How to get rid of hair algae

[Keeper]

I am currently battling hair algae in my planted 5.5gal. What is the trick to getting rid of it. Should I lower the light time? Lower the ferts? Combination of both? TIA

 

[trenac]

The way I got rid of Hair algae was to get a balance between N03 (10ppm) & P04 (1ppm). I also reduced my lighting from 10 hours dailey to 7 hours for two weeks. I also stopped ferts during this time. It was gone in 2 weeks. This was in 20G tank. A 5.5G tank my be a little harder to maintain a balance. Also over dosing iron can cause algae problems.

 

[Keeper]

i will start by reducing my lighting and stopping with the iron for 2 weeks and see what happens.

 

[Guest]

You can also throw a blanket over the tank for 3-5 days and kill the algae. If you don't feed the fish during this time, they will eat some of the dead algae. Helping you clean up the mess a little. Also, your plants will be just fine in the dark.

As mentioned, make sure your Phos/Nitra ratio is 1:10. Be careful not to overdose on the ferts. You might consider buying a timer and having your lights shut off for 2-3 hours in the middle of the day. Alot of algaes love long, intense light periods.

HTH

 

[Guest]

You can also throw a blanket over the tank for 3-5 days and kill the algae. If you don't feed the fish during this time, they will eat some of the dead algae. Helping you clean up the mess a little. Also, your plants will be just fine in the dark.

As mentioned, make sure your Phos/Nitra ratio is 1:10. Be careful not to overdose on the ferts. You might consider buying a timer and having your lights shut off for 2-3 hours in the middle of the day. Alot of algaes love long, intense light periods.

HTH

 

[krap101]

yeah i heard SAE's eat them, amanos do (i think) and maybe oto's (not sure)

 

[Keeper]

I currently have 2 otos and 2 amanos in the tank and they are not going after the algae. I have reduced the timer to about 7hrs and I will only supply the tank with CO2 during the 2 week period. If this does not work or if the algae gets worse I may consider covering the tank for a few days. Thanks so far for all the responses!

Just wondering....how do you test your phosphate level?

 

[krap101]

theres probally a test. to me that seems worthless for phosphates, c02/o2 but ive never experienced a eral bad algae berakout

 

[malkore]

hair algae IME seems to be related to high phosphates. You want a 10:1 ratio of nitrates to phosphates.
Some fish food is really high in phosphate, and if you over feed (which we're all guilty of sometimes) its easy for a small tank to build up high lvls, when you have a small fish load producing little nitrate.

Phosphate kits are more common in marine setups, but are very useful in FW planted tanks too. I suggest the SeaChem phosphate kit. Its quite reliable, and not terribly priced.

 

[Guest]

Keeper,

Whats your fish load in that 5g other than the 2 otos and 2 amano's? Also what's your fert regime? As well as plants in the tank.

Perhaps your giving to much lovin with the ferts????

 

[Keeper]

Keeper,

Whats your fish load in that 5g other than the 2 otos and 2 amano's? Also what's your fert regime? As well as plants in the tank.

Perhaps your giving to much lovin with the ferts????

Currently 4 female guppies with the otos and shrimp. I follow the Flourish chart for my dosing....adjusting my doses in accordance with my tank size. I is possible I am giving too much lovin to the plants. It is also possible that I may be overfeeding at times I have microsword, an amazon sword, bacopa a small roseafolia and a bunch of something that I have no idea(but it grows like crazy)

 

[Guest]

Keeper,

As I'm sure you know. Over feeding leads to decaying food on the bottum, which converts to Amon. Ever consider skipping a day of feeding every 3 or 4 days? That way the fish scavenge around and help clean up thier own tank, slightly.

I'm not sure if this is your first planted tank. Something that really helped me a lot was keeping a journal. Logging water para's, observations of the tank, CO2 levels various algaes etc.... When I seen a problem (most of it was dreaded algae) I would research it and use my journal for reference to try and resolve the problem. It actually helped out a lot.

BTW......did you upgrade the lighting in your 5g? My micro sword slowly wethered away to the point that I finally just tossed it in the compost pile. This was under 2.6 wpg.

 

[Keeper]

That's a really good idea and I should have started a journal a long time ago. I am currently running 2 fully planted tanks 5.5gal and a 10gal(the fiances). Both tanks have upgraded PC lighting with the 5.5gal running 2 x 10watt PC and the 10 gal running2 x 20watt PC.

I will try the skipping the feeding every 4days and see what happens. Thanks for following the post so far!

 

[frshwaterfinatc]

Get a horseshoe crab. Instant hair algae mower. And fun to watch.

 

[vega]

Horseshoe crab is 5 gal?