Hair algae driving me nuts (now with test results)

[mrzap]

What are the main causes of hair algae? Any of my plants that have leaves near the water surface are getting inundated with long strands of it.

I seem to keep reading conflicting info. Is it too much iron? Too much or too little nitrate? Too much potassium? Would injecting co2 help with hair algae?

Will adding more plants help out compete the algae?

I need a gameplan from the pros. Thanks.

My nitrates seem kind of high, but it seems like I get more hair algae after I do my water changes. Usually I use distilled water for changes.

*Updated*
Ok so I bought a nitrate and phosphate liquid test kit. I meant to get a potassium instead of phosphate, but my mind was elsewhere apparently.

Before I changed any water:
2 ppm phosphate (i think its supposed to be 0 right?)
Somewhere between 80-160 ppm nitrate

After:
1.0 phosphate (liquid test)
20ppm nitrate (liquid test)
~7 PH (liquid test)

Also used a multitest strip
GH - 300 ppm
KH - not reading
PH - 6.8
Nitrate - 40ppm

During this water change I did 5 gallons of tap water (treated with amquel) and 5 gallons distilled.

 

[czcz]

I induce hair algae when N bottoms out, fwiw. Increasing plant mass while having a handle on nutrients always helps.

Remember that algae capitilizes when plants stop growing, and when using distilled water you must add all traces to ensure plants get all the nutrients needed. You may want to mix it with tap, assuming there's too much of something in your tap that warrants the use of distilled water, to ensure you still add the often overlooked traces.

Posting the answers to the Plants Need Help sticky will help troubleshoot the problem.

 

[mrzap]

Here are pictures. Some of the damage on these sword leaves were due to bad transplant issue (long story) new growth doesn't have leaves that look that bad and snails got at some of the other leaves.

I don't know how to stop this fuzz on the leaf edges. I had some spot algae on the anubias caffecola(sp) but my algae eaters and otto took care of that. They don't touch this other stuff. I bought some Flourish Excel and dosed 3 capfulls (29 gallon tank). I have 2 20w bulbs on my tank so thats about 1.5wpg.

 

[rich311k]

What are you dosing and how much light do you have?

 

[mrzap]

What are you dosing and how much light do you have?

1.5wpg

Two weeks ago I added jungle root tab ferts
Last week before my water change today I added a capful of fluorish potassium (didn't add any today after the water change)
After the water change today I added 3 capfuls of fluorish excel

 

[rich311k]

The damage to the leaves looks like a potassium deficiency to me. I would add 5-10 ppm K twice a week. Since you have the excel try adding the recommended dosage, 1 ml per gallon, every other day. I think you will start to see an improvement.

 

[mrzap]

Should I worry about the low KH? Should I add baking soda?

Can Excel ever hurt plants? Also, can Excel be outgassed like normal co2?

 

[WarEagleNR88]

Here are a few of my thoughts:

1. Do a water change with dechlor-ed tap water every day until nitrates get down to 10-20.

2. Increase CO2 to 20-30 ppm if you are adding it (you didn't say if you were).

3. No more root tabs and don't add any more flourish products (My opinion, they are snake oils).

I think you have high iron with low CO2 that is contributing to the algae growth. And if I'm not mistaken you have BBA. If you've added the root tabs before, they might have leaked into the column. It looks like you're using Eco-Complete and if it is fairly new, nutrients are not and will not be a problem for a long, long, LONG time. Especially if you have laterite underneath it--that might have leaked, too. I'd dig those root tab ferts right back up and toss them. As far as the other excess nutrients go, well there is excess. This may have been by too much fertilizer being added--concentrated liquids do this easily. As a result there are way more nutrients than your plants would ever need with the amount of light and what's growing? Yep, you guessed it--Algae. Plant growth may be very little.

Here's the gameplan if I were doing it. Get the iron and extra nutrients out of the water column by the water changes. If you can, add CO2. CO2 will help the plants start to utilize the light you have and available nutrients. If not, then let the water changes work for you. An aggressive strike by utilizing mechanical removal of the algae will help. Hack off heavily coated leaves and pull it out with your fingers and/or an old thoroughly washed off toothbrush. Add some fast growing stem plants--anacharis, water wisteria, ludwigia, etc. Also, I've found that your supermarket rosy barbs will demolish the BBA and will trim it down to a short stubble and I think American Flag Fish do it fairly well, too. From that point, your plants should start to overpower the algae by outgrowing it and the algae will soon disappear. Then, do not dose any more nutrients. A dry Potassium Nitrate mixed into solution with water should be adequate for NO3 and K. Dose a very small amount of that to maintain 10-20 ppm of Nitrate. By lightly feeding your fish, you'll probably add all of the phosphate your tank will need and the dechlor-ed tap should add some micros and harden your water. An occasional drop or two of a light trace mix once or twice a month will probably help as well.

Sadly, those anubias leaves will most likely have to be eventually chopped off once new leaves replace them. IME, slow growing anubias leaves are some of the most susceptible to BBA. I'll follow along here and help where I can. Good luck! Stay in the fight and resist to add more ferts to the tank.

 

[WarEagleNR88]

Sorry, I forgot about excess phosphate. That may be a very critical algae factor as well. Repeated water changes should take care of it fairly easily.

I know you said your test kit said 2 ppm, but who knows if it is accurate or not?

 

[rich311k]

Should I worry about the low KH? Should I add baking soda?

Can Excel ever hurt plants? Also, can Excel be outgassed like normal co2?

Excel is not CO2 it will not gas off and it will not effect your KH. It is CO3 not CO2. It can effect anacharis and some vals. I use it with my corkscrew vals and have had no problems. I only suggested using it since you have it. With 1.5 wpg it is not necessary but I have found that carbon does help plants even under low light.

I use it all the time and I have good growth with it. It is not nearly as effective as CO2, which you dont need right now.

I agree do not dose any more traces. But that looks like a K problem to me and I would add some.

 

[mrzap]

Thanks WarEagle and Rich,

I did a major overhaul on my tank today. This was all before reading the info here. I did a 10 gallon water change (29 gallon tank) with half distilled/half tap.

WarEagle, wisteria and other stem plants don't fair well in my tank. 1.5 wpg don't seem to cut it for them. Instead, I added another Jungle Valisineria, Saggitaria Chilenisis (x3), and a large red wendtii this morning. Tomorrow I should be getting some microswords in the mail.

Here is the new layout:

I do seem to have the symptoms of BBA according to http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_algae.htm that site. That site says high phosphates can lead to BBA and it could very well be the high phosphates I tested for prior to the water change that did it.

I trimmed back the longer leaves of the Vals that were covered in hair algae. My lower plants seem to have more BBA than anything else.

I am not injecting co2, but I may pick up a system on Tuesday depending on how things here go. The eco-complete is about 7 months old now and there is no laterite under it.

Thanks for the help. I'll see how things go.

 

[WarEagleNR88]

Ah, looking good so far. And Chuck Gadd's website is a good one to go. I'll sometimes frequent it when I have a question about a nutrient deficiency problem. His articles are pretty good to along with Steve Hampton's.

I see about the stem plants and what you mean now. What type of light do you have? 1x40W NO florescent? I can't tell from the picture. You say 1.5, but 40/30 = 1.33 and 55/30 = 1.85ish. If it is a NO, then dosing any excess may very well be contributing to your algae growth due to the light intensity. And by your lower plants experiencing more algae growth (low light) and your higher plants not ("high" light), that may be what is happening. I'm not exactly sure.

Keep doing water changes if you can. My opinion of them on excess nutrients and algae control are more the better. You want the water changes to act as a baseline for your nutrient levels. Once they're where you want them and algae growth seems to peak and then stop, then you know you're winning. The key is to keep it there; the algae will slowly go away and the plants will look better than they've ever looked.

 

[Zezmo]

Plants need nitrates, phosphates, and potassium to grow, along with micro nutrients. Your levels of 20ppm nitrate and 1ppm phosphate are good. That is where you want them. I agree with Rich that sword looks potassium deficient. The ECO complete should not need the addition of root tabs. But, since they are already there. Might as well leave them. In fact digging them up will probably make a mess of the ECO complete.

With a planted tank 50% water changes every week can really help you keep things under control and thriving. Also, I don't think you should use the distilled water. 15 gallons of tap water (declorinated) each week will prevent build up of nitrates or other "nutrients". It will also keep a fresh supply of needed traces for your plants. If the Gh component of your tap water contains K, then that may help there too.

You could add 3 capfuls of excel every other day. This will not hurt your fish or plants. You will find that it will make that nasty hair algae shrivel and die. If you are "overdosing" the excel to help combat the algae, then the 50% weekly water changes are critical to prevent buildup. I add 1 cap per day to my 10 gallon to supplement the CO2 and help fight algae. That tank has delicate fish and plants, as well as both cherry and amano shrimp with no ill effects.

 

[mrzap]

Sorry I had a bad math moment there. I have 2 20watt bulbs so ya that would give me ~1.38 wpg. What I was explaining is that leaves that were touching the surface developed long hairlike strands of white algae whereas my bottom plants have more of this BBA looking algae on their edges and tends to be green.

I tend to like distilled so I don't have to use chemicals on it and my tap water is very hard. How about doing 50% tap and 50% distilled? May help normalize the hardness of my water I think.

 

[Zezmo]

I would agree about mixing, that is what I do. I mix RO/DI water and my tap water. The thing is, you tested your water and had 0Kh (perhaps a test strip is not the most reliable method). So if your tank has such a low Kh, that you want to add baking soda. Then an easy solution is a higher percentage of tap water. Perhaps a liquid test kit to test both tap and tank water Kh. If you don't want to invest in another test just yet (though liquid Kh is a good one to have) you can go to a LFS with your two water samples and have them test it for you.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

Addition of CO2 with little to no KH could drastically drop your PH to unsafe levels. Keep that in mind if you plan on utilizing CO2. You will need to buffer up your KH to maintain PH. This is of course if that KH reading is right.

 

[mrzap]

So I just changed out another 5 gallons of water this evening.

I also got 3 potted microsword in the mail from liveaquaria that I planted. They arrived in good shape and look really nice. For my next tank I think (when i am a rich man) I will carpet as much of the tank with this stuff as possible. I put them where they would get the most light. I hope they do ok.

Today I don't seem to have any new algae, but I can't tell if its in remission at this point. I'll keep you posted.

 

[Zezmo]

Heh, once you get that microsword growing it will take over everything. You may find your self pulling it out by the handfulls.

 

[mrzap]

Changed another 3 gallons with dechlorinated tap. Added 2/3 cap of Excel and changed the filter floss/carbon pad in my hood filter for my Eclipse tank cause it was totally gunked. So far no remission on the algae. It might be worse. Hard to tell.

Looks like my KH is normalized now that I have been using tap water. Instead of reading 0 on my strips it now shows in the area of 180ppm

My strip Nitrate reading is about 40ppm. No other changes in nitrite, PH, GH, etc.

Liquid phosphate test is 1.0
Liquid nitrate test looks to be between 20ppm and 40ppm. Its leaning closer to 20ppm.

 

[Purrbox]

Are you dosing Potassium? This is the one Macro that you are most likely to need to dose in a low light setup. Without it, plants won't be able to make use of the Nitrates and Phosphates, and the algae will take off. I believe I saw that you had dosed it before, but haven't seen any recent mention of dosing.