Tanks overgrown with hair algae....

[niks93gt]

The hair algae has gotten so bad in both my 10 gallon and 75 gallon that it is literally floating in the water. I'm trying to do a black out now to see if it goes away... but how do I keep it from coming back?

Nik

 

[Plecosterone]

More information is needed to help you. Water parameters, kH, gH, pH, nitrate, nitrite, phosphate would all be helpful. Is the tank planted? Species of fish. Type of filtration. All of these will help us get a better understanding of what is causing it. Without knowing what is causing the problem it is hard to figure out how to eliminate it.

 

[kangarooooooooo]

how long do u leave the lights on? is it in direct sunlight?

 

[joannde]

I feel your pain - I had hair algae like crazy. I never like suggesting a fish to take care of an algae issue (but we'd need more parameters to help you as the others have suggested) but I ended up taking home a beautiful pair of rosy barbs. I had the room (capacity) and loved the long-finned rosy barbs so it was a nice fit for me.

 

[niks93gt]

I just did a water change so I can't really test anything and it be real accurate... I normally just check ammonia/nitrite... which have always been at 0. I leave the lights on 10 hours, which is on a timer... gonna try cutting it down to 8. The 75 gallon is lightly planted with green cambomba. The 10 gallon is planted with Wisteria, Java Ferns, and Wentii Crypts. They are not in direct sunlight.

75 gallon Stocking:
1 5" BGK
2 3" Pictus Cats
1 2.5" Angelfish
10 Hatchetfish
8 Bleeding Heart Tetras
1 L199 Pleco
4 Peppered Corys

10 gallon Stocking:
2 Dwarf Puffers
2 Otos

Thanks!

Nik

 

[Jarred Darque]

If the tanks are planted, how well are the plants growing? If your having algae problems chances are is that your actually missing a nutrient or metal in teh water column, leaving excess of others for the algae to grow off of. I would really suggest doing a full test for a planted tank, this will test your disolved oxygen, CO2, iron, ph, KH, GH, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite and I am sure there are a few other things that it will test as well.

On the 10 gallon, how often do you feed the DPs snails? (I found in my planted tank, that I could actually have the tank understocked and would get major algae blooms, and then once I fully stocked it, or overfed the tank, anything to bring up the ammonia being put into the water, the algae would go away)

 

[tropicfishman]

you could go the advanced route and buy an ultraviolet sterilizer, they even wipe out parasites such as ick. they work best if you have a canister filter, if not you would need a pump and some tubing to install it, but well worth the money from what I hear

 

[Argblarg]

Without knowing how much light you have and if you are using CO2/ferts it is hard to help. I would look into using Flourish Excel, the 75 gallon might seem like a stretch but if you got a 2L bottle it would last you close to a year and will kill off hair algae.