Struggling with hair algae in my planted tank.

[Ericwm]

Most of my aquarium knowledge is in salt water but I do have a 40 breeder planted tank. I recently have had a lot of hair algae in the tank and I don't know what causes this and how to get rid or it in freshwater. Any advice would be great. I have 2 t5 and 2 t5 HO bulbs over it, could it be that the bulbs need to be replaced? I know that leads to algae in salt water.

Thanks.

 

[Rivercats]

That is a lot of light over a shallow tank. How long are you running your lights daily? Also are you using CO2 or liquid carbon? How about ferts? How many plants and what type do you have? If you have low light plants the two T8's would probably be enough. If you have a lot of plants and or higher light plants then the two T5HO's are enough. You really don't need both. You also need to run your lighting only 6 hours daily especially until you get algae under control. Also you can spot treat the hair algae with H2O2.

 

[BBradbury]

Hello Eric..

You may not have hair algae. There are many kinds that develop stands that look like hair. This could be a type of fungus and these aren't plants or animals. You can remove it manually, by using a small tooth brush or bottle brush, but be careful you don't uproot your plants.

I prefer water changes. There's nothing negative associated with performing a water change and it will remove some the food this algae or fungus is eating.

Your lighting is "through the roof", so you're likely dosing CO2 as a food source to keep up with the lighting. Wow! You could dial the lighting down a bit. I can't think of any aquarium plant that requires the level of lighting you have.

Keep the water pure, with large, frequent water changes for a few weeks or even months and gradually cut back on the nutrients that go into the water. This would be a good start.

B

 

[Ericwm]

I am planning a good sized water change and manual removal this weekend, as well as cleaning my canister. I may need som help with the lights. My t5 HO are my old reef lights. I have one sunlight bulb (7600k or something like that) and one actinic. In my t5 fixture I have one color max and one sunlight (same as the other). The reason I kept the normal t5 on when I added my HO fixture was to get the ~3 watts per gallon which was what I had read was the most you would need for any plant. Should I remove my normal t5? Either way, what bulbs should I run?

Thanks.

 

[BBradbury]

Hello again Eric...

Start by researching the lighting requirements of the plants you have, then provide that level. I've had the best luck controlling algae by taking away it's food source and then going from there, if necessary.

By flushing a lot of pure, treated tap water through the tank, you maintain a stable water chemistry, which will help keep the plants and fish healthy and in time starve the algae to the point it shrinks and won't become so much of a problem.

Actually, I like a bit of algae in the tank. It tells me my tank is healthy. It's an excellent food source for your fish. They nibble on the vegetation and also eat the small animals that live in it.

Keep pluggin'!

B

 

[Ericwm]

I agree with you on a little algae, I have the short stuff on my drift wood. Here is the stuff I don't want.



It is not good looking. It is "my wife's tank" so she feeds and I clean. That may be part of the issue.

I am starting to think my reef tank is easier to care for. It could be because I started with salt and know more about it.

 

[Rivercats]

Your in the reef tank lighting mind set. I ran both planted and reefs for years and the lighting needed and color spectrum are very different. You don't want the actinic bulb at all. But also remember you have a shallow tank so you don't need near as intense lighting as you would in a deep tank like my 30" deep tank. Also watts per gallon rule just doesn't work these days with all the new HO, LED, and such. Your tank is shallow. So what determines the lighting you need is the type of plants your growing. What plants do you have? With higher lighting you also have to use CO2 or liquid carbon at the proper amounts and proper ferts. The higher the lighting the more of these are needed. With lower light you need less. Also how long do you run lights daily? If you run lights too long this can cause algae issues. You have staghorn algae from what I see. Staghorn is often seen in water without much current/movement and from low CO2 and too much light. The best thing to do with staghorn is literally manually remove as much as possible. Add a little more water movement so plants sway gently. Run lights 6 hours daily. Use CO2 or liquid carbon daily and if needed spot treat the algae. What are you using for ferts? Are you using either CO2 or liquid carbon?

 

[BBradbury]

Struggling with Algae

Eric...

Nice tank. It looks like your Pennywort is growing well. The water appears nice and clear. You two are doing well. If the other plant to the right is bamboo, I don't think it will last very long if it's completely submerged.

Anyway, that hairy stuff can be easily removed with a small bristled brush. You can get a very long, narrow one for a few dollars at the fish store. You can twirl the brush and use a sharp bladed scissors to clip it away from the plants, driftwood or decoration without disturbing anything. I like to trim things half way through a water change when the water level is low.

Give the water changes a try. I think you'll be surprised at how well they fix not just problems with algae, but whatever else is a problem with the tank.

B

 

[aqua_chem]

Just from that picture, you have GDA, GSA, BBA, and some type of hair algae that may very well be staghorn. This suggests to me that your issues are stemming from a light issue, and likely all of the things Rivercats suggested are contributing. Unfortunately for you, while most FW T5HO fixtures cheap out on the reflector, SW fixtures are usually more expensive. Who makes your fixture? I don't agree that the spectrum is a big problem necessarily, and if you replace the low-PAR actinic bulb with a daylight bulb, you're likely to make your problem worse.

As Rivercat's stated, we really need to know your fert/CO2 situation, as those may be major contributing factors as well, especially if you're not dosing, although they are easier to fix.

 

[Ericwm]

Ok, here is all my info. My lighting fixtures are coralife. Frets are a "weekly" dose of flourish, one cap of iron, potasium and comprehensive. I have a canister that is rated for my tank size (I should have gone bigger but went with the nicer brand instead). My temp is ~80. I don't have co2 or liquid carbon but I probably should. I do a 15% water change either every third or forth week. Oh, and I run my lights 7-8 hours.

So it sounds like I need liquid carbon for sure
Different spectrum lighting
Will that cover it?

A few questions,
Do I need less light?
What temp is good for plants?
Should I add a power head? If so how much flow?

I added the actinic because I went into the LFS and asked what would be a good bulb to add, the guy said that spectrum helps support plants. I had one that I had removed from my HO fixture when I moved it from my reef to my FW so I just put it in.

One more quick question, how long do T5 bulbs last for freshwater? I know the rule for coral is 6 months, is it the same for plants?

 

[Rivercats]

What plants do you have as that will determine which set of lights you probably want to use. If you have T5HO's in a 40B that is going to be med high to maybe even high light since that tank is so shallow. You definitely need to be using CO2 or liquid carbon daily if you go that route. Also only run your lights 6 hours if you go with the T5HO's. But until algae is gone only run the T8's 6 hours IMO and no T5HO's right now. Plus at least get some liquid carbon and start using it at 1ml per 5 gallons of water.

You can order Metricide 14 Day Solution for $20, mix it at a 1:1 ratio with RO or Distilled water and get 2 gallons of Glutaraldehyde for about $27 shipped. That is very cheap compared to buying a brand name product like Excel.

Also if you go with the stronger T5HO lighting I would also suggest getting dry ferts after you use up your other liquid ones and dose either El or PPS-Pro. Dry ferts are so much cheaper and last a long time. You'll save a lot over using liquid ones.

As for the algae you should manually remove any of the long strands that you can. Then spot treat the rest. Turn off your filters, pull up 3-5ml of Hydrogen Peroxide 3% in a syringe, hold the syringe right up to the algae and slowly squirt. If you have a lot to treat you may have to do an area a day till it's all treated. Leave filters off 20 minutes. This will help kill the current algae and then if you do the above you should be able to get it under control.

Also doing a weekly WC of 50% will help keep nutrients low in the tank. You also need to monitor your nitrate and phosphates weekly and keep nitrates between 10-20ppm and phosphates no higher than 2ppm. This along with using liquid carbon or CO2 will help a lot.

Also if you use the T5HO's get rid of the actinic bulb. That spectrum of blue light is mainly only used by algae which you don't want.

 

[Ericwm]

So I started on fixing the issue today based on all of your help and the other fish store as well. I replaced the actinic bulb with a 5000K bulb and bought some liquid carbon. I also added a couple of fish, won't help the problem but the wife liked them. I removed some of the algae and will remove more tomorrow along with cleaning the tank and canister with a good sized water change.

I also added a new plant and am removing the bamboo, and some small redecorating. Now it looks good enough for a picture...

 

[Ericwm]

Thanks again to all that helped, I added a Siamese algae eater last weekend and I am finally to the point where I can go a week and not have a tank full of algae. My wife is glad she can see her fish now and not be disgusted by her tank.