A Bit Puzzled

[tunagirll]

I'm still relatively new to planted tanks and the use of CO2. First parameters:
 
Tank size 28L
hardness: 5
normal pH: 7.4
plants: java fern, anubias, small crypt, blyxa japonica
light: aquaone 8W, 6 hours daily
CO2: fluval 88, one bubble every 2-3 seconds
micro: flourish trace, 1/4 cap twice a week
iron: extra 0.2ppm weekly
macro: blue planet thrive (phosphate free) 3mL twice weekly
fish: betta, three kuhli loaches
filtered, low flow
 

 
So I've been using CO2 for about a month and continue to have green hair algae problems. We had to evac and leave the tank at home for about 3 days without light which killed most of the existing algae but it's come back over the past two weeks and brought a buddy, a little black beard algae.
 
Nothing seems to be growing either, but looks relatively healthy. Getting a lot of nitrates in this tank which I think was down to the algae dying plus some melt on my japonica after thinning the patch.
 
I'm not sure what to try to change first to stop the problem. I know I can hit it with excel but I'd like to stop the problem as well. What's the best first thing to increase/decrease?
 
Cheers Sil

 

[KirkyArcher]

Are you 100% sure it's hair algae and not Cladophora? BBA can be reduced with liquid co2 dosing ontop of you co2 which increasing to 1bps would go a long way in reducing both forms, sometimes excessive Iron dosing the water coloum can encourage the growth of these algae best to inject it into the substrate around the roots or use plant tabs with iron instead.

 

[tunagirll]

I'm not skilled enough to tell much apart; I'll take some photos and pop them up. 

 

[tunagirll]

Okay here are a couple of pics of the algae
 

 
You can see it a little bit on the fern here too
 

 

[KirkyArcher]

If you get your hands in the tank and rub the filaments between your fingers if it feels coarse its most likely Cladophora, again most filamentous algae is caused by insufficient CO2, or poor flow, sometimes by too many ferts or overfeeding fish, I'd start with getting CO2 to around 1 bps mainly as your drop checker looks way more blue than green.

 

[tunagirll]

Thanks guys, I think it's Cladophora then. I've upped my CO2 to 1bps and will pick up some more excel in the next few days. I'll leave off adding iron separately and see how it settles. Cheers

 

[tunagirll]

Just an update, definitely was not enough CO2, my moss is jumping away