Hair Algea Problem

[Ps3Steveo]

Drain the water to below the algae, mix up carbon with water in spray bottle about 10ml carbon to 100ml water, spray the affected areas, wait 2 mins and re fill, after that I'd stop using it.

 

[FishLover66]

Ok, in my case, the hair algae, or at least I think it's hair algae, looks much worse than the pictures here. They are long, blackish color, but really very dark green, and grow like crazy--within a week, my Amazon sword looks like it's wearing a wig.

I don't use CO2, but do dose liquid fertilizer at every water change, but only enough for the new water, as I don't want to overdo it. I also placed fertilizer tabs in the sand when I planted it--been a couple months.

The light is on from the time I leave for work in the morning until after supper (approx 11 hours) and I have a double bright LED, which came with the tank since it's 20" deep. So, I'm guessing I'm using too much light and need to get a timer to shut it off mid-day for a couple hours. But do I need to up the fertilizer? How do I know if I'm using too much?

 

[Ps3Steveo]

What's the wattage of your LED's FIshlover66, oh and tank size? P.S. Should always dose nutrients daily as the level is more uniform.

 

[FishLover66]

Here are the specs:

http/www.marineland.com/sites/marineland/products/detail.aspx?id=3403

Mine is the 18 - 24" model. My tank is a Marineland 27 Cube (approx 20 x 20 x 18). The taller the plants, the more hair algae. The smaller plants don't have any and look good.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Fishlover you using CO2 and ferts as that a lot of light?

 

[FishLover66]

I'm not using Co2 and only dosing ferts at water changes, but only for the water I add. So if I up the fertilizer (and reduce the number of hours I run the lights), that will get rid of the hair algae? How do I know if I'm dosing too much fertilizer? Is there a water test I should get?

 

[Ps3Steveo]

What ferts are you dosing? Also what's your photo period?

 

[FishLover66]

I'm not completely sure, but I think It's AP Leaf Zone.

As far as the photo period, I assume you are looking for the time period that I have my lights on. I put the lights on before I leave for work (around 7:45 a.m.) just before I feed them and then shut the light off after I eat supper and feed them (between 7:30 and 8 pm). So that's around 12 hours. I know my lighting is bright for the top part of my aquarium, but I had some trouble growing smaller plants that need more lighting--the tall plants are doing GREAT! I do have some very healthy smaller plants, but none of them require a lot of light.

Should I get a timer to shut off the lighting for a couple hours during the day and/or get some floating plants to cut down on the bright light?