# Green hair algae epidemic



## HSakhi (Oct 1, 2016)

Hi. Recently (two weeks ago), my tank got a huge outburst of green hair algae. I then introduced 4 mystery snails as they love to eat hair algae. However, they are being easily overwhelmed by all this algae. What should I do now? I will later on send a pic of the problem.
Thanks.



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## Bananableps (Nov 6, 2013)

We're going to need some more information.

Lighting.

Substrate.

Carbon source.

Ferts.

Stock.


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## HSakhi (Oct 1, 2016)

Lighting: Fluval 2.0 plant LED.

Substrate: black aquarium gravel.

Carbon source: none

Ferts: Flourish (weekly)

Stock: 
1 silver hatchet (will givaway soon)
2 long fin zebra danios (will be given away also)
7 neons
1 apistogramma 
1 quarter size koi angel
1 BN pleco
4 mystery snails 


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Also it's the standard 29 gallon size 

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Here are some pics of the problem.



















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It is the green blobs in the back of the glass tank.

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Someone please advise me as it is getting worse by the day. 

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## Mr. Bean (Jul 10, 2016)

Wow, that's a lot of algae...I feel for you! Others may disagree, I am no expert. But, the first thing I'd do is stop dosing ferts, limit the lighting to 4-6 hours a day, clean out as much algae as you can by hand, do a couple of water changes a week (maybe 25-40% each time) and start dosing Excel. Within a couple of weeks you should see a gradual die off of the algae, but keep up the regime!

Once you get it cleaned up, if you want a planted tank with a plant light like you have, you really need to be careful with the amount of fertilzer you dose AND have a carbon source. Dosing without a carbon source with full spectrum lighting is a sure way to get algae. The carbon source helps the plant absorb the nutrients; too many nutrients in the water combined with a lot of light and no carbon is throwing the system off balance.

I would welcome anyone else's thoughts on that, if I"m off base please say so!


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