I'm Ready To Quit. Green Hair Algae.

[Channti]

The tank is 5 gallons.
Divided.
Home to two bettas.

Filtered with an Elite Stingray 5 (rated for 5 gallons) and a Marineland Bio-Wheel Mini(Rated for 20 gallons)
Currently unheated due to temperature, but rocks out at between 75 and 78 degrees.


Here's the story:

I've been battling the green-hair algae since December of last year. Once a week, I change the water in the tank (about 50%), scrub all the ornaments and silk plants, and then put it all together again.

After fighting this for MONTHS, I finally gave up on the silk plants. I ripped them all out and replaced it with some Hygrophila and Frill from my 46 gallon planted tank. Everything was fine for a couple days, then the "little white things" showed up on the gravel and terracotta pot... 3 days later, first signs of green algae. Last night, I noticed a little more of it. Today I get home from work and it's EVERYWHERE.

I'm ready to rehome the bettas and quit. I'm so frustrated. I tried daily water changes; the stuff still came back. What can I do?. I'm at my wits end with that tank. It's been seven months of constant battle. It just won't go away!. I've even taken the tank apart, scrubbed everything, removed the filter material and put in mature media from other tanks, and put the tank back together. It's still come back!.

The tank is in my room, right next to a 10 gallon tank (but closer to the floor. No direct sunlight. Very light bioload on the tank. Lots of water circulation. What am I doing wrong?! I've never had this problem in any of my other tanks... ever!

 

[Curiosity101]

Have you tried letting it run it's course? Perhaps if you leave it it'll exhaust all the resources that are letting it return time after time. If you've tried everything else it's gotta be worth a shot.

 

[Channti]

I'll try that. The algae is on everything. From the gravel to the plants to the divider to the glass. The tank looks horrible.

 

[chesterjohn]

I don't know if this was the cause, but on 2 occasions, I let the hair algae grow fairly long, and both times the Ph spiked to the top of the chart (8.8) and maybe more. I read that algae can do that, so assume that is the culprit.

I have currently removed all plants from my tank and trying to clean out all of the algae before re-planting. Since the plants have gone, hardly any has grown. Even the algae on the snail's back has died down! lol

 

[Channti]

The tank had silk plants before; the algae was a problem even then.

The live plants were supposed to help with the water parameters. The hair algae has literally grown an inch and a half a day for 2 days.

 

[AstonN24vantage]

if you have any room (i'm not sure about this) but maybe you can get a chinese algae eater or a pleco or some snails or something. only 2 snails do a really good job with the algae in my tank but i dont have hair algae. hmm...

 

[RadaR]

Hair algae is associated with low CO2 (in a planted tank) and too much light. I think in your case, the latter is what you should focus on.
Decreasing the lighting intensity and photoperiod coupled with frequent water changes will help you.

 

[The-Wolf]

I think RadaR is on the right track so in addition to his good advise
I'll add
remove the gravel and either replace totally or wash (in a 10% bleach solution) rinse well (using a water dechloinator) and then replace it.
this should help stem the return of the algae

 

[aaronnorth]

What wattage lighting do you have over the tank? And what type? (T8/T5)
Is there any sunlight on the tank throughout the day?

Thanks, Aaron

 

[Channti]

It's two CFL bulbs lighting the tank. (http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/332705-cfl-bulbs-whats-my-watt-per-gallon-s/)

I had the problem with algae when there was incandescent bulbs on the tank though too.

The tank gets about 8 hours of light a day, no sunlight.

I'm so frustrated by this. There's algae -everywhere-....

 

[RadaR]

Yep too much light. It probably started when your tank was planted and they were suffering from carbon deficiency (you needed to give the plants liquid carbon or inject CO2). The plants are out now but the high light still keeps the algae there.

 

[Channti]

Yep too much light. It probably started when your tank was planted and they were suffering from carbon deficiency (you needed to give the plants liquid carbon or inject CO2). The plants are out now but the high light still keeps the algae there.

Then how did I have algae problems with incandescent lighting and silk plants? (long before the tank was planted with real plants.)

It's been the same algae problem, reoccuring. It's been there constantly, for close to seven months. The tank was only planted with real plants 2 weeks ago.

 

[RadaR]

Yep too much light. It probably started when your tank was planted and they were suffering from carbon deficiency (you needed to give the plants liquid carbon or inject CO2). The plants are out now but the high light still keeps the algae there.

Then how did I have algae problems with incandescent lighting and silk plants?

The incandescent lighting must have been to high too.
Light+ammonia= algae. The higher one of those factors are, the lower the other one needs to be. However, no light at all means you cannot get algae.