# Hair/thread algae help.



## i love planted tanks (Apr 27, 2008)

red cherry shrimp are good algae eaters and ammo shrimp


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

kinda looks like moss. i like it. 

but anyway, in order to kill it you have to find the source. this is caused by excess iron, i used to have threads that were 10 inches long (no jk) and once i stopped dosing the cheap fertilizer with tons of iron and switched to flourish the algea stopped.
I also contribute my success to my army of amanos, they really helped get rid of the algae. i always see them chewing on it. 

good luck.


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## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

> kinda looks like moss. i like it.


Believe me, up close in person, its not as pleasant or nice looking as you might think, at least in most cases. I've had shrimps and fish die because of this algae and being entangled in them when there's a lot.




i love planted tanks said:


> red cherry shrimp are good algae eaters and ammo shrimp


Amanos and cherries are good in keeping the algae down. They get at the algae at the beginning BEFORE they become a serious problem. Once they become a serious problem and have truly "rooted" themselves in, the only way to rid your plants of them is either with excel or bleaching.

For bleaching, use a 1:20 bleach to water ratio. Dip it in for about a minute or so. Bleach whatever you think is contaiminated. Afterwards, dip in water with PRIME or another equivalent water conditioner that removes chlor.

I'm not familar with excel but from what I heard, you take out your item(s) that has the algae and you apply it directly. However, I'll leave it to you searching and for another person that has done excel treatments and are more experienced in it.

At that stage, shrimps can't do anything about it, the algae is too hard for most algae eaters to do anything about it. Maybe in the beginning but seeing how your picture is (blurry as it is though), I doubt anything but direct treatment can solve your problem.


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## DiscusIt'sWhats4DinneR (Apr 25, 2008)

remove as much as you can by hand and with toothbrush.

-then figure out what is causing it. excess iron is only a problem if there is a deficiency in other nutrients.
-or (less scientifically) adding some stem plants should help. they will hopefully use up whatever the algae is feeding off of.


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## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

DiscusIt'sWhats4DinneR said:


> remove as much as you can by hand and with toothbrush.


Looking at his pictures, doing a manual removal will take hours.

If you dont mind growing some moss back, I'd say toss it out or bleach it. Unless you got LOTS of time and patience, I know I wouldn't want to be in his shoe in cleaning all that up.


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## Gerald the Mouse (Jun 19, 2006)

Thanks everyone. I think I'll try manually removing most of it, and then getting some RCS or amanos.


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## DebbyS (Aug 27, 2006)

I used a splash (maybe 1/4 cup, probably less) of hydrogen peroxide on some thread algae I had on some plantlets growing from long Java Fern leaves into some hornwort. I also added within a few minutes some (a few drops) Kent Freshwater Fertlizer (since I don't use Excel). This was in a 2.5 G with only a betta, some snails, plants (including some anubias nana), and rocks. That was Monday night. By Tuesday morning when the light over the tank came on, the thread algae was red, which I understand means "dead". I've removed some by hand since then, the rest will just have to deteriorate on its own. Also, my water got a wee bit cloudy (Bob the betta didn't seem to notice). This may be because the H2O2 interferred with the established bacteria. I added a wee bit of prime last night and things are a little clearer this morning. I had a clump of hornwort with the same thread algae problem and I put it in a cup with Prime conditioned water and a big shot of H2O2. An hour or so later I changed the water for just conditioned water, and put the container in a window where it will get a short period of morning sun. If the clump survives, I'll feel okay about putting it into an aquarium.

I have a some other simple algae problems in the 2.5G, along the sides of the tank, but I can wipe that off easily, taking care not to disturb Bob too much. I might one day get some ghost shrimp (though I think they're scary/ugly), but it's a long bus trip and I don't want Bob to think "oh, lunch!", at least not right away.


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## aquanut415 (Jan 21, 2006)

manually remove as much as possible.
try upping your potassium levels, possibly even reducing the photoperiod.

if the tank has no co2 being added to it, I would also consider a small DIY setup.


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## blkshdw (Jun 6, 2008)

I can see my white clouds are getting caught in my hair algae and struggling to swim out of it. The hair algae is growing on moss right now so I'm guessing the only way to get rid of it is to get rid of the moss as well.


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

Natty said:


> Looking at his pictures, doing a manual removal will take hours.
> 
> .


Take it to the sink,scrub brush a few minutes..walla..no more algae.


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## GIO590 (Jun 25, 2007)

Manually remove

get shrimp (amano's, cherries will do fine) since 2.5 is to small for alot of algae eating fish

Try to deal with root cause of algae, probably an iron excess


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## reybie (Jun 7, 2007)

I have a newly setup tank which I tried to plant emersed at first then decided it was time to flood it. The excess fertilizers in the tank got saturated and it exploded in algae. I couldn't take it anymore so I scooped out all the shrimps I had in it and dosed it with excel 5X the suggested dosage. Turned off the filter for about an hour for maximum contact with the algae. The algae turned white after a few hours and even turned more white after a day. I did a major water change after that to get rid of whatever heavy concentration of excel still in the tank and then I put an army of amano shrimps. It was clean in a couple of days -- the tank looks clean again and it's ready for another experiment


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## clint13 (Apr 27, 2008)

I had the same problem. I overdosed with flourish excel 2times the recommended dosage for a week. after day 2 all the hair algae turned bright pink. after about a week all the algae died and was floating around in the water. It was a chore to clean it all out. cents then I added another Gallon of yeast co2 in my 55 gal tank so thats 2 gallon containers of diy co2 for my tank and i havent seen any algae for weeks. I did all this with my fish in the tank. gouramis, SAE's, loaches. everyone was fine. but remember do it at your own risk. My experience with flourish excel was great and Im happy i did it.


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