Hair Algae

[julibob]

Here is the situation.

Lots of rocks and some real plants (vallis, anubias) in my tank.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Ph 8.2
Phosphate 0.5
Temp 77 degrees

Here is a pic of the lovely green hair algae that is growing on glass, rocks and plants. I'm sure that if the fish stay still long enough it will grow on them too! The rock in the photo has been in the tank only 2 weeks . I am not adding any more fish and dont really want to use chemicals. Lights are on for approx 8 hrs per day and is not in direct sunlight. I have giant greenX tea bags in the external filter, but it just keeps on growing!!!

Any suggestions?

I can cope with the glass despite the stuff being welded on with superglue, but the rocks and plants pose a more difficult problem.

Julia

 

[Teelie]

IMO, it looks nice and more natural on the rocks. The plants though, they probably don't appreciate it as much. The algae is getting enough nutrients to grow on so my suggestion is less nutrients or more plants.

 

[julibob]

What nutrients would it be getting though? There is minimal Nitrates and minimal Phosphates.

Julia

 

[Teelie]

If there are minimal amounts of those, then it must be feeding off something else. I'm trying to think up what other nutrients might be in thee. Iron Oxide (rust) comes to mind but you usually get that in saltwater, not fresh.

 

[millym]

hi there,
we've just been through a nightmare battle with horrible black furry algae(black beard) it grew on everything plants rocks & as you said probably would have grown on our fish if theyd stayed still for more than a few secs, it wasnt the same as your green stuff ours looked FAR worse. we tried everything suggested & have finally finally started to see an improvement with rowaphos (phos remover) in filter, i know you dont have a prob with this but i'll just tell you all we did to get rid of our stuff, i made myself severely cut down on food - i think i was very guitly of overfeeding - couldnt help it when all our fish were wriggling around begging me at the front of the tank!!!!!!!!& we have added a lighting break during the day ie: we do lights on from 8-1300hrs off 1300hrs -1500hrs then on again 1500hrs - 1900hrs,using a timer, since we introduced a light break we've noticed a huge improvement. i dont know if it was just this or a combination of all 3 but our black algae has gone completely. we do now have some green tufty stuff on our rocks but it doesnt bother us as it looks natural (the black stuff didnt) & our otos seem to love it......& our tank looks 100% better than 2 months ago.
good luck
oh & i saw a post here recently where someone had posted a pic of one of his snails that had green tufty algae growing on it...........it was quite funny