# Dwarf Hairgrass under attack!



## awight (Aug 21, 2010)

Well i'm definitely not the expert, and I had the same problem when starting up my nano. The otto will get to it eventually but i really recommend getting at least one more otto if your tank can handle the bio load. They are a schooling fish and work a lot better in small groups. I have four in a 24 gallon tank and they are awesome at keeping my tank relatively algae free (some thread algae). Everyone else will probably be able to help you more with getting your water parameters in line to help eliminate issues with dosing, lighting, PH, KH, CO2, Nitrates, Nitrites, and so on. The ottos will really help in the mean time. Keep up with your water changes that can really be a huge help in keeping algae in check.


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## Baadboy11 (Oct 28, 2009)

if you can handle them, snails will wipe out the algae in no time


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## Artem (Nov 18, 2010)

Ah, Ill get a couple more to keep him company then 

Not too keen on the snails front, Ive already got a few and hope they don't spread too much :icon_conf


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## j-gens (Dec 11, 2008)

the best way to combat algae is to get your nutrients in a balance for the amount of lighting you have... once you address this properly many algaes can be defeated... but if your tank is out of balance many can not be.


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## bigboij (Jul 24, 2009)

j-gens said:


> the best way to combat algae is to get your nutrients in a balance for the amount of lighting you have... once you address this properly many algaes can be defeated... but if your tank is out of balance many can not be.


always believed in this but....... my dhg field is the only thing in my tank with any algae i think once it starts to grow thick it just cant get enough flow (i even have a power head dedicated to just blowing on the DHG)


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## LilGreenPuffer (Sep 23, 2010)

awight said:


> Well i'm definitely not the expert, and I had the same problem when starting up my nano. The otto will get to it eventually but i really recommend getting at least one more otto if your tank can handle the bio load. They are a schooling fish and work a lot better in small groups. I have four in a 24 gallon tank and they are awesome at keeping my tank relatively algae free (some thread algae). Everyone else will probably be able to help you more with getting your water parameters in line to help eliminate issues with dosing, lighting, PH, KH, CO2, Nitrates, Nitrites, and so on. The ottos will really help in the mean time. Keep up with your water changes that can really be a huge help in keeping algae in check.


Agreed... They need to be kept in groups, period. Happy fish are a priority, and otos will always be highly uncomfortable when kept solo. They will also be more likely to come out and eat when they can have safety in numbers.


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## Prostock442 (Oct 22, 2010)

Baadboy11 said:


> if you can handle them, snails will wipe out the algae in no time


Hi - Wondering what that means, if you can handle them? I just started a new tank a month ago & bought some plants from someone from this group & I seem to have gotten 1 black snail. He is small, about 3/8th of an inch. I think I can handle the little guy. I'm going tomorrow to hopefully pick up some ottos. Any type ottos will do? Thanks for any help.


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## boringname (Nov 11, 2010)

Prostock442 said:


> Hi - *Wondering what that means, if you can handle them?* I just started a new tank a month ago & bought some plants from someone from this group & I seem to have gotten 1 black snail. He is small, about 3/8th of an inch. I think I can handle the little guy. I'm going tomorrow to hopefully pick up some ottos. Any type ottos will do? Thanks for any help.


I think he meant the bio-load. Snails are poop machines.


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## wakewalking (Jan 18, 2010)

Snails won't eat cyanobacteria or the brown algae that aren't diatoms. What is on your hair grass is like hair algae but brown, I forget the scientific name. Get some good circulation, co2, and remove as much manually with a toothbrush. If your nutrients, light, and co2 are good then it should be pretty easy to keep in check.


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## Madfish (Sep 9, 2007)

I have to say this is still a new tank that will go through its cycles. It will have cycles where it will get algae as it gets settled in. Also when your plants grow and fill it in that will help so you will not get algae.


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## gvfarns (Oct 4, 2010)

I had pretty much this exact problem. My DHG was getting demolished by staghorn algae. I kept trimming the affected leaves but the algae was getting worse. Even if you change your tank parameters, best case scenario the algae won't continue to spread much. It will stay there for a long time, killing the leaves it's on.

So anyway, aside from the usual advice about optimal balance of nutrients, light, substrate, and plants/fish, you will probably want to kill the existing algae.

What I did was dose the whole tank with double the recommended dose of excel. A couple of days later I changed 15% of the water. A day later I dosed again (just the recommended dose) with excel. Within a week all my algae turned red, then clear, then disappeared. It's been a few weeks and the algae hasn't started coming back. I only dosed twice, total.

Anyway, it will eventually come back if you don't change the parameters of the tank (or they don't change themselves as it finishes cycling or whatever) but for killing staghorn algae, there's nothing like excel in my experience. A few cap-fulls will do you, without harming plants, fish, or snails.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

if your hair grass is not doing well, then its the substrate problem, IME dry dosing or liquid did not help it to grow much. the problem was in the substrate and once i added root tabs it started spread again.


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## gvfarns (Oct 4, 2010)

boringname said:


> I think he meant the bio-load. Snails are poop machines.


Of course, they can't poop more than they eat. And besides algae, they only they eat stuff that would add to your bio load anyway (like leftover food) as it decomposes.

There are snail people and non-snail people (I'm of the former camp...love those MTS), but I don't buy the argument that scavenger snails add significantly to the bio load. If you just don't like them, that's a different matter, and perfectly understandable.


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

> Of course, they can't poop more than they eat


Snails appear to somehow violate the basic law of conservation of energy in a closed system by creating poop out of nothing.


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