Azaezl
Fishaholic
Ok so in my largest tank(juwel 240-55ukG) I've battled hair algae since buying it second hand back in January, just when I thought I'd beaten it, it would come back, no idea why, I did very regular very large water changes as well as trying regular smaller water changes. I pulled it out, I added more plants everything seemed to work, for a while but then it would come back. The main problem is the tank has one of those 3d foam backgrounds which I hate, it looks good but is a nightmare to keep clean esp. with the hair algae problem, I know it would have saved time(and hair pulling - mine!) if I'd just removed the background but I knew that this tank was only ever going to be a temporary tank so I put up with it.
Well I think I have it under control again, the background still gets a tiny amount ever few weeks but nowhere near as bad as before, my plants have been destroyed by snails
so had to get rid of alot of them and I'm not going to bother adding more because as I've said the tank is only temporary, I just need to figure out where the two replacements are going and then I can get rid of it.
Now to my point, one thing that really irritated me was the algae on my decor, namely the wood & caves I have. It used to grow very fast and I even ended up with black beard. So one day when I was putting baking soda / vinegar down my sink I thought...hmmm this is tuff enough to give the sink a good clean but it's stuff you can technically eat(not together!) so I thought I'd give it a try on the decor. Just one of those wild ideas I have sometimes, so I took the caves & wood out, smothered it in baking soda, then pured over the vinegar, a few fizzing moments later I gave it a good scrub, and got them cleaner then I ever have before(well without screaming & swearing for an hour with a toothbrush). Obviously I cleaned them thoroughly/soaked them in boiling water before putting them back in the tank and that was months ago, I haven't seen one bit of algae grow on them since, apart from one of the caves, I ran out of baking soda so couldn't cake it in soda just a light dusting but even that has very little growth.
Ok so it may have been a coincedence and maybe I'd just gotten the algae under control and thats' why it didn't grow, but as I said the cave that didn't get the full treatment has a tiny amount of growth and the background went a bit wild with hair algae when I was really ill a few weeks back. So I guess it's worth a shot if your suffering with algae on your decor, just remember to soak/clean it well.
The limescale marks is pretty simple, lemon juice. My kettle starts getting a layer of limescale on the bottom after only a few days so at least once a week I put the juice from 2 small lemons in there to get rid of it, well the other week I thought about using it to get rid of the limescale marks on the tank glass, normally takes ages with a wet wipe/sponge or whatever. Took me a few seconds with a mix of lemon juice & very hot water.
So there's my contribution to the algae problem, it might not work for anyone else, but it works for me so wanted to share
Hmmm now I'm wondering if a plant could cope with the old baking soda treatment, probably not but I might give it a shot, you don't try you don't learn
or in some cases you try try try and try again and never learn
Well I think I have it under control again, the background still gets a tiny amount ever few weeks but nowhere near as bad as before, my plants have been destroyed by snails
so had to get rid of alot of them and I'm not going to bother adding more because as I've said the tank is only temporary, I just need to figure out where the two replacements are going and then I can get rid of it.Now to my point, one thing that really irritated me was the algae on my decor, namely the wood & caves I have. It used to grow very fast and I even ended up with black beard. So one day when I was putting baking soda / vinegar down my sink I thought...hmmm this is tuff enough to give the sink a good clean but it's stuff you can technically eat(not together!) so I thought I'd give it a try on the decor. Just one of those wild ideas I have sometimes, so I took the caves & wood out, smothered it in baking soda, then pured over the vinegar, a few fizzing moments later I gave it a good scrub, and got them cleaner then I ever have before(well without screaming & swearing for an hour with a toothbrush). Obviously I cleaned them thoroughly/soaked them in boiling water before putting them back in the tank and that was months ago, I haven't seen one bit of algae grow on them since, apart from one of the caves, I ran out of baking soda so couldn't cake it in soda just a light dusting but even that has very little growth.
Ok so it may have been a coincedence and maybe I'd just gotten the algae under control and thats' why it didn't grow, but as I said the cave that didn't get the full treatment has a tiny amount of growth and the background went a bit wild with hair algae when I was really ill a few weeks back. So I guess it's worth a shot if your suffering with algae on your decor, just remember to soak/clean it well.
The limescale marks is pretty simple, lemon juice. My kettle starts getting a layer of limescale on the bottom after only a few days so at least once a week I put the juice from 2 small lemons in there to get rid of it, well the other week I thought about using it to get rid of the limescale marks on the tank glass, normally takes ages with a wet wipe/sponge or whatever. Took me a few seconds with a mix of lemon juice & very hot water.
So there's my contribution to the algae problem, it might not work for anyone else, but it works for me so wanted to share
Hmmm now I'm wondering if a plant could cope with the old baking soda treatment, probably not but I might give it a shot, you don't try you don't learn
or in some cases you try try try and try again and never learn 
I've yet to test out my wacky idea of doing it to plants, but when I do I'll post it on here, I have a feeling it will be a bad outocme and just melt the leaves or something, but it's worth a shot 
