# Green Hair Algae "Gerbil" Rocks



## Kayakbabe (Sep 4, 2005)

Yikes, I've got a new problem in my tank.. here's a pic. My husband thinks the hair algae on the rocks makes them look like long haired green gerbils. I *sarcasm* didn't think that was too funny. :icon_conf 
It's weird how the hair algae isn't growing on the substrate.. and just on the rocks, wood, and plants. I've had a little bit of it in the tank on the rocks (smooth and rough black granite) since the beginning. There never was much increase it it, I thought it was kinda pretty and the shrimp seems to like it... , then about a week ago... things changed. Hair started appearing on the wood and thinner leaved plants, then moved to the broad leaved plants. I came home yesterday and the back of the tank looked like a bad bright green shag carpet from the 70's, and the gerbils appeared in full force.

I did some water tests before I cleaned the tank last night... PO4 was zero, nitrates = 0, nitrites =0, ph 6.73, temp 79.6, gH =8, kH=8.

I've never had a PO4 of zero before.. I"M guessing the algae sucked it up?
It's usually around .5... and that's what it is out of my tap .. 

I do water changes 50/50 tap/ro water to get the gh and kh down. (straight out of the tap it's a solid 14 on both, so to get the calculated dissolved co2 up, I started doing the RO 50/50 about a month ago. It seems to help plant growth a lot right from the start.

Last night I scraped off the shag carpet off the back wall with a razor blade and vacummed as I scraped in an effort to get the muck out of the tank. 
I did a 50% water change last night.

This morning I tested the tank again...


120 gallon show tank
300 watts metal halide set at 6 inches above the water and a couple of actinics for blue color to make the fish colors pop
open top tank
doser adds 1 ml of eheim plant ferts 1 per day
at water changes add flourish excell per the instructions
gh = 7
kh = 8
ph = 6.70 (freshly recalbrated ph probe)
po4 = .5
no3 = 10 (approximately used a dip test)
n02 = 0


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## Kayakbabe (Sep 4, 2005)

Just another picture of the aquarium so you can see how the stuff is wafting in the current and attached to everything.


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## juanBeegas (May 9, 2005)

I might be the only one, but it actually looks quite nice. I especially like the way it looks in the second pic. What's your CO2 levels like?


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## Kayakbabe (Sep 4, 2005)

oh a few more stats... that might help somebody give me some insight into what to do to combat this hairy green menace.

30 cherry shrimp (healthy and breeding like mad)
5 danios
8 cardinal tetras
7 brilliant rasboras
3 otocinclus
{edit: forgot to add the corydoras}
6 Corydora sterbei

eheim 2217
36W coralife turbotwist uv sterilizer (plumbed inline)
CO2 injection system
substrate is eco complete

hygrophila difformis - going nuts
Echinodorus sp. Ozelot sword puts out a new leaf about every 3 days, nice redish splotchy looking leaves that turn greener over time.
Rotala Indica - nice and pink the top few inches.. going nuts grows 3 inches a day
Valisnaris - starting to come on strong... it melted about a month ago.. but the roots were still there.. and in the last couple of weeks has put up a lot of sprouts. They are about 10 inches tall now and more sprouting out of the substrate.
Cabomba.. same story as the vals... growing well now.
Last week I added a Apong ulvaceous and a Nympea Lotus "zenkeri" to add some contrast to all the skinny leaved things I"ve got. 
Anubias nana petite - who says these only put out 8 leaves a year... mine has 4 in three weeks since I got it.. very petite leaves and very pretty. Just covered in hair I scrape off every day now.

plants doing poorly
all the plants are pearling and growing rapidly, except the Hemianthus micranthemoides which is kinda stringy and gooey.. brownish stalk ends... 
and 
Echinodorus tennelus - covered in hair algae and not doing too well. It's putting out new runners but looks sickly and brownish on the tips.


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## Kayakbabe (Sep 4, 2005)

The CO2 calulates out to be about 44.9 mg/L according to the aquarix software

Here's a not so nice close up of some of the other stuff in the tank.


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## DarkCobra (Jun 22, 2004)

TRIBBLES! roud:

(they toil not, neither do they spin)


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## Gmoney (Apr 13, 2005)

I'm certainly no expert, but I have dealt with a few algae (ongoing) problems in my tank. I like Tom Barr's recommendations for dealing with algae, especially estimative index for fertilizer dosing. Tom's strategies have been the most effective and sustainable solutions that I have found.

With that metal halide light and zero nitrates & phosphates I bet you are stunting plant growth and allowing algae to take over. 

You might do a search for some of Tom's articles and see what you think.
Search: plantbrain and estimative index


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## jgc (Jul 6, 2005)

Looks a bit familiar...

Sorry...

Not sure exactly what I changed to knock it out on my side - happened to me both times I had lighting issues.

I did a lot of manual removal (vacuming), which also probably resulted in larger water changes than I am doing now. I added a few fish to my cleanup crew. My crew is 2 SAE's, 8 Ottos, and there were some Amano Shrimp at the time (I noticed I had recurring problems when I lost my shrimp - so think shrimp do a good job at cleanup. Will also add that my mollies (and to a lesser extent, Angle fish) loved to eat that stuff - so the Molleys could also be considered part of my clean up crew.

Right now a dealing with beard Algae - but upping my co2 seems to be working and the tank looks pretty clean other than the beards on some older val and chain swords.


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## Tino (Jan 9, 2005)

Nutrient imbalance.

Few ideas.

Aim for constant PO4, NO3 and K levels. Cut down your daily micro dosing for a while - maybe once every 3 days will be a good start at this point.

Stagger your lighting - 4.5 hours on , 2 hours off, then 4.5 hours on again.

Turn off the actinics.


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## Kayakbabe (Sep 4, 2005)

I'll try changing the micro dosing and lighting routine and see what happens. How long should I give it to start seeing an effect? 1 or 2 weeks? Longer?


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## Tino (Jan 9, 2005)

Give it a few weeks, little patience goes a long way, especially in this hobby.


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## aquaverde (Apr 15, 2003)

I have two suggestions. One of them requires a lot of elbow grease, especially for a tank this size.

One, manually remove all the algae you can. Looks like you have more than one type in there. Take the rocks out, bleach them and dechlorinate before returning them. Toss the infected plants, replant the new growth. Make sure the tank is full of plants. Get some cheap fast growers if you have to, but make sure you have lots of plants. You can always replace the ones you’re not fond of later. The important thing is to get a lot of plants growing. Do a really big water change after you do the cleaning.

Two, fix your dosing routine. You’re bottoming out your nutrients, so you need to dose more, not less. I don’t know what’s in Eheim liquidose, but one ml can’t be doing much. I put 15ml of Flourish at a time in my 65g, and dose every 2nd or 3rd day. Strong lighting like you have will deactivate the micros. Since you’re not using EI, it would be a good idea to test every couple of days and dose to keep your levels up until you have a feel for what the tank is using. I’d suggest PO4 level of 1ppm. CO2 sounds good, but you might want to check it in the afternoon to see what you have in the peak of the photoperiod. If you’re running a controller, this might not be an issue.

And Tino's advice about patience is always applicable with planted tanks.


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## jgc (Jul 6, 2005)

fwiw - both times I had it I fought it for a bit with vacuming and clean up crew. Both times it persisted for a few weeks, then dissapeared almost overnight (basically it did not come back after a vacuming and the cleanup crew took care of what I missed).


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## Kayakbabe (Sep 4, 2005)

okay... no elbow grease... I really wanted to get the balance right... 
I am willing to work hard initially to be lazy later.
I'm glad to report I solved this problem! No more gerbils... and no unruley algea outbreaks either.

Anyway here's what I did...
I bought more test kits and determined that the limiting factor in my tank was way too low NO3, and a little bit low on PO4... everything else seemed okay.

I wanted to get rid of some of the algae right away.. but if you've ever tried to remove that finely threaded hair algae you KNOW what kind of ineffectual task that it... so I resorted to the overdosing of Flourish Excel technique... worked like a charm! Wonderful method! I highly recommend it. Didn't harm my fish or shrimp. The shrimp kept right on having eggs and even babies hatched during the excell treatment.

I also took Tino's suggestion and another person's suggestion and changed my lighting routine to 4 hours on, 2.5 hours off, and 4 hours on.

I also bought Greenlight stump remover so I could increase my NO3 levels... and Fleet enema. That Fleet stuff is pretty concentrated... be careful if you decide to use it. A teensy bit goes a long way.

I"m happy to say my tank has been algae free for six weeks now... it's looking really good. I beleive nutrient levels were the primary key!


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## lumpyfunk (Dec 22, 2004)

I wonder what you could have gotten for one of those on aquabid?


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## jimmydrsv (Apr 8, 2005)

Probably a bunch since there seems to be plenty of people that think that these are gerbils.  

I think they are just misunderstood creatures. It's their owners fault for not trimming them properly.


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