Hair-algea on edges - remove or take your time?

[jcn]

Hello - my first post here.
I have not been able to find an answer to my question - so here goes:

We have re-setup our ols 120liter aquarium for about 7 weeks ago.
All values are fine and we seem to be up and running.

The problem:
From start there was some hairy-alges on the edges of the leaves of most plants. As far as my knowledge go, that is caused by not enough nutrients for the plants and they therefore draw the nutrients at hand to the new leaves.

We have fair growth in our plants and we fertilize with and all-in-one quality fertilizer.

The algea-hair does not seem to go away.
Will it go away or do we have to manually remove all leaves affected?
For now we have removed the worst examples, but left the rest.
But it seems that the algea-hair "spread" / contaminate the other leaves and plants and spread out that way.

So: Should we go for at drastic cut-down of most plants to get the hair-algea away or maybe just let time do its job.

Example plant attached (if I succeeded? )

Thanks and greatings from Denmark
JCN

 

[jcn]

No inputs from anyone?!

 

[Aiken Drum]

My understanding is that hair algae is caused by excess nutrients, not a lack. And excess light and insufficient CO2. It can be manually removed but that wont stop it returning.

Double dosing seachem excel is often a temp solution to remove hair algae. If you go down that route make sure you thoroughly research the procedure.

Reducing nitrate and phosphate is the common solution to hair algae ie. Water changes.

If im wrong on the nutrients issue im happy to be educated.

 

[Caliban07]

The problem is that these plants are not grown initially in an underwater environment. They have access to 400ppm of carbon dioxide from the surrounding air. As a result their leaves are often thicker with a waxy cuticle to protect themselves from pests and the elements.

When you put them under water the co2 availability is cut off. In order for the plants to maximise their ability to scavenge co2 under water they must produce new leaves. They are often thinner and a completely different shape to the leaves grown above water. The plant must then work on production of an enzyme called RuBisCo. I don’t want to get too much more in to it unless people are interested but basically the old leaves are completely useless to the plant now that it is unnaturally placed underwater. So they are discarded in favour of new.

When this happens the leaves begin to break down and release substances that algae take advantage of. This is why it is so important to focus on new leaves and why it is imperative that co2 availability is STABLE. If the plant senses altering co2 availability in the water it will discard old growth for new leaves accustomed to the new co2 level. And the algae cycle continues. The first attempt at new leaves can often appear small, pale and stunted giving the impression of a nutrient deficiency.

In my opinion It is better to remove the old leaves when you can see new growth.

 

[jcn]

#4 - now that is really interesting!

All our plants are from Danish Tropica - but I presume that you are right, that the plants are grown in greenhouses and not actually in water.

But if you are right - then we should be cutting off all old / original leaves, when we see growth of new leaves...
That seems pretty drastic, but maybe it is the best way to go?

In regards to nutrients we use an all-in-one fertilizer from Tropica as well.
I aim to have a nitrate level around 25 ppm -and hope that all other nutrients are pretty ok in balance by then.

I attach a picture of the aquarium as it is right now:

Let me know what you would suggest.

Thanks a lot!
Jens Christian from Denmark

 

[Aiken Drum]

Tropica plants are definitely grown emersed.

https://tropica.com/en/articles/about-emerse-production/

The reason to removed dying leaves is to ensure as much nutrients go towards new healthy growth rather than trying to support unhealthy dying growth.

 

[Caliban07]

#4 - now that is really interesting!



All our plants are from Danish Tropica - but I presume that you are right, that the plants are grown in greenhouses and not actually in water.



But if you are right - then we should be cutting off all old / original leaves, when we see growth of new leaves...

That seems pretty drastic, but maybe it is the best way to go?



In regards to nutrients we use an all-in-one fertilizer from Tropica as well.

I aim to have a nitrate level around 25 ppm -and hope that all other nutrients are pretty ok in balance by then.



I attach a picture of the aquarium as it is right now:



Let me know what you would suggest.



Thanks a lot!

Jens Christian from Denmark

You just need to be sensible about it. You can use your judgment to decide when you think the plant has fully adapted to submerged life. Then pull the leaves off starting with the ones that are covered in the most algae.

It’s one of those situations where, as the new leaves grow larger and and there are more of them the plant is can capture more carbon dioxide and growth rate will only speed up assuming other needs are met or the plant slows down to fall in line with the most limited available nutrient.

It can take weeks for plants to adapt. Especially if your co2 levels are fairly low to begin with.

As for fertilisers I don’t use them.