Algae, help

[Agaller19]

I see what looks like lots of dying hairgrass leaves that need to be removed. I have always had trouble trying to grow hairgrass in a non co2 tank. I had many types of algae in it; hair, cyano & staghorn; diatoms too. Try to gently vacuum out all you can. If that doesn't help after several tries I would trim it low-ish to the substrate leaving only ~1/2 inch & vac some more.

Does the gray java fern algae "crud" rub off easily? I think I would cut off the severely infected leaves , right down to the rhizome. The newer growth looks ok. There could be some staghorn too, IME cyano doesn't usually look gray, it's called "blue/green algae for a reason (really it's a bacteria). Dead or dying BGA looks red (ish) most often to me.

I would NOT use rid-x in a tank either W/O a bunch more info on long term safety... At least you don't have any critters in there yet...there's only so much shrimp can do.

Like said, 5-6 hours of lighting is plenty. I'm lame at lighting but what are you using over what size tank?

I will definitely trim down anything that looks dead. A lot of the hair grass just “falls off” when it is touched so I will trim that down as well. As far as tank size its a 4 gallon with a standard uv light, I can’t remember the watts. Scrubbing a lot of the algae where I could seemed to help and cutting the lighting back is also helping. Because of the small tank size the best I could do is put a snail or something small in it. Also, my ph is too high to add shrimp, what could I do to lower ph in the water?

 

[fishorama]

What type of co2 & injection method are you using for such a small tank? I haven't tried that yet but someone will help, maybe you need more?

What is your tap & tank pH? IME snails need similar conditions as shrimp. It's a bit tricky with co2, it sort of artificially lowers pH...again others will help. I have soft water & neither snails or shrimp grow well, so I'll ask what is the GH & KH (both tap & tank)? Not any 1 "critter" will eat all forms of algae...having to adjust tap water pH can be a slippery slope...raising is much easier than lowering it...

More water questions: Are you on city or well water system? Water softener? Do you use fertilizers? What kind & how often? How often do you change water & vacuum? Any additives other than dechlorinator?

For right now since reduced lighting & vacuuming seems to be helping, I'd try that for several weeks, hopefully that will lead to long term fixes...