# Hair algae and brush algae



## fedge (Mar 4, 2004)

Hair algae and brush algae

My tank is a 20L 55watt pc GE bulb 12 hours a day ( im cutting it to 10 hours now...cause rotala starts to close up for the night after about 11 hours)

H20
(the ranges are to compensate for test inaccuracies)
*ph ~7.0-7.2 *
*kh ~10-11*
*gh ~11-14*
*nh4 0 *
*no2 0*
*no3 5-10* (try to keep it there with Kno3...I boosted it at first but now it stays there and I only add a drop of the Kno3 solution every other day or so... I have {2tsp to 100ml of dis-water})
*po4 ~.2-.5 *I have to dose this daily to keep that way otherwise it goes down to .1...
*fe ~.1-.2 *I dont dose for this...

Co2 ~ 15-20ppm varies... hagen system

Now.. I have a lot of LONG stringy looking hair algae.. waves in the water.. and a clump of brushy green algae in the back by the gravel level but above my horizontal heater. I also have a lot spot algae growing.

SO... will this go away if I keep my phosphates an nitrates stable.. or should i quite dosing them.. and just wait..???

The plants have been in the tank for approximatly three weeks.. or so... I did do a major cut back and bleach dip of the plants to combat this algae.. but it didn't help at all.

Rotala indica
Ludwiga repens
Pennywort
Senegalis
Gracilis
marimo balls

fish

about 25 platy juviniles... (im planning on only keepiing the best of the best out of these.. they are tiny babies.. less than a 1/4 inch and don't eat much)
3 ghost/amano shrimp.. not sure.. they eat missed food and some algae
2 ottos
X snails I keep trying to kill of but more keep apearing..!!


----------



## ninoboy (Jan 26, 2004)

Many including me had the same exact problem before. It looks like you get all the macros levels in check so just cut back on micro fert (flourish/plantex) if you use any. Your tank are still new so those algae problems are not really too much of concern. Couple of my tanks took 3 months to balance themselves and those algaes just suddenly dissapeared. Be patientroud:


----------



## fedge (Mar 4, 2004)

That is what I am hoping is the course of action..


I did notice that my platies or someone has been eating up some of the longer strands of algae. I think I may be a touch deficient on K though(yellowing/loss of leaves or stunted growth on some plants--unless I dose a drop of Kno3).. plan on picking up some KCl today to dose it higher.


----------

