Looking for advice

[Peterkin]

Hi I’m Pete. Live in Cornwall. I have a 120 ltr tank. Been keeping fish for quite a long time .I have a problem ,like I am sure other people might have. Green hair algae. I have had my new tank nearly 3 years. The first year was fine. Then I started getting the hair algae. It’s amazing. It grows by the hour. Looking for some advice. I have cut down the food. Do regular water changes. Cut down the hours of lighting, also add some hair algae treatment. Nothing seems to work. Any tips please would be great. Many thanks Pete .

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello Pete. Adding chemicals to the water isn't the answer. You don't know what the long term affect on your tank will be. This type of algae is really resistant to anything other than to physically remove it before it gets out of control. During my weekly water change, I've been forced to use a large toothbrush and turn the brush around and around several times to remove this type of algae. I leave the shorter algae alone. That's the type of hair algae that remains short and actually isn't bad looking. This process takes time, but will effectively remove the algae without the use of chemicals or lighting changes that might affect the plants.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

 

[Wills]

I've had a similar problem with brown hair algae, sometimes you just have to strip the tank down and start again.

Do you have any fast-growing plants in your tank? Something like any floating plant species, fast-growing stems like Limnophilla Sessiflora, Hygrophilla Siamensis 53b or one of the easy Pogosetmon species.

Wills

 

[Sgooosh]

Hi I’m Pete. Live in Cornwall. I have a 120 ltr tank. Been keeping fish for quite a long time .I have a problem ,like I am sure other people might have. Green hair algae. I have had my new tank nearly 3 years. The first year was fine. Then I started getting the hair algae. It’s amazing. It grows by the hour. Looking for some advice. I have cut down the food. Do regular water changes. Cut down the hours of lighting, also add some hair algae treatment. Nothing seems to work. Any tips please would be great. Many thanks Pete .

for me, the onslaught of hair algae just ended. it has started to all turn brown
i'm not sure what killed the algae, but i just did more water changes, sucked up debris and algae from rocks, and didn't change the lighting...
perhaps I got rid of the mulm that the algae lives off of.

 

[Back in the fold]

Very interesting what @Sgooosh said about the mulm. Certainly something to think about.

 

[GaryE]

I think what @Sgooosh may have seen is somethinbg I've noted but never bothered to research the reasons behind. In the life of a tank, you get algae flareups.I've had black brush pop up, last a few months and vanish. The same with green hair algae. I fight that with the toothbrush method, but it seems to come and go fairly randomly. I don't run any fancy high tech lighting and choose easy to grow plants, and the cycle of algae and no algae just wanders through the tanks. I haven't had brush algae this year, and hair algae was short lived.

I've wondered if the cause was outside my house, with the water supply changing. I have much better water in this house - chemically about the same on readings, but from a cleaner source. I have much less algae in my tanks, and fewer flareups while doing nothing differently.

 

[emeraldking]

Hi and welcome to TFF to start with...
If the hair algae is hard to fight, try good algae eaters. A lot of livebearers are great algae eaters. But so are Amano shrimps.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Hi I’m Pete. Live in Cornwall. I have a 120 ltr tank. Been keeping fish for quite a long time .I have a problem ,like I am sure other people might have. Green hair algae. I have had my new tank nearly 3 years. The first year was fine. Then I started getting the hair algae. It’s amazing. It grows by the hour. Looking for some advice. I have cut down the food. Do regular water changes. Cut down the hours of lighting, also add some hair algae treatment. Nothing seems to work. Any tips please would be great. Many thanks Pete .

Do you have any live plants in the tank? Any chance of a tank photo please?
I agree with the advice above- add more fast growing stem and floating plants to help outcompete the algae, manually remove hair algae with a bottle brush or un-unused for anything but fish things toothbrush.

I had similar experiences as @10 Tanks , battling hair algae with every weekly maintenance and water change on and off in the first 2-3 years, but I haven't had hair algae for quite a long time now, not sure what's changed. But I do have a decent amount of the shorter, bushy green algae still. I don't fight that unless it's taking over a spot where I don't want it, because it isn't horrible to look at, and it encourages micro-critters that my otos and pygmy cory fry feed on, I believe.

Hello Pete. Adding chemicals to the water isn't the answer. You don't know what the long term affect on your tank will be. This type of algae is really resistant to anything other than to physically remove it before it gets out of control. During my weekly water change, I've been forced to use a large toothbrush and turn the brush around and around several times to remove this type of algae. I leave the shorter algae alone. That's the type of hair algae that remains short and actually isn't bad looking. This process takes time, but will effective remove the algae without the use of chemicals or lighting changes that might affect the plants.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

 

[Byron]

@Peterkin we need to know if this is a planted tank (live plants of any kind) or not. The approach to algae is very different depending upon this factor.

Never but never use any algicide in a tank with plants or fish. There are ways to deal with "problem" algae that will work and are safe. First, the above question needs answering.

 

[seangee]

What type of lights do you have? if fluorescant the tubes may need replacement. I had a problem tank and ended up changing the lights (these were LEDs but old). Solved the problem for me as the light was simply producing too much red (in my case)
Not saying this is your problem. Problem algae is caused by an imbalance of something - could be light or one of a number of nutrients or minerals. To further complicate things it could be to much or too little of that something. it may take a while but to get to the bottom of it you have to change one thing at a time, or you won't find the cause.

 

[Sgooosh]

I think what @Sgooosh may have seen is somethinbg I've noted but never bothered to research the reasons behind. In the life of a tank, you get algae flareups.I've had black brush pop up, last a few months and vanish. The same with green hair algae. I fight that with the toothbrush method, but it seems to come and go fairly randomly. I don't run any fancy high tech lighting and choose easy to grow plants, and the cycle of algae and no algae just wanders through the tanks. I haven't had brush algae this year, and hair algae was short lived.

I've wondered if the cause was outside my house, with the water supply changing. I have much better water in this house - chemically about the same on readings, but from a cleaner source. I have much less algae in my tanks, and fewer flareups while doing nothing differently.

yep!
i have noticed a pattern:
diatoms, dieoff, black beard algae,^this dieoffof black beard algae was caused by getting a better light, finnex 24/7 dieoff, hair algae and/or cyanobacteria, die-off... I am not sure what is waiting for me next!

 

[GaryE]

I don't know if you have ever seen the kids' movie Totoro, but there are these dust sprite creatures in it. I am getting their algae form of in 2 of my tanks now. It's in the black brush group, but behaves differently. I never had it before I moved here.
Little tufts on the glass that never get more than a cm across. They are very stable, and never connect. I kind of like them but won't miss them when they decide to move on.

 

[Sgooosh]

I don't know if you have ever seen the kids' movie Totoro, but there are these dust sprite creatures in it. I am getting their algae form of in 2 of my tanks now. It's in the black brush group, but behaves differently. I never had it before I moved here.
Little tufts on the glass that never get more than a cm across. They are very stable, and never connect. I kind of like them but won't miss them when they decide to move on.

i've never seen that type of algae before!

(do they have little eyeballs as well?) lol

 

[Byron]

Rhonda Wilson in her monthly planted tank column in TFH said that she had a fish room with a couple dozen tanks, all much the same when it came to biology and chemistry. She noted that one type of algae would appear in tank "x" while a different species of algae would appear in tank "y" and so forth. She didn't know why, but there it was.

I have only ever had one of what I term "problem" algae, black brush (in its two most common forms, either will be in a tank).

 

[jaylach]

This won't help you unless you are looking for some new fish but recently I have had an outbreak of hair algae but it will probably be gone in less than a week. The outbreak has happened since I messed up and killed my Panda Garras which will be replaced in 3 days. Pandas eat about any type of algae, even including Black Beard, they are voracious algae eaters.

Oddly the hair algae has only manifested on my spider wood. There are no indications anywhere else.

Another great algae destroyer are fresh water scuds. These are very small crustaceans that are often used as live food for fish. They are also voracious algae eaters and are even kind of cute/pretty. I'm seriously considering getting a starter culture of these beasties as food for my cichlids and rope fish. The only problem is that you normally need to breed them in a different tank as they will be quickly eaten. Still I will probably try just dumping in my tank to see what happens. My tank is so heavily planted they may survive as a colony. If not I'll get a 5-10 gallon tank to breed. They are garbage disposals and will eat just about anything veggie including veggie table scraps.