Hair Algae Problem

[Bex]

Hi all

We are having a bit of a hair algae problem growing on our plants. As soon as we get rid of it, the next day it has grown back again!! Grrrr

How can we get rid of this stuff? It's quite well attached to the plants and we have been cutting off leaves that are affected by it but it still comes back!

Please help!

 

[Silverlady]

How long is your lighting on for everyday,i reduced mine down to Ten Hours and i have a lot less now.

 

[ChrisP]

I had a bit of a problem with it a few weeks ago, I dropped my KNO3 dosing a little as I was overdosing slightly and got loads of hornwort growing in there and its dying off now.

Fastgrowers and the right conditions to keep them growing well are the key to outcombat the algae in my opinion.

 

[iamwhoiam]

do you have co2? i found that adding a single nutrafin co2 unit completely got rid of hair/thread algae in my tank

...alas, it's now green that's dominating =]

 

[Bex]

Thanks for all the replies!

We don't have co2 in the tank, it's 105 uk gals and the only co2 things i've seen for a tank that size are a little pricey. Was thinking of one for a future investment though.

We have some fast growing plants and the hair algae is growing on them?

Our lights have been on for 12 hours a day so maybe that is the problem. Will try reducing the light to 10 per day and see if that helps.

Are we doing the right thing by chopping off the leaves that are affected? We are doing that because every time we just took the algae of the leaves, it grew straight back on the same leaf!

This stuff is really annoying! The tank isn't heavily planted either which is why we didn't bother with co2 in the first place.

 

[Themuleous]

Yeh reduce to 10hrs, shrimp also help control this stuff too, if you could get you're hands on 30-50 (lots i know but this is a huuuuuge tank!) that'd probably sort it out I would think.

BTW I've got a CO2 system that would be ok for a 100g tank, and it only cost me 85ish quid, bargain!

Sam

 

[Bex]

Thanks Themuleous!

That's about the price that I saw for the co2 system - just don't have the funds at the mo - got hols coming up!

30-50 shrimp would look awesome in my tank but I think my syno catfish would think all his dreams had come true in one go and would have a massive midnight feast!

Will try less light for now and continue chopping it out.

Thanks for all your help guys!