So what causes hair algae really? UPDATE: Which ferts?

[Tiffi]

Hey guys,

currently I am fighting some hair algae, so I stopped by here to see if I could find any tips as to what it is caused by or so.

Reading different posts I always get a different picture. Some say it is caused by too little water changes, some say by to high iron, and again others say it's caused by too little N. So what is it really? Or can it really be all of them 8O ?

 

[Jchillin]

Long time no see Tiffi.

I had an issue with hair algae not too long ago. I was also advised that it was low N. I began dosing and within a week, it was all gone. I doubt if high fe contributed to mine since I have little fe in my tap water.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I can tell you that N high or low is not the cause from what I see.

I was getting hair algae with 80+ppm No3.

Co2 and increasing the light solved the problem for me..

I guess the honest answer is a general difficiency would be the cause.. assessing what your deficiency is would be the best start..

 

[Tiffi]

Thank you guys. I guess I will have to start figuring then... I guess that is why so many people say algae can be a real pain in the behind lol.

@Jchillin: Sorry for not showing up in a while. College stress and now my mom and grandparents will be here in a week from Germany. So I have to get everything prepared (well not the fishtank, but you know what I mean lol). I am so excited, because I only see them once a year!

 

[DeathWarp]

I've always found algae is a pain if left untreated for too long. Take it by the horns early enough and its a peice of cake.

*mmm cake*

 

[malkore]

I would say its not caused by high iron. Tom Barr and Steve Hamptom both say high iron never causes them issues, and I think Steve even cranked up his iron just to try to force an outbreak, and didn't get one strand.

i would look at nitrates and phosphates, test ammonia too

 

[czcz]

I consistently get it when N bottoms out, fwiw. This is with all other macros available and with regular trace dosing.

 

[Tiffi]

I've bought a nitrate and phosphate test kit yesterday and tested today (last water change on Saturday).

CO2 ~11ppm
Nitrate ~ 0ppm
Phosphate ~0.1ppm

I know that phosphate is too low and Nitrate is really really too low. I've already looked now at www.gregwatson.com and that seems to be a really good deal what he has there compared to Flourish etc.

My questions are now should I better buy Potassium Nitrate or Calcium Nitrate? Currently I am dosing Flourish Potassium and just bought a new 500ml bottle, since I had problems with little holes in the leaves of stemplants before. I also still have some Flourish "regular", so I guess I wouldn't need any Plantex CSM+B for a while.

So I though about buying either
#1) 1lb Mono Potassium Phosphate, 2lb Potassium Nitrate
#2) 1lb M. P. P., 2lb Calcium Nitrate, 1lb Potassium Sulfate

I am just concerened with adding too much potassium, although I"ve read that's not really possible. Otherwise I would go with mix #1.

Please help!

 

[rich311k]

I would go with number one. You can't dose to much potassium, everything I have read lately seems to indicate even it potassium is 100ppm it has no ill effects on the tank.

 

[Tiffi]

Thank you very much, rich311k! That's what I'll do then.

I guess the tests kits were really worth it, because that's where my problems were - Nitrate and Phosphate.

 

[rich311k]

You may need the potasium sulfate eventually if your tank starts to show signs of potassium defeciences. You will get to much nitrate for the needed amount of potassium if you go with the potassium nitrate for potassium dosing. I add enough potassium nitrate for 10ppm N, enough Potassium Phosphate for 1 ppm P, and enough potassium sulfate to get the total K to 10ppm. I do that every other day. But I have a high light tank. My point is you may need to add a little more K than you will get from just using the potasssium nitrate.

 

[Tiffi]

Ok, I added 1lb potassium sulfate to my shopping list. This is really a lot cheaper than buying Flourish!!

Should I try to raise the CO2 levels as well?

 

[rich311k]

Here is a calculator you can use to dose them. Co2 is always a prime suspect in algae problems but you may not want up it until you have the other nutrients available to your plants.

 

[malkore]

Tiffi,

bulk fertilizer is a LOT cheaper than flourish.

example: it takes 2/3 of a bottle of Flourish potassium in my 75gal tank, to give me approx 15ppm of potassium.
or, 1.5teaspoons of potassium sulfate.

So a $5 dose of flourish, versus a couple shiny nickels for K2SO4.

I do recommend you store dry ferts in one of those kitchen canisters with the air tight lid. don't want a bunch of humidity getting into your dry stuff...it'll last you quite a while.

 

[Tiffi]

I was just reading that on the flourish bottle and calculated that, assuming you have very little potassium in the tank, you would need 87ml/17.5capfuls of Flourish potassium for a 70gal tank like mine. Thinking about it, that's just rediculous!

 

[Zezmo]

No doubt those Flourish macros are too weak, and that makes them too expensive. Flourish micros, and Flourish excel on the other hand are great products.

Algae, in general, IME/IMO is caused my limited nutrients more than it is caused by excess nutrients. So in the case of an algae outbreak I figure out what I am short of to solve it.

 

[Macrosill]

I must agree with the consensus that algae is caused by a nutrient deficiency. Last week I slacked off on my dosing and let Nitrates bottom out. Hair algae started to take hold. I got back on track with dosing, a weekly 50% pwc and pulled the little hair algae there was and have not had any come back. I am learning this dosing stuff, kudos to all the people here who have helped.