# Fuzz/hair algae problem starting to smother plants



## sevenyearnight (May 1, 2011)

Any help would be appreciated as to how and what to change to get the algae under control before it kills my plants. I have ridiculously soft water, so perhaps too few nutrients? Too much light? Not enough light?


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## PelicanFarts (Mar 1, 2011)

What's the bulb wattage? What type of fish/snail/shrimp?


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## sevenyearnight (May 1, 2011)

Oh, I believe they are 32 watts, T8.
Blue acara, 3.5"
Atabapo Pleco 4"
Bristlenose Pleco 1.5"
No snails or shrimp, the acara would eat them. She kind of pesters the plecos as is. I'm thinking about rehoming her so she can be with a mate, and she pesters any fish I've had her with.


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

I haven't had green fuzz or fur algae since I started using CO2. I had a high light tank [6-30 watt bulbs over a 36" tank]. There was apparently plenty of nutrients from fish poop as I wasn't using any fertilizer regularly except maybe micros.

Try using half the lights and getting a hold of some nitrate, phosphate, potassium and micros and dosing small amounts. Zero nitrate is not a good thing in a planted tank.


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## sevenyearnight (May 1, 2011)

Kathyy said:


> I haven't had green fuzz or fur algae since I started using CO2. I had a high light tank [6-30 watt bulbs over a 36" tank]. There was apparently plenty of nutrients from fish poop as I wasn't using any fertilizer regularly except maybe micros.
> 
> Try using half the lights and getting a hold of some nitrate, phosphate, potassium and micros and dosing small amounts. Zero nitrate is not a good thing in a planted tank.


So I have too much light? They are just T8 bulbs, does that matter? I do have a a co2 unit I'm setting it up right now, I needed to raise my kh, my tap water only has 8-10 ppm.
I have flourish liquid, will this be sufficient? If not, recommendations?


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## Kathyy (Feb 22, 2010)

Mine were T12s and it was more light than is sensible. I didn't care, first time I had ever been able to grow plants, algae or no algae. I probably used a 12 hour light cycle as well.

See the Fertilizer and Water Parameter forum up a few from here for info on this.


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## sevenyearnight (May 1, 2011)

Lol, ok will do. Thanks


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## sevenyearnight (May 1, 2011)

I started dosing with potassium nitrate in addition to my regular ferts and co2, hopefully this will help my plants recover, and stop future algae.
Right now my NO3 is at 5ppm  I know the goal is 10 ppm.


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## Abrium (Jan 7, 2011)

Questioning algae that appears "near the light" is going to lead you down the winding road of light intensity vs PAR at the substrate level. I recently dealt with the same issue you are dealing with and while my dosing did provide the food it was ultimately the intensity of the light near the top of the tank that invited the think green hair algae that looked like pretty BBA. This was my solution.

Cheers,
Abe


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