Living In The Jungle

[giganova]

Hi there --

after 4 months, my 29 gallon fish tank has turned into a jungle!
Now I am battling with black hair algae ... any idea what I can do?

 

[ox5477]

I would assume you've tried this and I don't know if it works on all algae, but in the middle of the day (the time you have your lights on), turn the light off for about and hour and then turn back on til when you normally turn the lights off. The break in "sunlight" will hurt the algae's nutrition but won't affect your plants. I don't know if you need to repeat this for a few days straight but I have heard this does a good job on algae busting

 

[cardinal sinner]

I've read in a book about giving the plants a "siesta" time. I was wondering about doing it myself.

 

[Neal]

That's to reduce the risk of getting algae, not getting rid of it. I'm not entirely sure but if you can remove it all, then i'd try that, and throw away any leaves that have it on. If you certainly cannot get rid of it, then a 3 day blackout in your tank will do good. Post in the plant section first though, as there could be a problem with nutrients and stuff.

Neal

 

[giganova]

Thanks, I'll try the "siesta" and 3-day blackout (poor fish!)

 

[RadaR]

BBA is a result of low CO2. Id suggest increasing your CO2 or/and making it more constant. I increased my CO2 to get rid of BBA and it worked.

 

[giganova]

BBA is a result of low CO2. Id suggest increasing your CO2 or/and making it more constant. I increased my CO2 to get rid of BBA and it worked.

That's interesting! I have Co2 with 1 bubble per second, but it doesn't seem to bother the algae.

 

[geo7x]

nice looking tank! I had hair algae problem until very recently. All I did to stop it was cut off the affected leaves and not have the light on as much. It was gone pretty quick.

 

[voo]

I had some black hair algae growing on my java ferns and read about using Seachem flourish excel to get rid of it. Some people used 'spot dosing' where the filter is turned off and the flourish excel is squirted directly onto the algae and left for a few minutes.

I tried this yesterday and by today the algae had turned red, a sign that it's dying already! I can't say if it's going to be successful as i've only just started.

 

[Spank]

nice looking tank!!

What's the plant you have on the right that has its' leaves on the waters' surface, I could do with some of that!!

 

[Shaun]

Very nice!!

 

[Sibelius]

Your neons are really striking, I like all the colours in your tank. Personally I believe there's only one way to sort out algae problems: Invade with Otocinclus!

 

[wei0204]

BBA is a result of low CO2. Id suggest increasing your CO2 or/and making it more constant. I increased my CO2 to get rid of BBA and it worked.

That's interesting! I have Co2 with 1 bubble per second, but it doesn't seem to bother the algae.

Yeah I have good CO2 supply for a small tank yet it still got algae too...

What I am doing now is pluck off the leaves with hair algae and the hair algae on my drift wood, while waiting for a good solution to come in. I really interested to know how this hair algae forms and the method to get rid of it effectively...