# Brown hair algae is pissing me off!



## DennisSingh (Nov 8, 2004)

You got silicates in the water? They'll keep feeding off of em


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## dzega (Apr 22, 2013)

drop otto fish inthere


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## fishkeeper01 (Oct 2, 2012)

StrungOut said:


> You got silicates in the water? They'll keep feeding off of em


I don't know? Can I test for it? I thought silicates were diatoms?

And no, I don'tbelieve in adding livestock to solve algae problems. Plus there is an eba in the tank so the otos would be a snack.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Give filter material a good clean/keep it clean, and reduce light intensity for two week's.
If using Excel with vallisneria I might consider another plant. (mine did not like it).
Increase CO2 a little bit if fishes will allow. If not,,,keep lighting reduced from whatever it is now. 
Maybe increase size of water change each week.
My two cent's.


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## AWolf (Jun 13, 2014)

Yea, my two month old tank is doing the same. Really annoying. Can't do otos because my angelfish hunt them. I have a pool sand substrate that must be contributing silicates. Every day I am washing off plants and running a cannister filter on the tank while I swish the water around. Of course, the usual weekly water change has become 50% instead of 25%. Will it ever end!?

So I just finished taking out many of the plants, leaving some floating plants as well, and added a big piece of wood to bring down the pH. Since silicates can raise pH, the natural thing to do is lower it. The wood will tannin the water, but honestly, I would rather have tannins to deal with (easily remedied), than this nasty brown crud! Let's see what happens by the end of next week or two. I'm betting it gets rid of the stuff. (HOPING:frown2


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## fishkeeper01 (Oct 2, 2012)

roadmaster said:


> Give filter material a good clean/keep it clean, and reduce light intensity for two week's.
> If using Excel with vallisneria I might consider another plant. (mine did not like it).
> Increase CO2 a little bit if fishes will allow. If not,,,keep lighting reduced from whatever it is now.
> Maybe increase size of water change each week.
> My two cent's.


I don't run CO2 on the tank, and my light are usually on for around 8 hours.


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## fishkeeper01 (Oct 2, 2012)

I did a cleaning this pass weekend and manually removed as much as I could. Unfortunately that was to no avail as the algae came back and it is getting progressively worse.


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

I'd agree, you have insufficient CO2 for the amount of light and nutrients available....


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## fishkeeper01 (Oct 2, 2012)

So what can I do if I don't intend on running CO2?


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## treeherder (Jul 9, 2014)

What do you have your tanked stocked with? if just neons or other small peaceful fish, a colony or red cherry shrimp will eat your algae once enough of them breed.

Add some floating plants like frogbit to remove nutrients.

Reduce your lighting levels by moving your light a few inches up.


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## fishkeeper01 (Oct 2, 2012)

Cardinals, and pygmy corys, and a male betta. Idk how I can raise the light, but I can reduce how long the light is on. Would adding an airstone for added circulation help?


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

fishkeeper01 said:


> So what can I do if I don't intend on running CO2?





Reduce photo period
Increase distance to light
Increase plant mass 
Reduce ferts....Switch over to plantamin until you have it sorted. It contains no nitrate and phosphate..


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## fishkeeper01 (Oct 2, 2012)

I tried reducing the lighting period and the intensity, but now it seems my plants are suffering. The leaves on some of the val and dwarf safe are starting to die, first they turn yellow. As far as ferts, I have only been dosing seachem potassium and trace to help with the leaves on the plants yellowing. At this point tho, the brown hair algae is just getting worse. I have become very tempted to buy and SAE, which I have read does a number on hair algae, thoughts?


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## fishkeeper01 (Oct 2, 2012)

Bump


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Plant's need more than just potassium.
Were it me (and it ain't) I would add a little of all nutrient's that plant's need to grow.
Macro/micro package from Aquariumfertilzer.com would suffice for everything but phosphate which could be supplied simply by feeding fish once or twice a day.
I did just this for a couple year's .(fish food's have phosphates)
if you don't have any or many fishes,then you can purchase the KH2PO4 (phosphate) separately from same vendor and add a pinch once a week in low tech or at EI level's for high energy (lighting) CO2 injected tank's.


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## Mikevwall (Jul 27, 2015)

Throw in ALOT more plants.
Promise that will help.
Whats your tanks specs? All I got from your post was the flora/fauna species, substrate, and ferts. I'm tired, so I might have missed it..


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## dzega (Apr 22, 2013)

fishkeeper01 said:


> And no, I don'tbelieve in adding livestock to solve algae problems.


Does your belief suffer yet?


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## fishkeeper01 (Oct 2, 2012)

roadmaster said:


> Plant's need more than just potassium.
> Were it me (and it ain't) I would add a little of all nutrient's that plant's need to grow.
> Macro/micro package from Aquariumfertilzer.com would suffice for everything but phosphate which could be supplied simply by feeding fish once or twice a day.
> I did just this for a couple year's .(fish food's have phosphates)
> if you don't have any or many fishes,then you can purchase the KH2PO4 (phosphate) separately from same vendor and add a pinch once a week in low tech or at EI level's for high energy (lighting) CO2 injected tank's.


If you read in earlier posts, it was suggested to cut back on dosing ferts, which I did. I was only dosing potassium and trace, because the plants were showing deficiency signs. Other than that I am normally dosing across the boards

Also here are the tanks specs


Tank:Standard 10g
Lighting:Razor EA50 LED Light 18" 6500K
Parameters
Ph:7.4 (I only had the high range test kit on hand)
Ammonia:0-0.25 ppm (the color was hard to tell one or the other)
Nitrate 0
Gh:5-6
Kh:5-6
Phosphate:0.5


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

fishkeeper01 said:


> If you read in earlier posts, it was suggested to cut back on dosing ferts, which I did. I was only dosing potassium and trace, because the plants were showing deficiency signs. Other than that I am normally dosing across the boards
> 
> Also here are the tanks specs
> 
> ...


 Nitrate reading of zero will be problematic in a planted tank.10 to 20 ppm would be good range.


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## fishkeeper01 (Oct 2, 2012)

Really why is that? Is it the reason why I have hair algae?


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

fishkeeper01 said:


> Really why is that? Is it the reason why I have hair algae?


 
Nitrates, or nitrogen from KNO3 mineral salt is key macronutrient along with phosphates from mineral salt KH2PO4 or from fish food's.
Pick up the fert package I mentioned earlier, and for ten gal tank,,I would suggest product Flourish EXCEL.
Would be my move.
The dry fert package I mentioned for 10 gal tank would last you a year or more and run ya about $25.00.
just sayin.:wink2:


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## Straight shooter (Nov 26, 2015)

A natural way to increase nitrates is to add more fish, if your filtration can handle it.

A lot of people think their tanks are algae free.. and neglect to tell you they have an army of algae eaters. IMO life is just better with algae eaters around. Otos are really interesting fish to keep in groups. It's fun to watch them interact with each other. SAEs are great too but make sure you don't feed them too much fish food or they'll start to ignore the algae. Keep them lean and keep them keen. The various algae eating shrimp available do an incredible job picking away at algae. There are a few choices available out there and never feel bad for getting some extra help to keep algae at bay.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Tank is too small for SAE (or many other fish), and few fish outside mollie's which also need larger tank, will bother nibbling at hair algae.
Oto's much prefer Diatom's.


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## Straight shooter (Nov 26, 2015)

How did you know what size it was? The OP never mentioned it..


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Straight shooter said:


> How did you know what size it was? The OP never mentioned it..


 Yes,they did.standard 10 gal.:wink2:


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## Straight shooter (Nov 26, 2015)

I just saw it there. I'm an idiot. Ignore me. Thanks Roadmaster.


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## roadmaster (Nov 5, 2009)

Straight shooter said:


> I just saw it there. I'm an idiot. Ignore me. Thanks Roadmaster.


 
No ya ain't:laugh2:
Just a little quick on the draw.


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## Straight shooter (Nov 26, 2015)

Teehee.. must have been a bit quick on the draw. 

Brown hair algae may just be filamentous diatoms IMO. I think an oto will eat it.. so would many of the algae loving shrimp.


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## fishkeeper01 (Oct 2, 2012)

I currently have an Oto in the tank, so it's been proven they don't eat hair algae. I don't mind adding an SAE to the tank, because I have larger tanks that it can be rehomed to. I would just like to know the root of the problem so that I don't have to buy an animal to eat it.


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## fishkeeper01 (Oct 2, 2012)

Bump


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## Hooked on fish (Dec 15, 2015)

Straight shooter said:


> Teehee.. must have been a bit quick on the draw.
> 
> Brown hair algae may just be filamentous diatoms IMO. I think an oto will eat it.. so would many of the algae loving shrimp.


Mine eat at it... but not enough to eradicate it.
It's a balance of ferts/light issue.

And one otto is a bad idea.

They work and live best in small groups.


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## fishkeeper01 (Oct 2, 2012)

Ok, so the root problem for hair algae is an imbalance in fertilizer and lights? What exactly is the imbalance?


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## Hooked on fish (Dec 15, 2015)

The root problem for just about any algae is too much light + imbalance of ferts.

Plants need a balanced diet. Algae will eat anything it can.
So if you are high in phosphates, low in iron, have good CO2 and a lot of light, then you'll get algae of one sort or another.
The reason is because algae can grow in anything but most plants need a decent amount of most things.
When the plant's light is more than they can convert into photosynthesis, because the ferts aren't available, then they stop.
Algae doesn't stop.

The best way to fight algae is lower light, more and better balanced ferts, lots of fast growing plants and just enough CO2 to make it happen.

I fight with algae in most of my tanks because I do not use CO2 and don't have any test kits for checking what ferts are in the water column and only do monthly water changes.
I'm okay with it because I don't mind a little algae and when it starts to get out of control I know what I need to do to reel it in some.

But to be algae free (or it least appear that way) it is a balancing act.

I just had a BBA outbreak in a tank that I'm fixing with slightly less light, dosing excel, and based on plant growth determined I probably needed to add magnesium.
SO far the BBA has responded. In 1 week I have new shoots on most plants and I have less BBA, some of it is turning red which is a good sign.
My Otto's and Kribs will eat at it. But If I didn't respond it would have taken over.


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## r0adki1l (Jan 31, 2015)

One other thing is most leaved plants especially swords and vals will kill off old leaves and create new ones to match the environment so a byproduct of changing the lighting etc.. will be some old growth die off but the new will grow into the environment better. simple way for the plant to adapt to changing environments.


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## Snowflake311 (Apr 20, 2011)

I have had every type of algae in my tanks over the years. This brown. Fluffy hair algae is just gross. 

I am fighting it right now too. Before the fluffy brown algae came I had the bright green hair algae that I kind of liked. But it was growing too much. So I cut back my light and lifted the light up so it would be less intense. Then I stoped fertilizer and stoped co2. Well guess what came the fluffy brown algae. 

I tried a 3 day black out it did nothing ,this algae is not effected by light as much as others. The black out hurt my plants not the algae. So I increased the time my light is on and moved it so it sits right on the lid. I noticed it also grows best in dead spots of the tank where there is little water movment. So I added a power head. I also am pumping co2 into the tank now too diy citric acid kind I love it. I dose nitrogen and flourish trace elements every morning. Also keep the tank clean of any dead or bad leaves. 

I have noticed it is not growing as strong or fast as before. I am going to add some more fast growing steam plants. I think I found what was causing mine and it will be under controle.

When I do water changes I do big ones and remove as much as I can. I cut off really bad plants that are covered in it. 

This stuff is nasty and will chock out your plants and kill them if it gets really bad. 

When fighting algae you need to find the cause and fix it then problem fixed. Good luck.


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## uheartmoi (Dec 31, 2015)

I am fighting off this SAME STUFF! Its SO annoying and I am not even sure where to go from here. I have been doing 50% water changes and I have cut my light times in HALF :/ Not only that but I have fuzzy WHITE algae growing on my darn drift wood -_________-


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## Aqua Hero (May 8, 2015)

I remember when I had my old 5 gallon tank. Woke up one day and saw a thick ball of thst algae. I bought some amano shrimp and it was gone In two days.

Sent from my D2303 using Tapatalk


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## m_t_r_86 (Jan 10, 2016)

I have two SAE and other SAE in the past and they do a number on almost all types of algae. I love the guys. 

Bump+


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## Straight shooter (Nov 26, 2015)

I've never understood why people who go Walstad method don't follow her key advice; add lots of plants, especially floating plants to absorb excess nutrients. 

You don't have any deficiency of fertilizer. With the low plant mass, rich substrate and fish food you will have lots of fertilizer already. If anything you'll only need to add K and Fe which fish food only contains in small quantities. 

Algae can thrive because they have everything they need and little competition.


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

My new dirted tank is also growing some petri dish award winning algae.
Started dosing Tertra Plantamin today and hooked up some DIY CO2.
Suppose I need to pull out the 23W daylight CFL too... maybe a little much for a new 6 gallon.

The glosso is doing great though, I was blown this evening when I saw how much all the plants grew in just one day.
It is a little counter productive having so many older leaves defaced by algae though. Might add some more floating elodea too.
Not sure if I should just leave the CO2 hooked up at night, there is enough up and downs already with DIY CO2.

Compared to my fry tanks with no more than a small warm white spiral cfl, taking 14 to 16 hours of light per day and up and running since November without a hint of algae.
The only algae I have in there is a long green filamenty type I put in for the fry, to live off the micro organisms on it... it is quite easy to roll a little ball with it, almost beardlike.


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## brotherscott (Dec 15, 2015)

Also having trouble with Algae. CO2 system and dosing ferts daily. It started when I went to the 3 week mark before changing the water. I might start weekly changes now to try and get rid of it.


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