How to Kill Hair Algae?

echoofformless said:
Don't go on a chase for some elusive "culprit" that will likely never turn up. You can do all of the testing in the world and the chances of determining any exact and fixable cause are slim to nothing in my opinion.
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Well, this is good advice on one level, but rather than trying fix something , the better way at looking at this is to grow the plant effectively, then you no longer have to do detailed studies on every species of algae that appears.

Healthy stable growing plants= no algae.

Generally , hair algae appears when CO2 declines or is sub optimal.
This can occur for just part of the day, say the first 0-3 hours when the lights are on, or perhaps all day. If you do not dose much and have high plant biomass then the Hair algae can also appear.

Generally, just adding a little more CO2 resolves the issue for most folks along with some pruning and manual removal. Excel in not particularly useful against some species of Hair algae.

You can try the 3 day blackout and do large daily water changes, when the tank is drained, you can mix some excel in a spray bottle and mist the infected areas(10: 1 solution) and then refill tank after a couple of minutes.

Do this for 3 days, then restart the tank, make sure the CO2 is good and dose routinely/water changes etc.

You need to focus on plant health, not killing algae.


Regards,
Tom Barr
 
echoofformless said:
...amano shrimp and Siamese algae eaters are the most reliable means of keeping hair algae at bay. Especially the algae eaters. But make sure they are true Siamese algae eaters.
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:iagree:

SAE's would be a good choice for hair algae. If it's clado, Amano's are the way to go.
 
plantbrain said:
Generally , hair algae appears when CO2 declines or is sub optimal.
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Again, very handy. Thank you! :clap:
This has me leaning toward some sort of CO2 system for my 10g. Excel alone doesn't seem to be keeping the evil at bay.

(My apologies to the OP for a possible thread hijack, but I've developed a problem with hair algae, too. :lipssealedsmilie: )
 
irishspy - DIY CO2 would be great in a ten gallon tank.

I would cut down on the ferts. With a medium-low light tank and plants that aren't very "weedy" in their growth habits, you're leaving a lot of extra fertilizer in the water column since plants only consume what they need. That gets utilized by the algae. The best is to keep just enough food present for the plants and nothing more.

Plus Leaf Zone isn't all that comprehensive. Try Flourish and only fertilize every other week. Do the Excel every week instead of every other day. You don't need as much as they say you do. (They want to sell you more of it!) And you especially don't need all that much in a lower light tank.

The root tabs are great for the heavy root feeding plants like cryptocoryne, and to a lesser extent for the stem plants once they start establishing good root systems. But the best thing about root tabs is that they keep the nutrients under the substrate rather than in the water column, so algae doesn't get a chance to feast on any of it. In fact if your plants all have good strong root systems, I might suggest fertilizing with liquid even less. I for one no longer even add liquid ferts to my Amazon tank. Swords and vals seem to like the root tabs enough that they grow like weeds without the addition of anything else.

have fun.
 
also anothe good algae eater are otos
 
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