Hair Algae Help

EthanG

EthanG

Member
Hey all,

I have a 20g Long planted tank that has some hair algae. By some, I mean if I don't manually remove weekly, it gets out of hand, very quickly. I recently did a major plucking and scrubbing - but I dont want to be spending 5 hours every Saturday just because of algae.

Can someone look at my situation and let me know where I may be going wrong? Corey's video on algae was helpful (helpful enough for me to send him those timestamps so I could easily refer back to it!), but I'm just a little at a loss at the moment and need another set of eyes.

Plants:
Cambomba
Moneywort
Chain Sword
Anubias(hastifolia)
Ludwigia (narrow leaf) small bit.

Lighting (this is the confusing bit as it is DIY):
(see here for pics: http://www.wafishbox.com/forums/threads/aqueon-deluxe-full-hood-led-modification.12785/)
Roughly 35W of 5000K LEDs
+
Roughly 10W of Purple-ish RGB LEDs
+
T8 "Full Spectrum" Aqueon Bulb

Lights turn on at 9AM and off at 6PM (9hrs)

Ferts:
I dose Excel every other day, along with Flourish Comp twice a week using reccomended dosage amounts on bottle.
I used to dose Flourish less often (once a week after water change) but decided to do more to see if that would help battle with algae, but it did not.

Fish:
8 Neon tetras
2 Badis
3 Ottos
1 Male Betta
Way too many pond snails due to eggs on plants I got. (getting assassin snail tomorrow).

Questions:
I'm just not sure what to increase/decrease. I am not sure if I have a "medium light" setup or medium-high, or low - which then throws me off as to if I have a fert deficiency, or an over-abundance.
I also am considering some more algae eating fish to help in the battle, but what could I add (list of existing fish above).

Pic for attention:
 
julzhull

julzhull

Well-Known Member
I had a big problem with green hair algae in my 7g nano. We ended up purchasing a new lower light for it (the one that came with it was just too much light). That seemed to fix it for us, within a couple weeks I realized it was completely gone. Thank goodness, it was irritating dealing with that in my Christmas moss.
 
M

mvrck

New Member
If it's a 20 long you'd probably be safe with a Flag Fish to help combat the algae. But honestly I'd just reduce the time your lights are on. Break it up into two smaller shifts seems to help a ton. One three hour stint, one five hour one when you'll be viewing the tank the most.
 
Dmf

Dmf

Active Member
You can always get some shrimp. Amano Shrimp are supposed to be very good at cleaning up algae. Good luck!
 
EthanG

EthanG

Member
Hi All, just a quick update. Purchased two Siamese Algae Eaters, and they murdered the hair algae in a few weeks along with my weekly cleanings. Would highly recommend those guys, and they are an interesting fish as well - not just a boring tank cleaner!
 
Mike16T

Mike16T

Well-Known Member
You also might need to reduce your photo period if it is on going. You can also add some plant(s) that is nutrient hog.
As others mentioned, Amano shrimps or Malawa shrimps are good algae eaters. You can also do a spot treatment on algae using hydrogen peroxide (Much cheaper alternative to Seachem Excel). You can buy a bottle of it at Target for under $2. Just use a dull tip syringe.
 
VickiK

VickiK

Member with a lot to say
Mike16T said:
You also might need to reduce your photo period if it is on going. You can also add some plant(s) that is nutrient hog.
As others mentioned, Amano shrimps or Malawa shrimps are good algae eaters. You can also do a spot treatment on algae using hydrogen peroxide (Much cheaper alternative to Seachem Excel). You can buy a bottle of it at Target for under $2. Just use a dull tip syringe.
Click to expand...

Steenfott Aquatics has a video on this very thing - hydrogen peroxide treatment. I tried it myself - but I don't think I did a good enough job. The marvelous SAEs I got from @julzhull did the trick and continue to work their algae loving butts off around the other tanks. I now am attached to them so I call them Mannie, Moe and Jack.
 
Bob

Bob

Well-Known Member
VickiK said:
Steenfott Aquatics has a video on this very thing - hydrogen peroxide treatment. I tried it myself - but I don't think I did a good enough job. The marvelous SAEs I got from @julzhull did the trick and continue to work their algae loving butts off around the other tanks. I now am attached to them so I call them Mannie, Moe and Jack.
Click to expand...
I used h2o2 for black beard algae not hair algae :) SAE will do great for hair algae although they will outgrow your tank so you still may want to figure out the cause.
 
julzhull

julzhull

Well-Known Member
Mike16T said:
Used it.. It's ok... I like Hydrogen Peroxide better..
Click to expand...
My main concern is I can't easily take the whole clump out to treat since I'd likely lose some shrimp in the process. So I've been considering this to treat the whole thing. I need to be more consistent with my fertilizing and probably shorten the light cycle a bit. It's only on for maybe 8-9 hours but that might be too long?
 
Mike16T

Mike16T

Well-Known Member
julzhull said:
My main concern is I can't easily take the whole clump out to treat since I'd likely lose some shrimp in the process. So I've been considering this to treat the whole thing. I need to be more consistent with my fertilizing and probably shorten the light cycle a bit. It's only on for maybe 8-9 hours but that might be too long?
Click to expand...

That's not only.. That's pretty long.. Have you considered shortening the light period? Also, how much fertilization are you doing? Overdosing ferts can lead to algae growth also if you're not doing big WC.
 
julzhull

julzhull

Well-Known Member
Mike16T said:
That's not only.. That's pretty long.. Have you considered shortening the light period? Also, how much fertilization are you doing? Overdosing ferts can lead to algae growth also if you're not doing big WC.
Click to expand...
Maybe I'll do staggered lighting, so some early in the day and some later on and then shorten the amount of light as well. It's a little long but it's hard to leave lights off when you want to see your shrimp! ;)

I really only fertilize once every 2-3 weeks because that's as often as I remember. They're definitely not getting overdosed.
 
Mike16T

Mike16T

Well-Known Member
julzhull said:
Maybe I'll do staggered lighting, so some early in the day and some later on and then shorten the amount of light as well. It's a little long but it's hard to leave lights off when you want to see your shrimp! ;)

I really only fertilize once every 2-3 weeks because that's as often as I remember. They're definitely not getting overdosed.
Click to expand...

Too much light can also lead to algae growth. I know I do have too much light in my shrimp tank. I don't have hair algae, but I have a lot of staghorn and some BGA (They down really spread or grow in my tank, kinda suppressed it, don't know how). My light period in my current shrimp tank is 7 hours. It used to be 9 hours but BGA and hair algae grew so I reduced it to 7 hours and maintained once a week of ferts. I have a lot of plants in there that why..
 
Loren

Loren

Well-Known Member
VickiK said:
Steenfott Aquatics has a video on this very thing - hydrogen peroxide treatment. I tried it myself - but I don't think I did a good enough job. The marvelous SAEs I got from @julzhull did the trick and continue to work their algae loving butts off around the other tanks. I now am attached to them so I call them Mannie, Moe and Jack.
Click to expand...
I did such a great job using hydrogen peroxide that I killed off almost all of my fish.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top