I have a big break out of black hair algae, I was wondering if there is any quick measures to take to get it of the plants? My tank is a 30g about 40% planted, and weak lighting due to confusion between me and a company. There is fish 3 gouramis, a few tetras, an chinese algae eater, and 4 silver hatchets.
Hair Algae
- Thread starter RSPirhana
- Start date
It's a tough battle. I've heard of some products that rid it, but I dunno what they're called and dunno if they work.
Phosphates are a big player. I had a terrible time with it in a tank with nearly 0 nitrates, yet phosphates were way high (due to it being in my well water and no R/O unit).
Just know that I've never seen a fast cure for it. I never did get it under control. When I moved from my previous place 4 years ago, I set up in another city with very different water and I haven't had any problems (though the tank went through a spell where I kept it brackish w/out plants).
Phosphates are a big player. I had a terrible time with it in a tank with nearly 0 nitrates, yet phosphates were way high (due to it being in my well water and no R/O unit).
Just know that I've never seen a fast cure for it. I never did get it under control. When I moved from my previous place 4 years ago, I set up in another city with very different water and I haven't had any problems (though the tank went through a spell where I kept it brackish w/out plants).
RSPirhana said:
Flourish excell is an excellent product, that helps kill this algae, but is not advertised to. Another thing to do is, raise your nitrates to help the plants out compete the algae or starve the algae. Excess phosphates can also cause this, which is often the result of over fertilizing or overfeeding.
Finally, chinese algae eaters are no where near as effective as siamese algae eaters as they get older. Siamese algae eaters are non aggressive, and often do a much better job on BBA.
The first thing to do though is to get some balance in your tank, with nitrates and phosphates.
What are your readings currently for Phosphates and nitrates? Also, how much lighting do you have? And, do you do C02 injection?
Mako said:
Actually, when i first had this problem i used Seachem Flourish Excell after some research, and to my surprise, it killed 90% of the hair algae in my tank within a week. However, it came right back a month later, because i didn't get down to the root problem. Which happened to be not enough fertilization. After i got my pressurized C02 injection set-up, and started fertilizing regularily, my hair algae completely went away. I still add Flourish though from time to time........
I use both Flourish Excel and Pond Care Algae Fix. They have killed off most of the hair algae I had.