Hair algea

[edmlfc]

I received my new lights last week put them on the tank and now I have hair algea growing out of control on my drifwood and java fern plants. Also now have green algea growing on my driftwood. My question is what fish can I get to eat this stuff? Chinese Algea Eater? or do you have another suggestion.
The light must be pretty good because I never had this problem before.  Now if only the plants would start to grow!

Here's how it went:
I put the new lights on the tank Thursday. (all glass triple tube) The new lights are on the same timer as the old lights. They come on at 7:00am and go off 8:30pm. Before the triple tube, I only had a singel tube light on the tank (flora glow tube light, I think). Should I shorten the time to 12 hours?

[Mzungu]

Re: Hair algea

Should I shorten the time to 12 hours?

Yes yes yes.
:)

That will greatly help in eliminating the algae, once you figure out how you're going to combat it.

We've had the hair algae discussion on here a few times, so I'll look around for other posts to link you to.

In short, I've used scuds and Flourish Excel with success. As for fish - Flagfish (Jordanella floridae) and Rosy barbs are about the only fishes that eat this stuff. No matter what method I've used, though, I have always shortened the photoperiod and removed as much as I could manually. I've also heard and observed that fish that do eat hair algae tend to prefer the newer growth, so removing all you can helps in that way, too. If you see some on the glass, make sure you use your fingernail or a razorblade-like-tool to get the actual (hmm...whaddayoucallit...) "origin point" (don't know the name) of the hair algae strands. If you don't, they'll just grow right back.

Edit - a couple other things to add:
-It might be a good idea to even shorten the photoperiod to 10 or 11 hours. I had an outbreak of hair algae when I did almost the exact same thing as you - doubled the lighting over my tank. BOOM - hair algae all over the place. Yuck!
-Following that, are all three tubes on the same plug/ballast? Or is it possible to only have 2 of them on instead of all 3?
-And, finally, what kind of bulbs are you using?

[edmlfc]

Re: Hair algea

I am using the bulbs that came with the light (32w each) They are all on the same ballast but I could undo one or two.
So I need to reduce the photoperiod to 10 hours, remove the plants with the hair algea on it, scrubb the driftwood and get some Flagfish or Rosy barbs.
Anything else I need to do to keep it from coming back?

[wesleydnunder]

Re: Hair algea

Sounds like you may have added enough light to need carbon and ferts. I agree in dropping the photoperiod to 10 hours, or maybe less. I'd caution against buying fish to combat algae. If you get the tank balanced, algae won't be an issue. For a small tank Excel can be a good option. For larger tanks it can get expensive. A method I've read gave good results was using a syringe to inject the dose of excel directly onto the algae patches. In the meantime, I agree with manually removing as much as you can until you find you tank's balance. A toothbrush twirled in the algae will grab it if the algae's long enough.

Mark

[edmlfc]

Re: Hair algea

It's about 1/4 inch right now. I found an article about algone, has anyone ever used it?
I have no co2 and I don't use fert. on this tank. Also I have not been running carbon in the filter.
Should I had carbon and fert.?

[edmlfc]

Re: Hair algea

Just found another article that says gold barbs eat it. Is this the same as Rosy barbs?

[wesleydnunder]

Re: Hair algea

When I mentioned carbon, I was referring to excel or co2.


Mark

[edmlfc]

Re: Hair algea

Just learned something new. hehehe

[Mzungu]

Re: Hair algea

From my experience, it doesn't matter what kind of balance you might have, when hair algae is introduced, it does well unless you actively fight it.  

I wouldn't use any algaecides.

I don't add carbon in most of my tanks' filters, so I don't necessarily see the need.

I agree that it's better to deal with the problem than add things to fix it. I was just listing what's worked for me in the past.

I've seen that Excel method with the syringe, as well. But if I'm not mistaken, this is a pretty large tank? If you can afford to get a CO2 system setup for the tank, that would really help.

[Mzungu]

Re: Hair algea

Could you post a link to the article?

I don't think they're the same as Rosy barbs.

[edmlfc]

Re: Hair algea

What about Black Mollies, if I remember right I read something about that a few days ago. I'll try to find the link again.

[edmlfc]

Re: Hair algea

Here's the link:

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/hair-algae.html

[edmlfc]

Re: Hair algea

Forget the mollies, just found this article. It's pretty good and might help others.

https://www.aquariumsecrets.com/Algae%20Eaters.htm

It also talks about the gold barbs, rosy barbs and flag fish.

[edmlfc]

Re: Hair algea

Mzungu, have to spend money on gas, it's really tight right now and I cannot afford to set up co2. I really didn't want to do a tank where I had to use any co2 either. I didn't want to add to my monthy tank expense. I need to find algea eating fish that might be available at the 3 lfs that I have here in Bmt. Really not much to choose from. I'll be lucky to find anything. I can do the excel. I know I have seen that at petsmart here in town. I was also reading that if you add more plants it would compete with the algea and possibly kill it off. Do you know if this may be true? I do have other plants I can put in this tank but I wasn't quite ready to do that just yet.
Btw: This tank is a 90 gallon.
I really appericate your help. I was going to just pull out the java fern throw it away and scrub the driftwood let it dry out in the sun and try again. I would rather be able to keep the java fern if I can.

[Mzungu]

Re: Hair algea

I completely understand that! CO2 is expensive.  :)

Just to clarify, you say the algae is only about 1/4 inch long? Even though there's a bit of bickering, I like the Krib site 100 times more than the other link. There you can see the author of the posts (includes some well known plant people whose info I would trust) and they also address the issue of what exactly is meant by "hair algae." If the algae you have is staying at such a short length, you may not have that almost-impossible-to-kill algae, and might have a much wider range of options to treat it.

I've seen the "add more plants" advice a lot, but truthfully, if this is hair algae as I know it, you'll just be adding more places for it to take over.  :) I'd advise you to keep the other plants away from it.

Is it just growing on the DW and java fern?