# Type of Hair Algae? Driving me crazy!



## Kntry (Dec 26, 2013)

I had a hair algae farm in my 75 gallon and did this treatment:

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

The thread is very long. I had to remove my shrimp, loaches and snails. Once I started the Peroxide treatment (1st step), they started acting weird and were very easy to catch. 

This treatment works very well but be sure you follow the time limits EXACTLY or you'll kill all your fish. 

The Excel (2nd treatment) killed my Val so if you have time, you should take them out first.

I have a 5 gallon new set up that is full of hair algae right now. I'm hoping once the tank is matured enough, it will disappear.

Good luck.


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## jayq16 (Jul 10, 2008)

Kntry said:


> I had a hair algae farm in my 75 gallon and did this treatment:
> 
> http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=203684
> 
> ...


Thanks Kntry, I may have to give this a try. I was hoping this stuff would go away on it's own after correcting some parameters. Not sure if that is the case though, and once it's in there it will remain just may not get too out of control?


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## Kntry (Dec 26, 2013)

Is your tank new?

I think hair algae comes when the tank is maturing. Once it is fully matured, the algae disappears but I may be wrong.


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

Or you could try AlgaeFix. Its pretty effective but of course you will still want to figure out why you are getting it if it reoccurs after the treatment.


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## jayq16 (Jul 10, 2008)

Kntry said:


> Is your tank new?
> 
> I think hair algae comes when the tank is maturing. Once it is fully matured, the algae disappears but I may be wrong.


My tank is still fairly new, about 3 months so that could be it.

Bump:


chad320 said:


> Or you could try AlgaeFix. Its pretty effective but of course you will still want to figure out why you are getting it if it reoccurs after the treatment.


I want to stay away from something that will kill my inverts if I can, but if I can't figure out what the algae is living off of, may have to go that route to get an upper hand.


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

It's not hair algae but Cladophora which never goes away on it's own. Nor does
spot treatment seem to work 100%.
I have this in my tank and after a severe spot treatment it seemed gone for a while but is very slowly taking hold again. But I do have rocks and gravel siliconed to my walls to give other algae and like Java moss a place to cling to so likely it was not killed on there.
That "One two punch" will get rid of it but keeping the light as high as you have it will likely cause it to return unless you do some very good re-arranging of things mostly along the lines of better circulation and plant growth which is the main factor.
Both my 10g tanks have slow current deliberately due to my selection of fish which live in very slow/no current backwaters and I care to replicate their environment as close as possible for them. Oddly one of the tanks has no Cladophora. Both HAD high light but one had it far more and that one developed it. But once established it will conform/ adapt to any light.


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## jayq16 (Jul 10, 2008)

Raymond S. said:


> It's not hair algae but Cladophora which never goes away on it's own. Nor does
> spot treatment seem to work 100%.
> I have this in my tank and after a severe spot treatment it seemed gone for a while but is very slowly taking hold again. But I do have rocks and gravel siliconed to my walls to give other algae and like Java moss a place to cling to so likely it was not killed on there.
> That "One two punch" will get rid of it but keeping the light as high as you have it will likely cause it to return unless you do some very good re-arranging of things mostly along the lines of better circulation and plant growth which is the main factor.
> Both my 10g tanks have slow current deliberately due to my selection of fish which live in very slow/no current backwaters and I care to replicate their environment as close as possible for them. Oddly one of the tanks has no Cladophora. Both HAD high light but one had it far more and that one developed it. But once established it will conform/ adapt to any light.


Thanks Raymond. I'm not sure what to do about flow, I know I don't have a lot but what do others do? I have lily pipes with an eheim 2215. Should a small powerhead be added? Hate to do this because it takes away from the clean appearance, figured the 2215 would be enough flow for a 60p.

I have a Jebao RW-4 wavemaker that does is 160 or so GPH, but I've tried it and it's just too much. Do you think a Rio 50 at 69 GPH would do the trick on flow?

I may try some H202 treating and see how that works. I've lowered the light's intensity today and will see how that does, but I figured with pressurized C02 I should be using the higher light. Not all high tech tanks get infested with this stuff, so I'm not sure what balancing act I need to do. If I lower the lights should I keep the C02 the same, raise it, or lower it?


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## jayq16 (Jul 10, 2008)

After looking at some pics online I actually think i have a problem with spirogyra. I'm going to give a 3 day blackout a try and see if that impacts it.


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

Three days is about half the time needed for a blackout.
High tech doesn't necessarily require high light. The lights need to fit the
plants also. Slow growing plants + high light = a mess.
There needs to be more faster growing plants than slow growing plants and an adequate amount of them for a high tech to avoid algae.
It would be helpful if you would post a picture of the whole tank.
Perhaps also you could list your plants ?


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## jayq16 (Jul 10, 2008)

Raymond S. said:


> Three days is about half the time needed for a blackout.
> High tech doesn't necessarily require high light. The lights need to fit the
> plants also. Slow growing plants + high light = a mess.
> There needs to be more faster growing plants than slow growing plants and an adequate amount of them for a high tech to avoid algae.
> ...


Gotcha thanks Raymond. Below is a recent FTS. Its a mix of lower light plants (i.e., xmas moss) and higher light (DHG). 

The LFS is horrible at naming their plants, so I'm not exactly sure what the taller plants are. I'm pretty sure I have some Cabomba, 2 species of DHG carpeting, a patch of HC that's spreading, Cuba, spiral crypt and a small piece of Java Fern triton. As for the ones I'm not sure on, I have a red "frill" plant next to the Cabomba and a stem plant that grows like a weed (however this one seems to get impacted by the algae the most, it's the one pictured above).

Heres a recent FTS:









I've read a few different threads where Tom Barr has beat this with a 3 day blackout. You thing more would work better? I do my water changes on Mondays, was thinking maybe a 4 day blackout with a 50% water change Monday night? 

I would really like to stay away from chemical warfare at the moment, but wouldn't mind adding a very small powerhead if you think that would be a good idea - hate the look but don't mind it as much as algae :smile:


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## ConfidentBlue (Aug 27, 2013)

I was battling a big outbreak of Rhizo algae in two of my three tanks about two months back for about 4 months total. Nothing I did seemed to help! I did the Peroxide treatment, manual removal etc etc. 

Eventually I tried the black-out method and it whomped it back and has since disappeared. 

Heres what I did:
Wrapped aquarium with black trash bags 
Turned off all lighting and CO2. Blackout period for 4 days straight.
Everyday I did a 50% WC and added excel for the full dose after every water change. 
While doing the WC I removed as much algae as possible. 

After that the blackout there was substantial damage done to the algae and it was never able to recover. I continued to do a 25% WC every other day for a week. 

Not sure if it'll work with Clad but worth a shot! Rhizo was a pain to get rid of and so is Clad (however I've never personally dealt with it).


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

IF you need a power head it probably should be a very small one but I'd do the blackout
before I'd buy anything else. You could hide it on the same wall the Lily pipe is but behind the wood in the back left corner facing the other end. I use much lower current so I need to watch my light very close because manipulating it is about all I have other than getting the plant growth better.
I'm thinking that unnamed stemmed plant is some type of "Graci" if anyone knows the one I'm talking about.


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

Nesaea pedicellata? Just a guess, but it looks awful close.


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## jayq16 (Jul 10, 2008)

ConfidentBlue said:


> I was battling a big outbreak of Rhizo algae in two of my three tanks about two months back for about 4 months total. Nothing I did seemed to help! I did the Peroxide treatment, manual removal etc etc.
> 
> Eventually I tried the black-out method and it whomped it back and has since disappeared.
> 
> ...


Thanks! In the final day of a 4 day blackout now, will be doing a cleanup tonight and getting back on a light schedule. From peaking a little with a flashlight looks like the algae is dying out. Also losing my HC it looks like, but I had a small patch to begin with so won't be hard to get it back to where it was at.

Bump:


Raymond S. said:


> IF you need a power head it probably should be a very small one but I'd do the blackout
> before I'd buy anything else. You could hide it on the same wall the Lily pipe is but behind the wood in the back left corner facing the other end. I use much lower current so I need to watch my light very close because manipulating it is about all I have other than getting the plant growth better.
> I'm thinking that unnamed stemmed plant is some type of "Graci" if anyone knows the one I'm talking about.


I'll see how the blackout handled the problem and figure out if more flow is needed in the next few weeks.

I have always wanted some wave pattern flow in there, but the smallest wave maker i found was the Jaebo w-4. However, Tunze came out with the Nanostream 6040 which goes as low as 53 gph, but it's $140 :confused1: Maybe a gift to myself one of these days though 

Bump:


chad320 said:


> Nesaea pedicellata? Just a guess, but it looks awful close.


I think that may be it from the images I see on Google. Thanks!


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## jayq16 (Jul 10, 2008)

4 days seems to have wiped out 99% of all algae. Few small strands here and there but seems to be dead.

Question: should I go for a 7 hr light period or start with only 6 and see how it goes?


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## December (Aug 26, 2012)

I'm interested to hear about what you did and didn't do in those four days and/or days after. I'm sure a lot of other people are having the same issue, my self included. Thanks.


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## jayq16 (Jul 10, 2008)

December said:


> I'm interested to hear about what you did and didn't do in those four days and/or days after. I'm sure a lot of other people are having the same issue, my self included. Thanks.


Hi December,

For the 4 days I completely wrapped the tank in a dark blanket and from what I could tell no light entered. I left a very small opening in the corner far from any ambient light to let the tank "breath" some. I shut down all C02, did not dose ferts, and did not feed the fish during the 4 days.

Each day I peeked with a flashlight to see progress and make sure there were no fish catastrophes. I DID NOT do any water changes during this time - not sure if this helps or hurts, but I didn't have the time to do daily water changes. Also in the time it takes to do a water change (about 30mins to an hour for me) there's most likely light feeding the algae, so it may have been a good thing to skip.

On the 4th day, at the end of the day I did a 50% water change and syphoned out any dead algae I could see. I also pulled and syphoned any algae still attached to plant leaves.

All the algae in the tank was dead and most looked to have just melted away or disappeared. 1 plant had a lot of dead/possibly alive algae still attached - I ended up tossing this plant. 

It's been 10 days so far and no algae issues. The first week I started with a 6 hr photoperiod at 80% intensity at peak burst, the second week I bumped it up to a 6.5 hour period at 85% at peak burst. Next week I'll go for 7 hrs and see how it goes. 

All is good in the tank and plants are pearling too. Knock on wood it stays this way, and I'm watching closely in case I need to adjust my photoperiod.


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## December (Aug 26, 2012)

If you would, please keep posting updates. 

I'm thinking about doing a blackout as well but am in the process of reducing my light from 7 hours to 5 hours for two weeks and if nothing changes, then I will have to try a blackout. 

( My tank sits in front of a window and gets some light from that during the day is my guess as to why i am having these issues) 

Thanks.


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## jayq16 (Jul 10, 2008)

Will do. The only algae type that has returned (on the drift wood closest to the light) is the below:










The above is an old picture, and this stuff died during the blackout, but has returned a little. 

I'm not sure what this stuff is, but i'm watching it closely to make sure it doesn't get out of control. Honestly I don't mind it on the tips of the high branches as long as it stays away from my plants and moss. 

Here's my tank thread that i'll keep updating with tank shots as I get more growth.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=780714&highlight=


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