Green Hair Algae Epidemic

[jellychris]

I have had an outbreak of a thin, hair-like algae which has attached itself and tangled into my rocks, plants, mosses and even my prized hemianthus callitrichoides (HC). It's in a 52 litre tropical community planted tank which is cleaned every 2 weeks. I have reduced lighting down to 6 hours a day (bad for my HC which needs high light) and I manually remove as much as I can.
But it won't go away!
I've had it for several weeks now and I'm fed up with it.
Any suggestions will be greatfully recieved.
Thanks,
Chris.

 

[DrRob]

Low nutrient levels (often because the plants were doing well and used them all up), low CO2. Both can equate to low flow in the tank, which can also be due to plants doing well and causing dead spots, where the low nutrient state favours the algae.
 
So tell us more about your set up and what you're doing with the high tech stuff and we'll see what doesn't sound right. Frequently it's something that looks right in theory but doesn't work in a particular tank, so full tank shots are useful as well.

 

[jellychris]

HI, thanks for replying
52 litre as I said, not to high tech it only has an internal sponge pump and a heater
Should I get a CO2 diffuser and a nutrient liquid to add?

 

[DrRob]

if you're supplying high light for the HC then you'll get algae unless you run the rest of the high tech stuff, so you really need to get, at the very least micronutrients, but, to be honest, you'll need macros and CO2 if you keep the higher lighting levels.

 

[SO19Firearms]

only has an internal sponge pump

Everything Rob says and a sponge filter probably won't cut it for your vision overall IMO - All them bubbles will be gassing off any CO2 you already have in the water - adding to your problems.

 

[ian]

Everything everyone else said and you don't need high light for HC.

 

[SLIM]

Everything above lol