# Hair Everywhere!



## howellsp (Sep 17, 2009)

I have hair everywhere in my 90 gallon tank....I have read all the posts and articles online about less light, leave the light alone, less ferts, leave the ferts alone, and at this point I'm lost. I have a pesssurized CO2 system that is controlled by a PH controller, it is set to a ph of 6.9 to 7.0 as this gives me 30 ppm of CO2 according to my drop checker ( KH4 ) My lighting is a Coralife 2x28 watt T5 NO with 6700K and Aquatic Life 4x54 watt HO T5 with 6000K that was originally set at 12 hours to grow out my recently aquired Glossostigma Elatinoides and Echinodorus Tenelus foreground plants but I have since cut it back to 6 hours ( 1 week and not good for the Glosso ). I'm fertilizing using the EI method here http://www.cambridge-district-aquarium-society.ca/forum/index.php?topic=72.0

but have only been doing this for two weeks. Previously I just added some off the shelf liquid stuff once a day ( capfull ) My water is extremely hard with a KH of 13 and with a fishload of 7 Zebra Danios, 2x5" Discus, 7x quater sized Discus, 2x Neons, 1 Angel, 1 Ram, and 3 Ottos, and I only feed them once a day. The tank is in a room with two skylights but doesn't get any direct light from any windows and has been up and running since August. Am I being too impatient?..should I wait to see what happens since I have cut back the light? Any suggestions?:help:


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## captain_bu (Oct 20, 2007)

Cutting back the light is a good place to start. In a 90 gallon tank CO2 diffusion and distribution can be an issue, make sure that you have good circulation. CO2 is the hardest thing to get right. Dosing is easy.

You need to remove any hair algae even if it means cutting your plants back more than you would like. Keep the tank and filters clean, you can increase water changes to twice weekly if you want. Patience is a good thing too... plants need time to adjust to any changes made to tank parameters... there can be a couple of weeks lag before things get better, there can also be a couple of weeks lag before a change in tank parameters manifests itself in a problem. Adding Excel may help as you get the algae under control. You can probably add as much as 3x the standard daily dosage. I haven't had luck spot treating hair algae with Excel but others have.

What are you using for substrate? 

FWIW Glosso doesn't need extreme light intensity to grow well, good CO2 is more important. Depending on your scape circulation at the substrate may not be strong enough and your glosso may be CO2 deficient.


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## howellsp (Sep 17, 2009)

My substrate is 75% flourite and 25% gravel mix and my CO2 is put into the tank via a Red Sea Reactor 500, I also just got rid of the "dry" part of my wet/dry sump to reduce off gassing of the CO2.


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## captain_bu (Oct 20, 2007)

I have never used the Red Sea reactor but based on everything I have read it is not going to be adequate for a 90 gallon tank. Hopefully with a tank this large you are using a canister filter and would be able to build or buy yourself an inline reactor to run off the outflow of the canister filter. You could also add a manifold/second needle valve to your regulator and use two large glass diffusers, one at each end of the tank or a reactor plus a diffuser on the opposite end of the tank from your filter return.

I would also suggest ditching the pH controller for now. Once you know you have adequate CO2 levels happening test your pH and then set the controller based on that pH level.

Glosso should do okay with flourite as a substrate, I think lack of CO2 in relation to your lighting intensity is your main issue.


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## howellsp (Sep 17, 2009)

Well I cranked up the CO2 and went out and purchased 6 Rosy Barbs.....guess we'll wait and see what happens now?:icon_roll


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## jimangie1973 (Jan 6, 2010)

howellsp said:


> Well I cranked up the CO2 and went out and purchased 6 Rosy Barbs.....guess we'll wait and see what happens now?:icon_roll


I had a terrible infestation of hair/fuzz algae and I moved an Opaline Gourami from another one of my tanks and he cleared the hair within 2 days. The algae I had was brownish gray in color. I bought rosy barbs too but while they were in the quarantine tank, the Opaline cleared the show tank.

I am also EI dosing. Since the algae appeared, I made sure the CO2 was close to 30 ppm while the lights were on, and I tried reducing the lighting duration (I have 108 Watts of T5HO on a 55 gal). Nothing helped until I put the Gourami in.

Jim


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## howellsp (Sep 17, 2009)

Well the Rosy Barbs are doing a great job of eating the algae but I had to cut back the CO2 as my drop checker was turning yellow and my angels started gasping at the surface. The hair algae still appears to have a grip on my tank so now I'm considering dosing the tank with Excel or h202 when I do my weekly 50% water change.:help:


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Working on your CO2 and ferts can help keep the algae from coming back, but you've also got to do something to kill what you've already got.

I vote for Excel. Did a great job in my 29gal when I got a massive hair algae attack shortly after initial setup. I dosed the "initial" dose of Excel for 2 days in a row, came back after the weekend and the algae was gone and I haven't had to dose any more since then. (Nerite snails also had cleaned up all traces of the dead algae, so I didn't even see that!)


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## AshleyO (Jan 8, 2010)

I don't know if this will work for you, but I have a tank that was plagued with hair algae. I tried changing just about everything, including the amount time the lights were on, but nothing worked.

About the time I was banging my head against the wall I read an article about how algae needs the light to be on for a certain amount of time before it can really start to photosynthesize, but the plants, for the most part, use all the light they can get. The article recommended setting the lights up on a timer to allow for a "siesta" in the middle of the day. I now have my lights set to run 14 hours a day with a four-hour period of darkness in the middle. This has completely knocked out my hair algae.


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## Green024 (Sep 19, 2009)

AshleyO said:


> I now have my lights set to run 14 hours a day with a four-hour period of darkness in the middle. This has completely knocked out my hair algae.


Thanks for sharing this, I have never read that one before but i will be giving it a shot!


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## howellsp (Sep 17, 2009)

AshleyO said:


> I now have my lights set to run 14 hours a day with a four-hour period of darkness in the middle. This has completely knocked out my hair algae.



I assume that 14 hours includes the 4 hours of darkness?


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## AshleyO (Jan 8, 2010)

howellsp said:


> I assume that 14 hours includes the 4 hours of darkness?


Yes, five hours on, four hours off, then five hours on.


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## howellsp (Sep 17, 2009)

Well the good news is that my hair algae has finally gone!.....I kept up the EI dosing method of fertilizing with a 50% water change once a week, but I think it was the lighting technique that Ashley O told me to do that finally killed it off. I changed the timing of my lights to 4 hrs on, 4 hrs off, 4 hrs on, this did the trick but my glosso has suffered and is about 4 inches high now. Thanks everyone who helped!


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