# Massive hair algae issue Please help Medium- High tech tank



## Rickie Briana (Dec 6, 2016)

I have a 75 gallon tank with all the bells and whistles to a high tech tank. Ei dosing, pressurized co2, diffuser etc. I have 
been having a terrible problem with hair algae. I raised my 2 t5ho lights way up above my tank, and my co2 is maxed. I have read in multiple places that low nutrients is a main issue. But to me it seems like i always get more algae when i dose more. Why is that? what do i not have enough of? I could probably increase my co2 a little more but i need to get rid of this algae. It is uprooting all my monte carlo and making my water greenish.


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## longtalltexan (Nov 16, 2015)

Rickie Briana said:


> I have read in multiple places that low nutrients is a main issue. But to me it seems like i always get more algae when i dose more.


I think this notion is backwards. Isn't too much nutrients a cause of algae? If you are putting in more nutrients than the plants can take in, you are providing it to the algae. Maybe try dosing less.


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## MtAnimals (May 17, 2015)

what fish are in there? a Quick solution would be a small school of SAE's...like 6.they'll eat it all in a week and a half or so.Gets pretty ugly when you manage to kill the stuff,then you have brown stringy crap all over.

I killed it in a 20 gallon by increasing my micros,and adding macros.(low tech)

but that's my water,not many nutrients in my water to begin with.

also,Floaters would help tremendously,they really soak up excess.You could also try a 5 day blackout as well.

you didn't mention your photoperiod.I run my tanks on a 3hr on,3 hr off,then 3 hr on.


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## Rickie Briana (Dec 6, 2016)

I was waiting for a response like yours before I went totally deep into everything. I call it ¨High tech¨ jut because i dose EI and i do have a good amount of light. I didnt really think anyone went by the watts per gallon rule anymore, its very inaccurate. But I have a 4ft long t5HO fixture that can hold up to 4 bulbs. I currently have 2 in, and it has a high quality reflector. Back on to the co2, i am using a drop checker and i have a streamline of bubbles, to fast to count. It is around 6 to 7 bubbles per second. And i under dose my micros because whenever i dose their correct level i get terrible algae problems. So do I need more light ? or less light? because i can easily change to both. And adding on to what Mtanimals said, I think it would be crazy to have 6 SAE, They would need alot of room, I want to find the root problem of the algae. I run a 6 hour photo period right now and cut my lights to 50%, I also increased my co2


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## H2O Life (Dec 31, 2016)

Often times overlooked, how is the circulation in your tank? The hair algae problem went away when I bumped up my dosing and turned up the circulation pump from the sump into my 75 gal. My Finnex light fixture sits on the aquarium and on for an avg of 10 hrs straight.


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## herns (May 6, 2008)

algaefix works well everytime i get air algae in my tanks.


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## RobnSonji (Oct 6, 2013)

following.... I have the same problem in my 125

I am still trying to figure it out.... I have a 6 foot BML on there but I forget the specs on it.

My Rotala is growing horizontal instead of vertical....which I read it does with too strong a light source?

I also have crypts that are growing tall and spindly like they are reaching for more light....so I dont know.


All I know is I am growing bright green hair algae LIKE A CHAMP ! lol

Bump: My water tests at GH 10 and KH 5. It tries REALLY hard to stay at a ph of 8.

I can set my co2 at a bubble rate wayyyy faster than can be counted and it will drop my ph to 7.4 during the course of a day.
Id be afraid to allow it to inject at that rate at night.
ph bounces right back to 8 during the night.

Algae related to ph swings maybe?


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## Maryland Guppy (Dec 6, 2014)

A great deal of this was growing in my 55 Lo-tech/No-tech tank.

1. After removing HOB filter cartridges that contain carbon.
2. Replace these with a foam insert.
3. Added Purigen in a bag to the filter.
4. Dosing with an EI liquid mix only to bring PO4 to about 1.5ppm
After testing I only need to dose this tank every 10 days.

I was not patient only trying one thing at a time.
Just went for all these items in one clip.
Cannot not say if one item saved the day.

Now removing the last remaining strands.
No new hair algae growth in two weeks.


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## Nlewis (Dec 1, 2015)

longtalltexan said:


> I think this notion is backwards. Isn't too much nutrients a cause of algae? If you are putting in more nutrients than the plants can take in, you are providing it to the algae. Maybe try dosing less.


Nope, too much light and not enough nutrients is the general cause. When i had hair algae, I'd manual remove it daily and raised my light, it was gone within a week.


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## swmnwdafishes (Jan 3, 2017)

herns said:


> algaefix works well everytime i get air algae in my tanks.


You can't use Algaefix with shrimp or snails. It kills inverts. 

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk


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## jeffkrol (Jun 5, 2013)

I'm going to buck conventional wisdom her a bit..
I've had bigger algae problems w/ low light/CO2 injection than the opposite..esp when starting from high light..and decreasing it.
Only guess (since many algae problems are caused by "free ammonia" released by dying/leaking plants encouraging spore germination.. suggest looking it up) is short of a blackout or really low light, the in-between level is encouraging it.

You need to find the "happy level"..
Secondly I love using olive Nerites as a clear crew..(Don't care about eggs, they have always been "periodic" for me and beats stringy algae any day)

At this point your plants are pretty damaged (again leakage) and will be difficult to save short of, once the algea decreases) cuttings from clear growth and replanting.. 

nlewis.. this is not contradictory to what you posted.. but you manage to hit the "sweet spot".. o/p "raised the light a lot" over shooting this..and prob. not enough for a virtual blackout..

All speculation on my part..still working out a tank w/ bad BBA...but lower light/less nutrients didn't help, actually made it worse (again first crazy plant growth, followed by algae, then decrease in light levels by 50%.
didn't do much). different animal I understand.

my 40 had terrible hair algae at one point, never decreased light.. Cleaning and nerites and increased CO2 did it best. Plant outgrew the algae and nerites did the rest.

Point is if you take a tank w/ heavy fast growth but then get algae decreasing light too much (and basically damaging them), but not enough (damaging both plants and algae), doesn't seem to help..
wouldn't mind more verification on this though..may be just me..
Over-driving the plants has always worked better for me then trying to under-drive them

Problem w/ "high tech" easy to throw a wrench in the gears..


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