Getting rid of hair algae by blacking out?

[yhbae]

I just read an article that talks about how to remove hair algae.

His suggestion is as follows:

1. Clean as much hair algae possible using hand.
2. Using a black plastic garbage bag, cover up the tank for 3 days! Fish and plants stay there. Apparently no peeking.
3. After 3 days, do 50% water change. Algae gone.

Would this work? Not sure what is the theory behind this.

 

[yhbae]

And there is one guy who tried it and apparently worked!

 

[SilverDollarMan]

Ive heard about that with green water, but it should work, all algae need light

 

[jm1212]

works well for all types of algae. a scraper is usually enough for hair algae though.

 

[Jalo Reefa']

The theory is... no light = algae dies... large water change=reduced nitrate=no food for algae. Take away its light and its food, it goes away. Pretty common solution, but make sure you explain it in detail to the fish first, wouldn't want them thinking they'd gone blind.

 

[yhbae]

The tank I setup recently has some hair algae. It came with the plants I purchased. I noticed that hair algae is blooming so I decided to start research again.

My tank has zero nitrates - plants seem to suck all of them in even though there aren't that much plants. They are either Java moss or Java ferns.

I cannot hand-remove hair algae from Java moss. Possible with Java ferns but trying to untangle hair algae from Java moss is an exercise of futility...

Oh and other tank parameters:

- 20g long tank with 30x12 footprint
- powered by 2 x 23w conventional compact fluorescent bulbs/stands for now. They are 6500K bulbs but I suspect this will count as less lights than 46w bulbs under the hood. Bulbs are about 5 inches from the surface.
- No fertilizers or CO2.

 

[shawnhu]

Me thinks some DIY CO2 may help in this situation. The hair algae will return. I'm told that hair algae likes low movement waters, and that java moss enjoys higher water movement areas. I suspect that your moss is not seeing much current at all, and the bulk of the hair algae is on stems and the moss.

 

[yhbae]

I _think_ there should be enough current - after all, this tiny 20g tank is powered by Eheim 2213 which is meant to be for a bigger tank. I intentionally placed the spray bar somewhat vertically in such a way that it would create a whirl pool effect if you look at the tank from the top. I could visibly see fishes either swimming into or against the current in most parts of the tank.

It is useful to know that moss likes high current and algae likes low current. May be I can either change the location of the spray bar or change the location of the plants a bit.

 

[steveywinet]

The blackout worked for me but it took 5 days as opposed to 3.

 

[yhbae]

The blackout worked for me but it took 5 days as opposed to 3.

What are the signs? Do hair algaes turn brown when they die?