# SOS! Brown hair algae?



## NoCheddar (Mar 24, 2018)

Yesterday there was only about 5% of the amount of the algae you see here, do I quit dosing but leave co2 and lights going


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## natemcnutty (May 26, 2016)

Never stop dosing fertilizer to "fix" algae issues. You need to do manual cleanup, a large water changes, more manual cleanup, and another large water change.

That's diatomaceous algae, and other than getting a diatom filter, you'll have to clean up the water through water changes. Keep running CO2 and dosing, but you want want to cut back your photoperiod to like 5-6 hours until it clears up.


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## mgeorges (Feb 1, 2017)

natemcnutty said:


> Never stop dosing fertilizer to "fix" algae issues. You need to do manual cleanup, a large water changes, more manual cleanup, and another large water change.
> 
> That's diatomaceous algae, and other than getting a diatom filter, you'll have to clean up the water through water changes. Keep running CO2 and dosing, but you want want to cut back your photoperiod to like 5-6 hours until it clears up.


Nate pretty well covered it, I'd actually go 4-5 hours of light though. I'd also recommend dosing some Excel until that clears up.


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## NoCheddar (Mar 24, 2018)

natemcnutty said:


> Never stop dosing fertilizer to "fix" algae issues. You need to do manual cleanup, a large water changes, more manual cleanup, and another large water change.
> 
> That's diatomaceous algae, and other than getting a diatom filter, you'll have to clean up the water through water changes. Keep running CO2 and dosing, but you want want to cut back your photoperiod to like 5-6 hours until it clears up.




Thank you. Ok changing lighting schedule from 8 hours to 6 and I’m going to keep everything the same. I did a 50% WC today as well as cleaning my HOB and canister filter. I had spent over 4 hours working on it and it still looks like crap. Only good news,is that all my plants are still health. I cleaned as much as I could without damaging the plants.










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## Surf (Jun 13, 2017)

What fertilizers are you using? Most fertilizers don't have all the nutrients plants need. If your plants are missing just one nutrient growth will slow or even stop. When that happens algae starts to grow. Also it would be helpful 

It would also help to know your GH, KH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. and PH.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

@NoCheddar: is your water hard?

I am having the same outbreak in 2 of my newer tanks and it's been coming back repeatedly over the last couple of months. I am curious if your following the "lower lights, more water changes, fertilize more" canned advise will actually do any good.

Air line or tubing makes it easier to suck that stuff out.


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## boots444 (Mar 9, 2017)

I'm a novice but it looks like an iron deficiency to me. I had a similar type of algae which I later heard wasn't really algae, it's a bacteria. My lfs had a sale on small UV filters so I added one of those while dosing Excel and adding an iron supplement to my usual fert schedule. That seemed to do the trick. The algae went away and my plants got their healthy green color back.


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## natemcnutty (May 26, 2016)

boots444 said:


> I'm a novice but it looks like an iron deficiency to me. I had a similar type of algae which I later heard wasn't really algae, it's a bacteria. My lfs had a sale on small UV filters so I added one of those while dosing Excel and adding an iron supplement to my usual fert schedule. That seemed to do the trick. The algae went away and my plants got their healthy green color back.


I see severe Mg deficiency, but I don't see Fe deficiency. A UV will definitely help clear up bacterial bloom or green water, but I don't know anything about its effectiveness against diatoms. Always wanted to run UV just to see, but I've never been willing to pay for it... Lol


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## SKYE.__.HIGH (Mar 18, 2017)

I’ve had a very similar outbreak accept it was much much much worse. I literally had algae close to mounded out of my water. I turned the lights off, gave it a black out for 5 days while dosing excel (it was actually metricide) everyday. I ended up with a perfectly clear tank and have not had the algae since. Of course I did correct my over abundance of light. Oh and I forgot to add that I definitely cleaned as much algae as I could put first.....duh  
Good Luck, skye 


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## HankTank10G (Aug 7, 2019)

*growing dwarf baby tears vs getting rid of hair algae*

I started my first planted tank (10 gal) about three weeks ago and hair algae is starting to grow near its surface. I read this thread and realized that I am giving my tank way too much light (easily 12 hrs/day), which probably resulted in my hair algae problem. 

So far I've removed the algae from around the plants and I am planning to cut back hours of light per day. But I have a dilemma: I want to avoid killing off the small patches of dwarf baby tears I have growing in my tank, and I know that they need lots of light. 

Can dwarf baby tears survive for several days without light, or with just 4 hours of light? Is there another way to get rid of the hair algae?


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## PlantedSam (Dec 1, 2020)

I have similar issue. Any suggestions. What really worked?


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## 30Adam (Jun 19, 2019)

*Same problem*

Same issue with me. Just popped up all of the sudden. No major change prior. Heavily planted, injected CO2 via reactor, EI dosing, LED lights. Tank has been up for about a year and doing fantastic. Left for a weekend and came back to algae city. Brown, stringy algae same as OP's pictures.

I did a blackout for three days after a heavy cleaning and it still came back. Water change after water change, still comes back. Pruned waaaay back, still comes back. Argggggg!!!!!! I was so aggressive with pruning, cleaning the algae off the plants, I stressed out my discus and they stopped eating and died. Fuuuuck!!!

I've been doing plants for years, but at my wits end. Any suggestions welcomed


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## W8INLINE (Aug 4, 2020)

I'm thinking of doing a 5 day spot treatment with hydrogen peroxide and see if that does anything.


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## 30Adam (Jun 19, 2019)

SKYE.__.HIGH said:


> I’ve had a very similar outbreak accept it was much much much worse. I literally had algae close to mounded out of my water. I turned the lights off, gave it a black out for 5 days while dosing excel (it was actually metricide) everyday. I ended up with a perfectly clear tank and have not had the algae since. Of course I did correct my over abundance of light. Oh and I forgot to add that I definitely cleaned as much algae as I could put first.....duh
> Good Luck, skye
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


What was your Excel dosing regimen during the blackout?


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