# cant get rid of green hair algae



## xmas_one

I have troubles with hair algae also...

My best advice would be to cut your lighting down to 7 or so hours, make sure you have good flow, ferts, and co2.


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## Green024

What kind of filtration do you use on this 55g? It may not be enough to spread the cO2 to all parts of the tank. Also do you have a drop checker so you can see at a glance what your cO2 levels are actually at? Your hair algae could also be from low nutrient levels and/or ammonia spikes.

I usually see hair algae in my tanks due to lack of cO2.

Remove as much of it as possible by twisting it around a toothbrush. Overdosing excel will do some damage on it as well, but wont keep it away forever if you don't tweak your flow/co2/lighting or ferts situation a little.


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## chad320

Welcome to the club. This is one thats not easily beat w/o complete removal of the entire thing, usually entailing the plant leaf, driftwood, rock, etc.... CO2 and lowering light will keep it from going crazy but will not kill it. Good luck!


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## MarkMc

T-5 HO lights are very bright. Try lowering the photo-period to 8 hours and raising the lights if possible. If it is only on the plants that reach the top of the tank it would stand to reason that you have a lot of light there (top of tank). CO2 circulation as was mentioned by Green024 could also be contributing.


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## littlefish

The cause may be: nitrates might be too high, phosphates may be too high or lighting has recently been replaced or perhaps your bulbs are so old that the spectrum of light has shifted. Make some tests and see if the water parameters are ok.

To get rid of the algae, you are going to have to prune it back manually, clean your equipment as well. It will take some time but if you keep going, you’ll see less and less in your tank, until one day, your tank is pristine again.


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## NateFank

i have a fluval 304 on the tank, lpus a power head, so i have enough flow and its spreadin the co2 pretty well cuz i have the end if the filter flowing towards the left of the tank and my drop checker is on the right side of the tank and the DC is always lime green. i dont think its low ferts cuz i do the EI dosing, i think LITTLE FISH might be right, i could have too much nitrates or phosphates. the lights are about a year and a half old. i might try moving the lights up and cutting down to like 8 hours


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## Sharkfood

I'd look at light and CO2. 

The idea behind EI dosing is to always have high levels of nitrate and phosphate in the water. I had hair algae before I went to EI, which summarily faded away when I cut my photo period and upped my nitrate dosing to >20ppm every 2 days. I found that with doses lower than this, my nitrate was becoming depleted before the next dose.. I've never tested for phosphate (actually, I don't test for anything anymore), but I dose slightly more than EI recommendation and don't see any signs that it is bottoming out. I don't add extra potassium.

I would test to make sure there is always detectable nitrate in your water until you find the right amount to dial in your tank's needs, then it's not necessary any more unless you develop new problems later on. Again though, light and/or CO2 are more likely to be the culprit rather than your dosing in my experience. 

Ramping up my CO2 level has effectively gotten rid of all other algae.


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## MarkMc

NateFank said:


> i have a fluval 304 on the tank, lpus a power head, so i have enough flow and its spreadin the co2 pretty well cuz i have the end if the filter flowing towards the left of the tank and my drop checker is on the right side of the tank and the DC is always lime green. i dont think its low ferts cuz i do the EI dosing, i think LITTLE FISH might be right, i could have too much nitrates or phosphates. the lights are about a year and a half old. i might try moving the lights up and cutting down to like 8 hours


I gotta say that littlefish's advice is just plain wrong. Sorry. Excess nitrate and phosphate is not the culprit. Forget about the age of the bulbs too, unless you want to spend money needlessly. Instead of "thinking" about raising the lights and cutting back the photo-period just DO IT-TRY IT. Try it for a month-a whole month.... What will it cost you? Nothing.


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## plantbrain

littlefish said:


> The cause may be: nitrates might be too high, phosphates may be too high or lighting has recently been replaced or perhaps your bulbs are so old that the spectrum of light has shifted. Make some tests and see if the water parameters are ok.
> 
> To get rid of the algae, you are going to have to prune it back manually, clean your equipment as well. It will take some time but if you keep going, you’ll see less and less in your tank, until one day, your tank is pristine again.


This is simply not true.

algae are not limited by these nutrients, thus adding more of them will not increase the yield of algae, Liebig's law of the minimum accuracy predicts this, additionally, when you say high NO3 or PO4, where is the hard data for support?

Give us some REAL ppm's, 20ppm? 50ppm for NO3?
How about PO4? 5ppm? 10ppm?

I dose this amount every week to this tank:










See any algae?

I've dose this amount to all my tanks, (5) and do not have algae issues, I've been selling a lot of plants for several years from these tanks. 

So it CANNOT be due to excess nutrients, it has to be some other cause.
CO2 is the most likely candidate which......most of the responses have suggested. A simple test and the principle of falsification illustrates this. It does not say what causes algae, it says what does NOT cause algae.

In other words, look elsewhere besides nutrients for the root cause.
It clearly cannot be the case based on the results.
If it where, then everyone should be able to get algae this way, yet thousands of people do not over the last 15 years.




Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## plantbrain

Nate, focus on slowly and carefully adjusting CO2 and keeping the current high enough to provide ample surface movement. This will keep the O2 up, so that the fish have less stress. This alos allows easier cO2 dosing with less risk to fish.

So not assume the DC is correct.
Same for the pH/KH chart.

Use those to get close........then slow and progressively adjust the CO2 slightly........then wait and watch.

Reducing the light will also help since light drives CO2 uptake.

You have ample nutrients/light, so what is left?

CO2.......which is a lot more tricky........and causes about 99% of the fish deaths when impatient....and closer to the same with algae blooms.

So be careful and observe closely.
Adjust slightly by adding a tad more each 3-4 days till you see a response with less algae. Watch fish carefully.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## MarkMc

So the simple solution is to raise the lights. This places less demand on CO2 which as Mr. Barr stated causes more mistakes with fish fatalities. If you don't want to raise the lights you will need to go the direction of increasing CO2 as he suggests. A Hydor Nano power head works very well for rippling the surface to increase O2.


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## roadmaster

Puntius nigrofasciatus love hair algae and other forms as well. I was getting some hair alage on tops of leopard vals in low tech non CO2. Enter the Ruby barbs, and within two days, no more hair algae. Some would advise not to select fish to fix problem and this I understand but for me,, the algae was not rampant and I am not as understanding of it's causes and or steps to aleviate.
Until then,, The Ruby barbs are buying me some time. (To each his own)

P.S. Can't say I would recommend the Barbs if delicate plants are present or if sedate fishes are desireable. But they are quite pretty.


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## NateFank

so i have moved up the lights, but i cant seem to get my co2 to stay. i have a GLA setup but it doesnt seem to stay where i set it. it will be fine for a few days then it seems to close the valve on its own


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## xmas_one

What's your working pressure on the reg? Try raising it..


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## NateFank

ill have to check when i get home


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## sewingalot

Anytime I have ever had this algae, it seems to be related to low nitrates. Don't know if this helps or not.


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## NateFank

so if the working pressure is the one thats supposed to be around 10, it was at like 8 so i bumped it up to about 13


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## James A

Hi..!!
Just reduce the amount and frequency or completely eradicate adding any fertilizers to stop it from growing or add more potassium so the plants will use the phosphates quicker. It is easy to pull off so you can just pull it off until you get rid of it.


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