How Do I Get Rid of Green Hair Algae?

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biondoa

biondoa

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My tank is just a little over a month old. Well planted and has fish in it. Not overstocked. There are a handful of snails who stowed away on the plants. All is going well with one exception. GREEN HAIR ALGAE! It is very unsightly and I hate it. Mostly it is growing on java fern and val. There is some growing on the Mopani wood. I have heard that certain shrimp will eat it. If this is true, are they the Amano shrimp, cherry shrimp or some other kind. I don't want a large growing algae eating fish since it's only a 20g tank.
All advice will be very much appreciated.
 
tanker

tanker

Josh Holloway--Be mine!!!
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Lights===, how much and how long are they on??
 
biondoa

biondoa

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Marineland LED plant lights with timer. Yes the tank is well planted.
 
vwill279

vwill279

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Amano shrimp are the ones that like green hair algae. Reducing photo period will help as will dosing with CO2. I had an issue with this a while ago in my 15 column. I had to remove huge clumps of it every week it would grow so fast. I bought 5 amano shrimp and now I dont have a problem. However, I also removed all of the plants and decore I found the algae on when I put the shrimp in. I doubt they'd be able to handle a major outbreak of algae and I cant confirm that they're the reason the algae hasnt really come back since I also shortened my photoperiod and started adding CO2 for the plants. Also, even though they're constantly picking at the driftwood and plants, I've never actually seen them eat the hair algae. And when I feed the fish, especially frozen foods, they abandon everything and fight over the flakes and frozen shrimp and worms. Which means that if you feed your tank frequently and more than the fish will eat, they will probably just eat that and not much algae.
 
jpappy789

jpappy789

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Feb 18, 2007
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Then I agree that 8 hours is probably a good enough photoperiod.

Are you dosing ferts or CO2 at all? According to this, the "Aquatic Plant Lighting System(s)" produce 172 PAR at 12", and 83 at 24". That's a lot of light.
 
biondoa

biondoa

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Just got 5 Amano today. No fertilizer or CO2, but do have fluorite substrate. We will see how the shrimps work out.
 
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