# Eliminating Hair Algae



## thelub (Jan 4, 2013)

Have you tried spot treatments of hydrogen peroxide?

*edit* Oops, I guess if I had actually read the post 100% I would have caught the fact that you did use it. :icon_redf


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## drewsuf82 (May 27, 2012)

thelub said:


> Have you tried spot treatments of hydrogen peroxide?
> 
> *edit* Oops, I guess if I had actually read the post 100% I would have caught the fact that you did use it. :icon_redf


:icon_cool No worries, I just don't know what to do with it. I've had issues before with it from stuff that I've gotten and usually some combination of the treatments work. -- I just feel like I'm getting nowhere with this literally I pulled it apart today and the algae was still green _AFTER_ I had blacked out and algae fixed it -- lol some fix that was 

On a side note I saw no snails this time so I think I've either killed them or they got rinsed away.


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## herns (May 6, 2008)

> i've tried treating it with a combination of Algae fix


Algaefix works. I have the same problem few mos ago.

Look around what causes hair algae ie, co2, lights, ferts, etc. If you leave to algaefix alone without fixing the issue then, algaefix wont work.


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## creekbottom (Apr 5, 2012)

have you tried treating with Excel?


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## pantherspawn (Dec 21, 2011)

I get outbreaks all of the time. Amano shrimp take care of a completely riddled tank in a matter of a few short days. Work better than treating with Excel, blackouts etc.. I've tried it all. 

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2


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## theericafish (Apr 27, 2012)

Could it be that the ammonia from the dying snails was fueling the algae growth?

Glad to hear your other tank is doing better!

People give good reviews of algaefix working so I would assume it should do its job. I'd say just keep up with what you're doing and now that the snails are mostly gone you should have less fuel for the algae to grow, just remember to remove all the algae you can manually, less decomposing material=less food for algae.

Its strange to me that the algae isn't dying from algaefix.... Looking at your other thread it looks like the moss was pretty infested though it may take more time to completely get rid of it.

If you're desperate you could try a bunch of amano shirmp or a flagfish(I had great luck with a flagfish removing 100% of the hair algae in my 10G although it wasn't as large as an outbreak as yours. REMEMBER THEY CAN BE AGGRESIVE!). My amanos tend to ignore my hair algae though, I'm not quite sure why that is. Most likely because they have other things to graze on that they enjoy more. I would assume if you have a lot of amanos and fed them less you would have a great hair algae eating crew.

It seems like double doses of excel may also help but I'm not sure how it would affect the moss. Just like h202 melts it.. so could the excel so its kind of a tricky thing.

I'll be hanging out here


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## Vermino (Jun 14, 2012)

could it be from poor circulation flow in that area or inconsistent Co2 dosing(if you are using Co2)? These were the two main factors that helped me overcome the hair algae problem in my tank.


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## drewsuf82 (May 27, 2012)

Thanks for all the replies everyone  I'll try to reply to each of you and maybe we can come up with a better solution.



herns said:


> Algaefix works. I have the same problem few mos ago.
> 
> Look around what causes hair algae ie, co2, lights, ferts, etc. If you leave to algaefix alone without fixing the issue then, algaefix wont work.


The tank is a 10 gallon with a simple T8 bulb on a 4 on 4 off 4 on schedule. Ferts are dosed weekly as per flourish instructions and the CO2 I add is excel every few days.



creekbottom said:


> have you tried treating with Excel?


I haven't done the excel treatment only because everytime I excel treat moss I end up turning it white :icon_cry:



theericafish said:


> Could it be that the ammonia from the dying snails was fueling the algae growth?
> 
> Glad to hear your other tank is doing better!
> 
> ...


Yea it was horrible!!!!! I've rescaped the tank completely and pulled out any and all plants which were in the tank at the time. I've been getting a bit of brown glass algae here and there however I need to get a pleco in there so that I'm not so worried about.

Currently the moss has been pulled out completely and segregated to a storage bin for treatment. I've done the algae fix and blackout I just don't wanna kill my moss from having it blacked out for so long :eek5:



Vermino said:


> could it be from poor circulation flow in that area or inconsistent Co2 dosing(if you are using Co2)? These were the two main factors that helped me overcome the hair algae problem in my tank.


TBH the tank only had an in-tank pen plax filter the cascade 300. I still have that in there but I've also put in an air driven sponge filter hoping to increase some water movement and surface agitation.


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## drewsuf82 (May 27, 2012)

I checked the moss today, I seem to of gotten rid of the horrible smell it was producing (YAY) and I did a good pull apart and there's still some hair algae but it's coming down. Today I'm going to let the moss get some light and nutrients since it doesn't look like it's too happy and then I'll go from there.

I only saw about 4 snails as well. As many of you have suggested I'm going to add a spot of excel into the tub today while it's under the light and then I'll go from there tomorrow depending on how things look.

Again thank you everyone for all the tips and help here. These forums have been amazing to me and one of my favorite things to do throughout the day from my phone at work (shhh don't tell the boss)


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## Suzie Q (Jan 8, 2007)

I had hair algae in some java moss I bought online...It wasn't a huge amount of moss, so I took stand by strand of the moss and cleaned the algae off. It never came back. Could you clean some of it off and start over?


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## vasol (Jan 22, 2013)

h2o2 nuke!!!! worked very well for my BBA and GHA

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


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## newbieplanter (Jan 13, 2013)

vasol said:


> h2o2 nuke!!!! worked very well for my BBA and GHA
> 
> http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=203684


I wanna try this but I think I'll end up killing my fish or blowing up the substrate?


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