# (Hair?) Algae on Moss, which solution?



## soulchief (May 17, 2018)

I have some algae (I'm thinking it's hair algae, I took a photo here: https://imgur.com/a/XFLhPJn) that started to grow on my java moss. It came from another plant I added a while ago, and really hasn't grown/spread much since I've removed that plant.

What's the best way to get rid of it? Java Moss is kind of expensive around here, so I don't want to throw it out (half my 30 gallon is full of it).

1.Bleach Dip (1:19 solution), how long for moss? I do 2 minutes for other plants but that might be too long for moss.

2.Hydrogen Peroxide, Spray or Dip? Full concentration (3%) or mix with some water? I've dossed a 10G tank with that plant I originally added with 10ml each day for 3 days and that killed all the algae. Not sure if that's safe for moss, and the tank has fry and snails, don't want to harm them. But could always move the fish or moss temporarily.

3.Blackout. Took a small portion out and did a 3 day test and didn't really see any change.

4.Fish/Shrimp. Right now the tank (30G) only has fry (4 bristlenose plecos and 10 guppies) and MTS. Eventually it'll have just the MTS, 2 bristlenose and the guppies + their fry. I have other tanks (6x 10G and another 30G) that the fish/shrimp could go in after.

5.Something else?


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## madcrafted (Dec 23, 2017)

I've been down that road before myself with hair algae and mosses, so I feel your frustration.

I tried everything from cranking my CO2 to the "1-2 punch method". It would always come back. I was also using Purigen in my filter and doing 50% water changes twice a week as well as vacuuming the substrate. I had good flow at 10:1 turnover and feeding a full range of nutrients based on the EI method at the time. I kept filter and sponges cleaned properly... probably too often, really.

As for treatments, I could only beat that hair algae back for a couple days with excel/h202 and it would return like it was angry with me. I had strings of the stuff nearly the length of the tank. It was a mess. In the end, it turned out that I was giving my tank too much light for the biomass of plants I had. They needed time to catch up and establish themselves but the algae was making that difficult. I had to reduce the brightness of my light, plain and simple. I added a cheap pwm dimmer and ran my lights at 50% power for a couple of weeks. I didn't bother to lower CO2 or my fertilizing for that matter. It pretty much went away for good after that. However, I can induce it by increasing the light's intensity for a few days but I can easily get rid of it by doing the opposite. I learned that I could bump it slowly over the course of a month and get to about 75% intensity before it would trigger it. That was when I was injecting CO2 into that tank. Now I can run about 60% brightness on that same tank without any algae. Everything is doing well in that tank today, it just grows about 5X slower. 

It really comes down to trial and error to find a balance that works well for your particular tank and plants. The more light you add, the higher demand for nutrients. If you don't give your plants enough nutrients to keep up with this increased demand, deficiencies will occur. Plants will then become unhealthy and algae gets the upper hand.


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