Hair Algae on Moss?

DoN_WoN

Got Betta's?
Oct 16, 2008
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I had a little canopy on my 2.5 gallon tank and that lifted the light like 4 inches off the tank and my moss starting dyeing, so i took the canopy off and put the light on the tank like its supposed to be on. and after about 5 days my moss is alive and growing soooo good!!

BUT, there is hair algae growing on one part of it. during water changes ive been pulling it off but it grows quick,

what can i do to remove it???!?!. its an rcs tank too

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You can manually remove it with a toothbrush, and if you feel like living dangerously, try dosing some excel right on top of it. Beware of dosing excel on moss though, it could kill the moss as well.

When I had hair algae in some java moss, I bumped up CO2 and it all went away.
 
You can manually remove it with a toothbrush, and if you feel like living dangerously, try dosing some excel right on top of it. Beware of dosing excel on moss though, it could kill the moss as well.

When I had hair algae in some java moss, I bumped up CO2 and it all went away.


Interesting,,, How does Excel work to kill hair algae?

Thanks,
Steve
 
BTW, your snails looks pretty cool, what are they?

Steve
 
You can manually remove it with a toothbrush, and if you feel like living dangerously, try dosing some excel right on top of it. Beware of dosing excel on moss though, it could kill the moss as well.

When I had hair algae in some java moss, I bumped up CO2 and it all went away.
i dont have co2 its such a small tank and i dont wanna risk overdosing c02, any other ideas? what u mean by toothbrush its on the java moss not the wood
 
you just put the toothbrush(or any brush) into the mess of hair algae and start to twirl(like spaghetti on a fork).
 
The toothbrush works quite well!!...you WILL pull some moss out while doing it...IMHO that means you are doing it right.

Sometimes I have found you have to trim the top half inch or so off the moss to get more hair algae off...the moss grows back quick tho:)

It's kinda hard to keep ALL the hair algae off the moss once established...keep twirling and pruning and you should get it under control.

I keep a 'spare' wad of java moss in a ~2 g pretzel jar with no fish. perfectly clean but boring.
 
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Hydrogen peroxide works well for spot treatments also, and it breaks down into water and oxygen pretty fast too. Not a permanent solution though. You could try one of the little co2 systems that use the paintball cylinders for co2.
 
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