Help Green Hair Algae

[qkingston]

It goes from bad to more bad! After having lost most of my fish to a freak overnight syphoning drama, the refilled, slightly re-stocked tank now has a mega green hair algae attack. All over the plants, sides of the tank and murky water. The algae eater and amano shrimps don't seem to be making much impact and the algae seems to grow as fast as I can clean and water change. I've cut down on food, reduced the lighting period and tried to make sure that not too much sunlight is falling on the tank. What methods really work for getting rid of it? Is there a proven product that will get rid without harming the fish?

Many thanks

 

[qkingston]

Please

 

[Gilli]

Green hair algae thrive when the nitrate levels are allowed to exceed 10 ppm and a sudden hair algae boom in the aquarium is often a sign of poor water management. Check the water quality on a regular basis and carry out frequent water changes. Also leaving the lights on for long periods of time will make it worse - cut down on the lighting time, you only need the lights on for between 10-12 hours a day.

Continue to remove it by hand. When I had a spurt of it years ago I drained my water down to a few inches (just enough for the fish to be comfortable ) and left it for an hour. I then pulled as much off as I could and because it had dried out the rest just died and didnt re-grow.

 

[BigbruiserAl]

My quick 2p worth, lights make no difference to fish and are used for our viewing pleasure also in a normal low tech tank there is little benefit more then 8 hours i read ofc high tech c02 is different

 

[qkingston]

Hi,
Thanks for the suggestions, I have cut down light levels done frequent 20% water changes and the water is now a cloudy green! Water readings are all normal, ie zero for ammonia/nitrite, 5 for nitrate, pH slightly elevated at 7.7 temp 26.
Artificial decorations manually cleaned, but how do I clean live plants??

 

[BigbruiserAl]

I get cloudy green water about once a year and it's always due to natural sun light coming through the patio doors. In the end I got some black out curtains and the problem went, I did remove the hair algae with a toothbrush with some 60% water changes and a dose or two of secheam excel, cleared up after a week or so