Just Noticed That Hair Algae Is Growing.....

[MarkR]

I have only had my tank set up for just over a week now and I have noticed that there is brown hair algae growing on the plants.

I have a Juwel Trigon 190 tank and the temp is set to 76f. The lights come on at 14:00 and go of at midnight (10 hours in total). I have only used a de-chlorinater in the water when I filled it up and gave it some Bactozym by Tetra just a few days ago to speed up the filter development etc. I have also bought some reflectors for the lights to enhance the brightness.

Is this to early for something this to happen? and most of all what can I do to calm this down?

I may try putting the lights on, on 3 hour periods (making 4 sessions totaling 12 hours). Will this work?

Thanks in advance.

 

[zig]

Dont worry this is perfectly normal in a new planted setup, what you are seeing are diatoms and they are unavoidable, they will clear up within 2-3 weeks or maybe sooner, just remove as much as you can manually an old toothbrush is good for this, just remove them daily until the diatoms peaked, your tank sure will look a mess but like i say pretty much unavoidable, ottos are also excellent at helping to clear a tank of diatoms.

Putting your lights on for 3 hour cycles is pointless it will not clear the diatoms, also it would not be enough time to allow the plants to photosyntesize properly.

 

[MarkR]

Thanks for the advice Zig and thank goodness this is normal.

What are Ottos BTW?