# Hair Algae - pull it out or leave in tank?



## Hop (Mar 27, 2004)

Pull, pull and then do some more pulling. if you leave all of it in your tank and don't get the balance corrected soon enough, this stuff will choke out your plants and kill them. One thing I use that helps is a hair comb. You can wind the algea up on the comb and then take chunks out at a time.


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## elimmel (Dec 2, 2003)

Hop said:


> Pull, pull and then do some more pulling. if you leave all of it in your tank and don't get the balance corrected soon enough, this stuff will choke out your plants and kill them. One thing I use that helps is a hair comb. You can wind the algea up on the comb and then take chunks out at a time.


using an old toothbrush to pull them out, will try a comb soon.
say the nutrients have balanced out, will leaving some hair algae (those that's real difficult to manually remove) in the tank be alright?


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## rayhwong (Aug 6, 2004)

I would pull it out whenever you get the chance or when you do tank cleaning. If its that much trouble just get whatever you can each time. Slowly you'll get it.

Mine has been receding slowly after i balanced my tank but i still use a toothbrush to speed the process. If something happens to your balance or if you have to go away for awhile and let the nutrients build, the left over algae can multiply rather quickly.


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## elimmel (Dec 2, 2003)

ok, i get the idea. 
thanks for the advise


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## aquaverde (Apr 15, 2003)

*what your tank may look like if you don't pull hair algae*


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## Aphyosemion (Oct 15, 2004)

*Ooh, Pretty!*

That pic is scary, but at least you have the green stuff that the algae eaters and shrimp like. I have the black looking stuff in my tank, which no one wants to touch.
-Aphyosemion


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## BlueRam (Sep 21, 2004)

elimmel:

SAE/amano shrimp (and others) love hair algae. They once picked a java fern clean in an evening.


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## aquaverde (Apr 15, 2003)

I've actually heard somewhere that some German aquarists propagate it to feed fishes with....

I'll be a cold day in the bad place before I _intentionally_ try to propagate it.


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## VaporFlowers (Jul 13, 2004)

aquaverde said:


> I've actually heard somewhere that some German aquarists propagate it to feed fishes with....
> 
> I'll be a cold day in the bad place before I _intentionally_ try to propagate it.


Haha! Hair algae is the epitome of all evil, I don't care what likes to eat it.


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## InnerMonkey (Nov 20, 2004)

I laughted when I read that comment about growing the stuff intentionally. I just can't imagine! Although...I did leave beard algae on my filter intake and a few rocks because I liked the way it swayed in the current. It took a long time for it to fill in and I actually took care in dealing with it.


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## Rex Grigg (Dec 10, 2002)

Hmm.... I have always thought that hair algae was the shorter stuff. I have always though that the long stringy slimy green stuff was thread algae.


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## pufferfreak (Oct 19, 2003)

What about getting a few Flordia Flag fish, or amano shrimp? thats what i'm trying to do for my 12 gallon


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## aquaverde (Apr 15, 2003)

Rex Grigg said:


> Hmm.... I have always thought that hair algae was the shorter stuff. I have always though that the long stringy slimy green stuff was thread algae.


One area of study I consider to be seriously lacking is algae identification. We rely too much on common monikers that are hardly much different from one another- hair, beard, fuzz, thread, staghorn, dust? What about Oedogonium, Spirogyra, Cladaphora, etc.?

I could wish there was a body of non-magnified photos that were positively identified with species names and related to the common names for these types. Maybe telling them apart is just not that easy without a biology degree and a microscope. I've seen long grey threads that span a foot or more, same thing with green thread that's very resilient, looks almost like some sort of superthin monofilament line, bunches of green filamentous masses that collect at the roots of plants, floating mats of stuff that has the texture of horsehair pads, and on and on.

Anyone on the board had any formal education in this field?


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## SCMurphy (Oct 21, 2003)

aquaverde said:


> I'll be a cold day in the bad place before I _intentionally_ try to propagate it.


Start propagating, the RedSox won the World Series this year. :icon_bigg


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## Oqsy (Jul 3, 2004)

bah red sox... i'm so mad at the cardinals for falling asleep. i can't believe that's the same team from the beginning of the season.

grumble grumble

to stay on topic: I agree that some scientific names with macro as well as micro shots would help quite a bit. right now i'm fighting the long long long green filaments that look like green troll hair waving in the water. very resilient, but light hungry... light deprivation is the only thing i've found that will back it off once it's established, but I still haven't eliminated it from the tank. having a much harder time balancing this tank since its shrimp only, and they're rarely fed, since there's so much tasty algae everywhere. I'm much more accustomed to fish food being a source of some of my macros... perhaps i have too little phosphorus... i guess its finally time to get a kit 

Oqsy


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## RoseHawke (Mar 10, 2004)

Well, I know the stuff I've got looks like green cobwebs. So hair and thread _are_ two different animals? The terms seem to be used interchangeably although the descriptions I've run across seemed to indicate otherwise.

I'm _supposed_ to have some FFF arriving today, however the USPS notification I just got said "Priority" and they're _supposed_ to be coming Express :angryfire . I wouldn't be a bit surprised if someone down the line screwed something up ... such is my karma :icon_roll . Also wouldn't you know that this is the coldest weather we've had so far this season? This is the first time I've ever ordered fish, I do want this to be a good experience!


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## aquaverde (Apr 15, 2003)

SCMurphy said:


> Start propagating, the RedSox won the World Series this year. :icon_bigg


 :hihi: 
Better start soon, though. 
Things are warming up quick for the Red Sox...


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## Kris (Feb 27, 2004)

Aphyosemion said:


> That pic is scary, but at least you have the green stuff that the algae eaters and shrimp like. -Aphyosemion


i bought some amanos tonight for my hair algae (which won't be pearling for much longer!!!) and they have gone right to work!

i'll be pulling and pulling (like everyone else here) along with the amanos though.


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## ThomE (Aug 26, 2004)

VaporFlowers said:


> Haha! Hair algae is the epitome of all evil, I don't care what likes to eat it.


I agree, I've been dealing with it for about two months. RIP ALL OF IT OUT !!!!!!! Don't take chances, It got into my Mini-moss and Erect moss lost them both  .


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## bastalker (Dec 8, 2004)

*Hair or thread algae??*

Sorry about the flash!!

I have the same thing goin on...I dont want to rip out my plants, but I cant pull this stuff off!! Toothbrush does't work either...


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## Kris (Feb 27, 2004)

that's what mine looked like!
eeek!
the amanos and the chinese algae eater have helped. i don't think the cae is eating it, just knocking it loose.
i want to buy some more amanos...but i need to get rid of the columbian shark 1st as he is eating them.
urk.


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## Edouard (Apr 30, 2004)

aquaverde said:


> One area of study I consider to be seriously lacking is algae identification. We rely too much on common monikers that are hardly much different from one another- hair, beard, fuzz, thread, staghorn, dust? What about Oedogonium, Spirogyra, Cladaphora, etc.?
> 
> I could wish there was a body of non-magnified photos that were positively identified with species names and related to the common names for these types. Maybe telling them apart is just not that easy without a biology degree and a microscope. I've seen long grey threads that span a foot or more, same thing with green thread that's very resilient, looks almost like some sort of superthin monofilament line, bunches of green filamentous masses that collect at the roots of plants, floating mats of stuff that has the texture of horsehair pads, and on and on.
> 
> Anyone on the board had any formal education in this field?


I would second you on that point. roud: 
A post on the forum about algae identification would help a lot. 
Plus I am french and of course we don't use the same names for algae. It's not easy to know what algae we find in our tanks...


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## Stu (Feb 16, 2004)

aquaverde said:


> One area of study I consider to be seriously lacking is algae identification. We rely too much on common monikers that are hardly much different from one another- hair, beard, fuzz, thread, staghorn, dust? What about Oedogonium, Spirogyra, Cladaphora, etc.?


From what I understand, algae identification is heavily generalised for the hobbyist to make them able to understand. There are actually many more sub species than one first realises and as such, identification done *not* at the cellular level becomes very hard.
Also, many different algae are found together on what appears to be only one type of algae at first. For example, a small clump of Cladophora could have more than one species present.

This book; How To Know The Freshwater Algae seems a good resource, but may be a bit pricey for the general hobbyist... Amazon.com
Most books covering Phycology seem to be quite expensive as the work is very detailed.


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## carman (May 3, 2005)

hi all

I'm having the same problem and my posting was on "plants" because I thought it was moss.

check it out:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=17224


carman


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