HUGE problem with hair algae!!!!

Bobafish

Bobafish

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Mar 6, 2005
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Ankeny, Iowa
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Its official, it is now overtaking my tank! What is the best way to get rid of hair algae for me? Its a 10gallon moderately planted with 46watts of PC lighting. NO CO2 injection. ph7.3 temp ~77F KH~40.
Any help would be much appreciated!!!

Justin
 
How long has your tank been going? I got hair algae in the beginning stages but now that I'm completely cycled it's disappeared on it's own.
 
How much nitrate are you reading? What plants are in the tank? How heavily stocked is the tank?

I suspect it's the lack of CO2, but I'm not anywhere near being very solid on my plant knowledge. Try buying some Flourish Excell (liquid C) and see if it helps.

And I think Amano shrimp like to eat hair as will cherry barbs and SAE's and ottos.
 
hair algae is hard to remove. You have too much light for a 10g. If your many snails are breeding and you have hair algae, I suggest draining and cleaning the tank.

I had snails and hair algae at one point, both multiplying uncontrolably and there was nothing i could do to fix my tank. I found the snails contributed so much to the bioload and this just fed the hair algae. The "black out" method didn't work for me.

The quickest way to fix the problem is throw out any hair algae infested plants, drain and clean the tank (I use bleach but I dont know if its recommended), refill the tank, and consider buying a bristle nose pleco with algae wafers as a suppliment.
 
Mack606 is right, you have too much light for a tank without CO2. You've got to get the plants in your tank to outcompete the algae for nutrients. This can be hard once algae has established itself. Remove as much of the algae as you can manually and consider giving the plants a bleach dip (http://www.aquabotanic.com/plantsandbleach.htm and http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/articles.php?action=viewarticle&artid=24). Add CO2 either with a DYI yeast and sugar solution or Flourish Excell. If you can't get the plants to outcompete the algae then you're pretty much going to have to break it down, clean with bleach and start over.
 
the tank stocking is in my signature, I want to inject CO2, and I have all the stuff to do it, but the problem is that I dont know if it is safe to inject CO2 with my KH being so low.
Is Flourish Excell the same way? Would I have to raise my KH to use it, or would it be safe to put in right away?
I also do have alot of pond snails in my tank, should I remove as many of these as possible if they are contributing to the bio load so much???
Thx again for your help.
 
My tank (10 gallon with 28 watts of lighting) was also run over by hair algae, because I don't have any CO2 system, and it is very densely planted. For the last week or so, I turned off the lights for 2 hours in the middle of the day every day, and now my hair algae grows much slower, and there's much less of it. :) Turning off the lights in the middle of the day gives less light to the algae, and the algae is a low form of life, so it affects it adversely, but the plants can still photosynthesize a few hours after the lights go off. You should try to see if this works. It worked for me. :)

Also, hair algae can be caused by excess of phosphates. The hair algae started coming up after I overdosed with nutrients that contained a lot of phosphates.
 
You can use Excel no problem with whatever KH you may happen to have. Dose with the Excel and allow the otos and snails to do their job. Don't get rid of the snails--they're your friends when it comes to getting rid of algae. After that, be patient. I recently had a massive hair (and every other kind, too) algae outbreak and pretty much just did that. Give your plants a chance to compete and your algae eaters a chance to eat.

Also, there's been another thread about the mid-day break in light on here recently (last week or so). It shouldn't really help your situation, according to the gurus that weighed in in that one. Also, I'm pretty sure that photosynthesis absolutely requires light, regardless of the life form. There should be no photosynthesis hours after the lights go out.
 
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