo about 10 Amano shrimp in there, they are efficient little hair algae eaters and they don't add to the bioload~ IMO Cherrys don't go after it...you need the Amanos
Click to expand...

Do you get your Amanos locally or from an online source? If it's online, I'd appreciate it if you could link me. Thanks!
 
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Cherries are ok for hair algae but you need a small army for them to be effective. They breed like rabbits anyway so it's no hard to get a colony growing. However the problem with adding critters is that they are not a magic cure. Most of them would rather eat fish food anyway and will only start at the algae if other food is in short supply. My cherries and amanos will stop whatever thay are doing and run out of their hiding spots to grab a stray flake and scamper away with it.

5.45wpg is not too excessive on such a small tank. What kind of plants are in your tank and how much plant mass is there?
 
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