Hair algea

[edmlfc]

Re: Hair algea

Here are two close ups. When I touched it, it feels real coarse not slimey. I don't know if that makes a difference.

[edmlfc]

Re: Hair algea

And another with the roots covered in it.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Hair algea

What is your fish stocking on this tank and how much/often are you feeding?
What do you have for filtration/circulation in this tank?

From just looking at the pictures I would say that you have too much light and not enough plants....if you are overfeeding and heavily stocked then that will just fuel the algae even more. What happens with that is that the fish as well as fish food will provide nutrients available for plant/algae uptake, with the increase in lighting you have added it helps either grow better and make use of those nutrients.....if the plants aren't taking it in then the algae is.

You should try adding a few fast growing plants to help absorb excess nutrients which would starve the algae and definitely cut the photo-period back! I would go to the extreme and say between 6-8hrs till you get your problem under control.

With the Excel....try using a syringe/liquid medicine syringe to inject right onto the algae but make sure you do not use any more then 3x the rec. daily dosage and turn of filtration till you have finish to give it a more potent effect. Do this for a few days and with the above suggestions the algae will more then likely bleach in color and disappear.

[edmlfc]

Re: Hair algea

90 gallon: In this tank I have the triple tube lights  t-8(I just took out one bulb 32 watts each) lights on 12noon off 8:30pm (starting today).
I use a Rena xp3 & 1 power head (maxijet 1200), and my stocking list is:
6 angelfish
4 Adult apisto's
6 Apisto fry
3 Small clown loaches
2 Blue Rams
I feed once a day very min. (usually last less than a minute)
Ammo. 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Ph 6.2-6.4
w/c 2X weekly 25%
The algea started after changing the lights. Before the triple tube I had a single tube (flora bulb I think) on this tank. I changed out the lights last thursday and bam! And I thought these lights would not be enough for a planted tank.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Hair algea

The lighting is a bit on the low side but the fact that you have hardly any plants in there and probably lots of nutrients in the water fueling the lights set it over the top.

If feeding last more then a minute that might be overfeeding....I feed and it usually last seconds and with that many fish I think yours should be the same.

With the bulbs.... I would just leave all three running and just cut back on your photo-period...this way the bulbs all age the same

[edmlfc]

Re: Hair algea

Ok, I put the light back in.  I would say the food last about 30 seconds maybe a little longer in that tank. I feed the sinking NLS pellets and 90% of the pellets don't make it to the bottom of the tank. Most of the bottom swimmers come up to the top to eat. I'll try feeding less and see what happenes. I'll also add a few more plants tomorrow and see if that might help.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Hair algea

With NLS a little goes a long way....

[Mzungu]

Re: Hair algea

I wouldn't think the fish are being overfed, because the nitrates are so low. ?? It would seem that there would be a lot more nitrates in there if food was accumulating.

GREAT pictures, by the way! Thanks for posting them!! I've been looking around for a while, because it looks a lot like "Staghorn" algae (compsopogon) but you say it's not slimy. The staghorn algae I've felt before had a bit of a slimy feel to it. But, there are lots of different kinds, and I could be remembering incorrectly, too.  :)

Maybe someone else can help, but I'm not sure that's algae on the roots? It could just be the roots themselves...

Well, my advice for now would definitely be to dose Excel. I think that would get rid of it very quickly. (I remember the staghorn I had turned reddish within a couple of days of dosing Excel, and then disappeared a couple of days after that.)

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Hair algea

You gotta keep in mind that not only are the plants soaking up the nitrates but the algae as well....

[Mzungu]

Re: Hair algea

Right, but in the full tank shot, there aren't tons of plants in there...

[edmlfc]

Re: Hair algea

Well I picked up one plant yesterday and 4 longfin Rosey barbs. The barbs are in qt right now. As soon as qt is over I will move them to the 90 gallon. And I couldn't find any seachem excel, but I have one more place to go tomorrow and hopefully they will have it. I'll probally pick up a few more plants tomorrow too. Thanks for the help.

[Mzungu]

Re: Hair algea

That's strange that you couldn't find Excel. Good luck today, though!

What kind of plant did you pick up?

[edmlfc]

Re: Hair algea

Probally spelling it wrong but it's an anabius, not sure what kind. I did look at the anabius nana. I might get one of those tomorrow. The two fish stores I went too yesterday are private owned and they don't have much as far as supplies. I'm going to try and go by petsmart or petco in the morning. I'm sure one of them should have it.

[edmlfc]

Re: Hair algea

I knew I spelled it wrong.  It's anabius.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Hair algea

Anubias is also a slow growing plant.....very simple to take care of and slow growing in most cases as well.