# Clado or hair algae?



## radioman (Oct 29, 2007)

I noticed this about a month ago on a plant and I thought it might just be a little piece of thread or hair that got into my tank so I ignored it. I just found some more today. Does anyone know what it is? I read that Clado takes over and I haven't even noticed this for a month since I first saw it. It wasn't bunched up like this either. It was more like like random long strands of hair. It was on my java fern roots and in fissidens.


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## EntoCraig (Jun 7, 2010)

Does it smell like kinda like lawn clippings? Either way, spot treat with h202 and you will kill it fairly quickly.


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## radioman (Oct 29, 2007)

Will do if I see anymore of it. It is pretty scarce.


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## BBradbury (Nov 8, 2010)

*Hair Algae*

Hello radio...

Most types of algae will take advantage of high levels of dissolved phosphorus in the tank water. The main source of phosphorus is plant fertilizer. Large, frequent water changes will help remove it to control growth. In the meantime, I would recommend getting some "Ramshorn" snails and putting them into the tank.

These snails will remove various forms of algae in a short time. I put them in my tanks some time ago and there's no visible algae in the tanks.

The best part is, they'll remove any decaying plant or fish material in the tank, but don't damage healthy plants.

Just a thought.

B


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## rocketdude1234 (Apr 8, 2010)

BBradbury said:


> Hello radio...
> 
> Most types of algae will take advantage of high levels of dissolved phosphorus in the tank water. The main source of phosphorus is plant fertilizer. Large, frequent water changes will help remove it to control growth.
> B



Limiting an essential nutrient to plant growth IME is probably counter productive and will only lead to other types of algae (gsa). Plus, stripping your water of many other nutrients in the process of large water changes is bound to leave your plants wondering what happened to their nutrients - a sure fire way to get other algae to use the nutrients the plants can't because they're short on something else. 

Give us some tank specs so we can see what we're working with. Also, have you looked at the stickies to ID the algae? If it was long and stringy, it may be something more along the lines of string algae. 

With our systems, clado only forms in ponds or streams with HIGH amounts of natural sunlight. If I keep nutrients high though, clado doesn't seem to occur.


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## lewl (Jun 26, 2012)

Seachem Excel will do!


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## radioman (Oct 29, 2007)

Specs: ADA mini-m
pressurized co2
13w cfl a couple inches from the top of the tank
rootmedic one step 4x a week

The algae doesn't seem to be a huge problem for now. I think it had just built up over a while until I noticed it.


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## [email protected] (Jan 12, 2016)

Clado is the worst. They thrive if your plants thrive. I battle it with Seachem excel and a toothbrush. They get tangled in my dwarf hair grass all the time.


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## [email protected] (Jan 12, 2016)

Just to share with the group. I also conquered the clado outbreak by using 3% H2O2 in a spray bottle and a toothbrush.
It only took 5 days of removal and spraying directly onto the Clado... then poof! no more Clado.

I also introduced 10 extra Amano shrimps, but I suspect they don't really touch that stuff.


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