Horrible Hair Algae...HELP!!! (PICS)

[WhiteCloud]

Okay...you may want to get the kids out of the room...and these pictures may make a grown man or woman cry (especially if they have put all their extra money and time into their aquarium).

A few weeks ago...some of you may have rememembered I had a HUGE unicelluar Algae Problem with green water. With a lot of help...I got through it and the water was great for a few weeks. This week...I have had an incredible HAIR ALGAE problem!!

See pictures for the details..it is horrible...I would almost rather have the green water back. What is worse is my entire family is coming over for a party this weekend and see this awful mess.

Anyone have have any recommendations where I should even start in dealing with this problem?

Thanks

 

[Jaxom_Ruatha]

I would definetely look into getting some SAE or American Flag Fish which are known to eat hair algae, as well as any others you may find.

 

[aquazen]

8O

Can't be fixed in four days. Buy some otos, algae eaters, shrimp. Lots of choices, but none that will be able to fix it by this weekend.

Keep your fingers crossed. As they say, no one expects the spanish inquisition.

 

[malkore]

I need water parameters: ph, Kh (or CO2 if you calculated it already) nitrate, phosphate
light level
tank size

fertilizing routine (specifically traces and iron, and anything else)

 

[WhiteCloud]

Here are the stats for the HAIRY tank:

1. 90 Gallon
2. 4x65 Watt Coralife Freshwater Light (6700k..I think) providing just a tad under 3 watts/gallon. Light on for 14 hrs a day (including a 1 hr dawn/dusk where only getting 1.5 watts/gallon for 1 hr in morning and 1 hr in evening)
3. Pressured automatic pH monitored CO2 delivery
4. Laterite enriched gravel substrate
5. Dose with 7.5ml Seachem flourish weekly (or 2 times a week if I remember)

Tests:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5
Phosphate: 1
GH: 6
KH: 6
pH: 6.8 (both per CO2 monitor and test kit)
Calculated CO2: 28.528ppm

I hope this information help! Form the looks of things..I have all the stats for a great looking planted tank...I think!

Thanks for the help!

WC

 

[WhiteCloud]

SAE, Flag Fish and shrimps! I would LOVE them...but no LFS in area has heard of an SAW or Flag Fish (or Ameca Splendens), and FW shrimp are illegal to sell and possess in the state of Maine. I do have 2 otos...but LFS in the areas have none.

I found some SAE at aquariumfish.net....no Flag fish or Amecas though...

At least there is hope with the SAEs...how many would be recommened for a hair 90 gallon tank? I am thinking perhaps 20?

Thanks

WC

 

[Fluff]

jordanella floridae (american flag fish). I found some on aquabid if you'd like to check them out.

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fw&1111436401

 

[KaiserFish]

As stated be pretty much everyone...

SAE's, Ameca Splendens, Flag Fish will all help.

When I had a hair algae problem it was probably about 10 times as bad as what your pics seem to show. The 'hair' was everywhere and quite long strands of it (6-7 inches).

The following was what I did...

Turn the lights off or at least for fewer hours, maybe go down to 8 hrs instead of 14(plant life doesn't do well with no light).

Stop using fertilizer for your plant life (at least for the time being. I also found using Flourish Excel was overall better than the product I had used before)

Invest in some Amecas, Flags, SAE's, whatever happens to be available nearby for hair algae eaters. Lessen the amount of food you put in the tank as well, so that the hair algae eaters are actually hungry enough to eat the algae.

Since my own epedemic was horrifying, I took the plants out of the tank and cut away the really bad areas. I then did water/bleach (10 to 1 mix) treatment to the plants, letting them soak for a couple minutes in the mix before rinsing them off thoroughly (so you can't smell the bleach at all). If you can smell bleach still, keep rinsing.

I put them all back in the tank, did not suffer any fish loss. The plants died back a bit at first, but a few weeks later, they were growing rapidly again, and healthy. Have not had a hair algae outbreak since.

Hope that helps!

 

[medge00]

man, we need to figure out what is so out of balance with your tank... the blackout method may at the least put a stop to that in 3 days, but you'll still have some clean up to do before guest arrival.... lets see what malkore says. he seems to be good at this algae-ridding stuff.

 

[BrianNY]

I feel your pain. I've been battling the same problem. I've reduced the problem dramatically by lessening the photo period, and upping the dosage of KNO3. I think I might actaully be on my way to solving this problem.

Two more things might be contributing to your algae prob. I feel your nitrates are too low and your phosphates too high. Ideally nitrates 10-20. Phosphates .5 or less.

 

[malkore]

low nitrate. you have 1ppm of phosphate...you should have at lesat 10ppm, if not 15ppm of nitrate to stay in balance.

Do you dose potassium? Iron? You're likely low on potassium, sometimes low on iron (Flourish doesn't have a ton of iron in it, and iron oxidizes out of water very rapidly)...and low on nitrates.

 

[WhiteCloud]

I am only adding Seachem Flourish as my only additive.

How do I get Nitrates, Potassium, and iron up to get more balanced? Is there another additive that I can use. Should I "overfeed" the fish a bit to get nitrates up (I would think this would increase phosphates also and keep things not balanced).

My plants are just COVERED with the algae...I am wondering if perhaps they are not even growing well and not utilizing the what is in the tank.

Thanks,

WC

 

[travis simonson]

I would never recommend overfeeding in an effort to increase any nutrient levels, you'll likely regret it. You need to dose some form of nitrates, whether Seachem nitrogen or www.gregwatson.com potassium nitrate (much cheaper in the long run). You should also mechanically remove the hair algae with a tooth brush or similar tool. Just hook the algae with the bristles and spin it slowly, it will pull off the algae in bunches. Perform mechanical cleaning, do a healthy (~50%) water change, and make sure your nutrient levels are balanced. You might also consider adding some algae eaters to the tank if you're in a hurry to get rid of the stuff.

 

[czcz]

FWIW, Grant's Stump Remover is pure KNO3. ~$6 at OSH. I've been using it for a couple of months with no issues.

References: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=grants+stump+remover+kno3&btnG=Google+Search

 

[travis simonson]

czcz is right. Use the same dosing amounts as you would with potassium nitrate bought from www.gregwatson.com . Here's a link to a dosing calculator that will help:

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/download/aquacalc_setup.exe

 

[WhiteCloud]

I ordered 24 SAEs, 6 Amercian Flag Fish and 4 Skunk Botia Loaches from www.azgardens.com. Hopefully these guys will help with the problem...until I can get water parameters under control.

 

[travis simonson]

Sounds like a very nice janitorial crew to me Two flag fish keep my 30G almost completely hair-algae free. I ordered a dozen SAEs from AZGardens recently and over half were DOA when I received them, the rest died within a day. I hope you have better luck with them. At least AZGardens was good about refunding my money, but I still payed a ton of money for shipping me dead fish

 

[WhiteCloud]

Ouch!!! I hope I fair a little better with the SAEs. I was going to order them from aquariumfish.net, but they did not have the Botia or the Flagfish...and I wanted more plants to utilize the exess nutrients in the tank....so I thought I would do some "one stop shopping" at AZgardens.com

WC

 

[TankGirl]

I had the same experience as Travis with my SAE from AZ Gardens.

I know you will be anxious, but please oh please put all of these fish in quarrantine. The fish I have received shipped from online retailers are the ones that (at least for me) almost always need to be treated for something or the other, so quarrantine them for a good 3 weeks.

I have 3 American Flag Fish and they took care of all of my hair algae (too low nitrate with high phosphate) in about 2 days in my 55. I recently set up a 37gal African tank and at the end of the cycle I got a ton of lovely waving stands of hair algae, and I put one flag fish in there, and within one day it was gone. Mine are good tank residents but some have had some nippiness issues, so watch them carefully. They are quite heavy poopers, not to put too fine a point on it , so they will impact your bioload more than other fish of similar length.

 

[black udder]

So Tankgirl, we got anybody selling SAEs or Flagfish around the VA area?

I've checked Azalea & Fin & Feather, nothing there... does anybody stock them with any sort of regularity?

I wouldn't mind a flagfish in my tank - but am wary of nippers...