Grrr Hair Algae

[catxx]

ok my poor old 7.5 gallon has recently come under an invasion of horrible hair algae all over the plants.

it's so ugly. i have a spixi apple snail, but he prefers to eat the vallis over the algae
there's also ukky spot algae (brown and green) on the glass.

so i think i'm going to tear the tank down (only occupiers are a betta and the spixi), put sand in instead of algae-coated gravel and plant with new plants, what do you recommend??! there's only the basic lighting in there, 1w per gallon pretty much, i feed with root tabs & liquid ferts. the plants in there have just got TOO big now and started to just get really tatty.
i'm going to keep the bogwood and java fern though.

i'm completely n00b when it comes to plants, and i want to order from greenline, i've got somethings from there before, but had mixed success with them! (the plants arrived fine, but my care of them afterwards leaves a lot to be desired!)
i need something tallish as the betta likes to snuggle in it.

what would YOU do?!

 

[catxx]

noone?

 

[Dave Spencer]

Otos will eat the brown diatoms on the glass, so get some of these and ditch the snail if he is eating your Vallis.

If your water is soft (like mine), it could be that your Vallis will not grow particularly well. Get rid of this and get some Hygrophilia Polysperma. It should grow OK, and give your Betta something to mooch around in. Your best defence against algae is a lot of healthy plants. How about some Java Moss on the wood?

 

[catxx]

i've had otos in there. 2 died and i relocated the lonely one to a much more algae-fied endler tank. i have 2 others in an equally hairy tank heh! the hairy stuff is more prominant than the brown stuff, which is easily taken care of with an algae scraper.

my water is rock hard london water 7.8-8 unfortunately. i don't like the look of java moss much...it's a bit too...mad and messy...or maybe i've just seen bad tanks?