# Green hair algae treatment



## plantbrain

I've found no correlation with Fe dosign.

Poor trimming care, and mostly CO2? Those are the 2 largest.
Excel dips and dosing did nothing to prevent an infestation already occurring.
It also toasted and killed the moss I tried to save a few times.
Blackouts will slow it, but are ineffective over time.
H2O2 also had issues.

Algaefix did kill it in several test. I placed the moss in a bare tank with a sponge filter and after a week, the moss was clean and healthy looking.
I also tried it on a few other species and in 2 panted tanks.

The trade off is that you cannot have any shrimp or inverts in the tank(it will kill them) nor can you over dose. You also need to do basic care before and after treatment, like large water changes, and clean out all you can 1st etc.
It will cloud the water for a couple of hours initially.

This does not resolve the root issue.
Reducing light..............which is an issue if you have poor slightly poor CO2, will be effective because it places less demand on the CO2.

If you add more light and have problems, it's because of CO2 issues, light and nutrients can be controlled for easily independently. 

I've induced hair algae many times with only CO2 reduction and then prevent re-occurrence even at light intensities up to 1/3 full noon day tropical sun.
I've never been able to induce any species algae with higher dosing of NO3, PO4, Fe independent of other variables. 

Hope this helps.


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## acitydweller

plantbrain said:


> Algaefix did kill it in several test. I placed the moss in a bare tank with a sponge filter and after a week, the moss was clean and healthy looking.
> I also tried it on a few other species and in 2 panted tanks.
> 
> The trade off is that you cannot have any shrimp or inverts in the tank(it will kill them) nor can you over dose. You also need to do basic care before and after treatment, like large water changes, and clean out all you can 1st etc.
> It will cloud the water for a couple of hours initially.


Hi Tom,
i have a few patches of moss which have GHA inter-twined and separated in a jar. I've seen Algaefix on the shelves in the pond section but never gave it much thought. Will have to try it out.
Thanks for the suggestion.


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## plantbrain

It does not kill moss if you use the dose suggested on the label.

Surprisingly effective, I am always extremely skeptical of algae cure claims, but this one does the trick, but never addresses the root issue(which is frankly more important for hobbyist).


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## jmrmotorhead

Tom, 
I've had a little hair algae starting to form on my finer leaved plants (DHG, Myrio). I added a ph controller to help me keep the co2 consistent, and used that to find that recently the ph has only been dropping about .3... Clearly I had a co2 deficiency. I have since hooked up the controller which is doing awesome to keep it a full point below, and I have been very good with dosing on time (ei). 
I also dropped the photo period from 11 hours to 10, and raised my lights up about 4 inches.
Do these sound like good practices to fix the root issue and stop the algae? 

FWIW I cannot dose algaefix, I have inverts.

Matt


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## plantbrain

jmrmotorhead said:


> Tom,
> I've had a little hair algae starting to form on my finer leaved plants (DHG, Myrio). I added a ph controller to help me keep the co2 consistent, and used that to find that recently the ph has only been dropping about .3... Clearly I had a co2 deficiency. I have since hooked up the controller which is doing awesome to keep it a full point below, and I have been very good with dosing on time (ei).
> I also dropped the photo period from 11 hours to 10, and raised my lights up about 4 inches.
> Do these sound like good practices to fix the root issue and stop the algae?
> 
> FWIW I cannot dose algaefix, I have inverts.
> 
> Matt


Sounds likely, you should be able to trim your way out of it and harass the algae. Might take a couple of months though.

Netting the shrimp out and they leaving the culls in the tank seems to be the best solution otherwise.


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## jmrmotorhead

Thanks Tom,
Sounds like I'm in for a fight! I would net them, but I have lots of mts and ramshorn that I don't want to lose.
Wih me luck!
Matt


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## plantbrain

jmrmotorhead said:


> Thanks Tom,
> Sounds like I'm in for a fight! I would net them, but I have lots of mts and ramshorn that I don't want to lose.
> Wih me luck!
> Matt


Come over and remove mine will ya? 
I cannot get rid of MTS's in a couple of tanks, hate em.
The chemicals do not kill them however, only shrimp.


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## jmrmotorhead

Really? You've used algaefix and it doesn't bother them? I only have 2 amanos in the tank, I could easily to them in my shrimp only tank for a bit while treating. 
Matt


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## HD Blazingwolf

plantbrain said:


> Come over and remove mine will ya?
> I cannot get rid of MTS's in a couple of tanks, hate em.
> The chemicals do not kill them however, only shrimp.


MUWAHAHAHA
i started a thread on this a while back. neither does a gallon of bleach
two 6000 gallon rated chlorine tabs, a whole bottle of cupramine
excel, or peroxide in a 29 gallon

after it all expires, or turns to its less lethal forms, they always crawl back out of their shells


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## Hilde

I had hair algae when my nitrates were over 40. Check your nitrate level?

Until I started having a siesta period in my light period I had chronic problems with BBA. Usually have 3 hrs in the noon with lights off.


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## AquariumNoob

Ive got hair algae in my 75G.
Too lazy to address the issue. I Just occasionally pull as much as i can out and toss it. Doesnt bother me enough to start dumping chemicals and crap..
And, tbh, i was just looking in the tank and there isnt much left at all, surprisingly. I guess i just gotta keep tearing it out and itll get rid of itself haha.


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## plantbrain

HD Blazingwolf said:


> MUWAHAHAHA
> i started a thread on this a while back. neither does a gallon of bleach
> two 6000 gallon rated chlorine tabs, a whole bottle of cupramine
> excel, or peroxide in a 29 gallon
> 
> after it all expires, or turns to its less lethal forms, they always crawl back out of their shells


That which cannot be killed nor die.


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## plantbrain

jmrmotorhead said:


> Really? You've used algaefix and it doesn't bother them? I only have 2 amanos in the tank, I could easily to them in my shrimp only tank for a bit while treating.
> Matt


Amanos are tougher than RCS IME.
They might make it...........but they will not like it and you'd likely lose a few.

It works well if you can net them out and keep them in a shallow pan for 3-4 days etc.


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## lindadadson

You can use amano shrimp. Do keep CO2 level stable this would help to depress the growth.


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## ndaviti

*need help...lots of algae*

hi everyone, 

new to the forum, have a 30 gallon TV fishtank and several types of algae in there. got no co2 set up. likely just lighting issues?

have spotted green hair/bearded /brush algae on different plants and my driftwood.

does this Simazine stuff help? will hydrogen peroxide do anything?

i'm a newbie to this all. please advise!

many thanks!!

-nat


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