# Bad case of freshwater hair algae - help!



## Clear Water (Sep 20, 2014)

How long are you running your lights? I had this problem and it was a matter of cutting my length of time.


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

But which LED light ?
If the light is too intense it will not help much to shorten the hrs of it.
Current does play a role in hair algae. But back to that too intense thing.
Raising it will dilute the intensity of it.

BTW: A close picture would help.


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## lamiskool (Jul 1, 2011)

For some reason the pic won't upload for me, do u have another link? I just want to make sure what ur talking about if hair algae and not another type of algae named clad algae/blanket algae. If it is hair algae and its a huge outbreak I would look unto the one two punch method and then from there on decrease the light intensity/duration and increase water flow. Also make sure to do 50% water changes. This helped a lot when I had this problem in one of my tanks


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## victorng (Aug 25, 2013)

*Re-posted picture*

Hi, 
I fixed the problem with my image link and re-posted a picture of the "hair" algae problem I'm experiencing.

Bump: I'm using the Current USA Satellite Freshwater+ LED 36" light:
http://www.amazon.com/Current-USA-Satellite-Freshwater-Aquarium/dp/B00C7OTF9E/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1416897962&sr=8-2&keywords=current+usa+led

The light sits on top of my 12" long, so it's only about 10" high on top of a 7-8 inch high water level - so it's fair to say the light will be intense. The light does come with a remote that let's me adjust the lighting style. Perhaps I should
reduce the brightness? or change to the "cloudy mode?"

It also have four preset colors (orange, blue, purple, white, yellow, dark blue).

Regards,
Victor.


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

Does it have a dimmer ? If so I would start it on 40% for a few weeks to see how that effects it. It's way too high right now. If you look just above the corry there is some Cladophora also on the tip of a branch.
But just work on one kind first. Just recently I heard someone say they ran their Satalite at 60% over their 10G and that one is 11" to the sub. That's why I said 40%.


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## Aplomado (Feb 20, 2013)

Adding a lot of floaters will dim it down a lot. Definetely reduce the photoperiod again.


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## ChemGuyEthan (Apr 13, 2014)

I agree with the others on the light, it's my understanding this algae likes light. So cutting it down will help. 

As one who has repeatedly suffered from this algae (and still not quite done with it), I will share some of my experience in handling this stuff. A few things I changed that seem to have helped get rid of this:

1) Remove it by hand DAILY. This stuff grows crazy fast. If you take a toothbrush (a new one, haha) and grab some, then twist it around like spaghetti noodles you can remove the bulk of it. I did this daily for about one to two weeks.

2) Manage CO2 well (if you're running it). I had fluctuating CO2 which I think contributed to the growth.

3) I also started dosing Excel for a while (though I did stop once I got my shrimp in).

4) Keep an eye on parameters, I found I had pretty high nitrates for some reason (I think from plant melt) which may have caused my algae spike. Now that I've gotten things in the range I want them, the algae is nearly gone.

This has been a long battle, I've spent probably a month dealing with it, but it's definitely going away with time.

If you want the quick fix, one-two punch works, just remove the fauna first to be safe.

Best of luck!


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## greaser84 (Feb 2, 2014)

Light seems to be your issue, Reduce your photo period and intensity that should help slow the growth. You can raise the light or use screen to lower intensity. I get that algae in my shrimp tanks. I noticed breaking up the photo period helps. I'll run my lights for a few hours then have them off for an hour or so then turn them back on, algae does not like it when you do that. You have sensitive fauna so I'd be careful using H2O2 or something similar. If it were me, I'd consider a blackout for a few days. Plants can suffer from blackouts but can recover, algae not so much.


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## StylistDave (Sep 15, 2014)

What is the "One-two punch method"?


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## lamiskool (Jul 1, 2011)

StylistDave said:


> What is the "One-two punch method"?


http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=203684


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## StrangeDejavu (Jun 23, 2014)

If raising the lighting is not an option, then you can do like I did and use window screen to diffuse the light. One layer reduces PAR by 40% and a second layer by 64%.


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## victorng (Aug 25, 2013)

*Reducing LED intensity seems to be working*

Hi Everyone,
Just an update on my hair algae issue.
Reducing the lighting definitely seems to have stopped the rampant algae growth. I also pruned daily, but now it seems I don't need to, as the hair algae has stopped spreading. In addition, my other plants like Anubias nana and others seem to be showing fresh growth, and nice vibrant greens (not covered with algae). I'm dosing with Excel daily as well. I hope that now the plants are growing again, they'll continue to starve out the hair algae and I can turn the tide on things.

Thanks everyone for your help!
Victor.


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## Squrl888 (Oct 3, 2014)

That's great! It really does seem that the fix for hair algae is a reduction in light.
My question is: Is an increase in CO2, to stable and high levels, while keeping the intensity of your light an effective fix as well?
I'll have to raise my light fixture above my 29 gallon I think, or atleast get some more Frogbit and duckweed growing in there.


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