Hair Algae

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Clare

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Hello Everyone, I am losing the battle with algae!

I have BBA, brown, cyanobacteria, and worst of all, green hair algae all through my Christmas Moss.

I’ve tried manually removing the hair algae from the moss, and have ended up just pulling a lot of the moss off the wood!

I only have shrimp as algae eaters, and one old fat SAE. Not sure if any fish would actually eat hair algae?

Am contemplating a black out.

Any thoughts on what can be done?960E6B24-51CE-45B8-8AD5-8554250B277C.jpeg
 
Hi @Clare.

In order to help you it would be helpful to know more about the tank and how you manage it.

Lighting? CO2? Fertilization? Types of plants you are growing? Maintenance/water changes? Substrate? Age of tank? Since you mentioned "brown" algae I am guessing it's a newer tank?

And pics are worth a thousand words. A full tank shot always helps too.

Just saying it's best to take a holistic approach to the entire tank. Makes helping much easier and meaningful.
 
Don't rely on algae eaters, you'll need to understand the root cause.

Algae issues are pretty much always due to some combination of too much light, too little plant mass / nutrient uptake, too much waste in the water column.

Scaling back lighting and/or increasing healthy plant mass is almost always a good first step. I would say 90% of the time people use far too much light with too few plants. This is why the beginning stages of the tank are the most difficult

Since these types of questions are usually the most common on forums I'll try to put together a comprehensive guide to "avoiding algae" at some point. Hopefully everyone can contribute

Personally my biggest goal with any tank is to avoid algae at all costs. Once it is present it can become out of control quickly and require drastic measures to rectify.
 
Don't rely on algae eaters, you'll need to understand the root cause.

Algae issues are pretty much always due to some combination of too much light, too little plant mass / nutrient uptake, too much waste in the water column.

Scaling back lighting and/or increasing healthy plant mass is almost always a good first step. I would say 90% of the time people use far too much light with too few plants. This is why the beginning stages of the tank are the most difficult

Since these types of questions are usually the most common on forums I'll try to put together a comprehensive guide to "avoiding algae" at some point. Hopefully everyone can contribute

Personally my biggest goal with any tank is to avoid algae at all costs. Once it is present it can become out of control quickly and require drastic measures to rectify.

Great advice here.
 
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In order to help you it would be helpful to know more about the tank and how you manage it.

Lighting? CO2? Fertilization? Types of plants you are growing? Maintenance/water changes? Substrate? Age of tank? Since you mentioned "brown" algae I am guessing it's a newer tank?

And pics are worth a thousand words. A full tank shot always helps too.

Just saying it's best to take a holistic approach to the entire tank. Makes helping much easier and meaningful.
Thanks, yes…set up details!

My first planted tank.
- set up 7 months ago
- 6 by 2 by 2 foot, plus sump (designed for marine) - total capacity around 920L, but less accounting for substrate wood, medium…
- peninsula style, which means a struggle re circulation…
- LED panel appropriate for planted tank - currently set on 60% for 7 hrs
- CO2 reactor in sump - drop checker for monitoring (have a pH controller, but haven’t set it up yet - not sure how to use it yet!) - starts 2 hrs before lights, but need to dial it back in after changing cylinders…
- substrate - MasterSoil in medium bags, capped with sand (MD Tanks style)
- fertiliser LCA All-in-one - 2 - 3 times/week
- water changes 75% weekly to 10 days

- stocking - one BN, 1 mature SAE, 6 cories, 9 columbian tetras, lots of various shrimps…. Eventually I would like apistos and Bolivian rams +/- some larger cichlids Eg. Acara…

- plants - Overall plan was to have a “jungle” vibe (epiphytes, crypts, swords, lotus, eventually buce) - never keen on stems for final “scape” but put in beautiful stems as had read that was advisable at the start.

Started off with densely planted - loads of easy to grow stems, Christmas moss, Java ferns (broad leaf, needle leaf, windelov, trident etc), bolbitus, H pinnatifida, and various Anubias….everything seemed to be going well.
….every pre-water change testing since cycled has been 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and approx 20 nitrate.
…..then GSA appeared (now sorted), BBA appeared, then Cyanobacteria, and then dreaded hair algae, and the thriving pinnatifida developed holes and died!

To fix these, I added a gyro to improve flow, and increased ferts as that was consistent advice, but algae if every variety has persisted….the worst being HAIR ALGAE!

Challenges:
….unfortunately over holidays CO2 ran out, so none was running for more than a month! Now up and running, but not optimally.
….flow is a real problem, as driftwood and ferns +++++ obstruct flow to outflow
….dead spot due to ferns etc…
….pouring in a lot of ferts ($$$ given side of the tank) as per advice to meet stem needs

After posting, I did a major clean out, removing as much algae (and therefore moss) as I could see, trimmed ferns obstructing outflow, and pulled nearly all the stems!!! (Hoping to put them in my smaller low (?soon to be high) tech tank.

….I’ve got a feeling the consensus will be that pulling the stems was the wrong thing to do!…

….(my motivation was I felt like I was pouring in crazy amounts of ferts to maintain plants that I hadn’t actually wanted in my final set-up, and didn’t have time to keep trimming etc…, and they were looking dreadful, creating loads of organic matter which ended up in the sump!)

………gulp…….!
 
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At it’s best….before CO2 ran out….3B3DD422-869D-44C4-8A25-5804B0E2022E.jpeg
 

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At time of original post - no CO2 for a month….
 

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After big clean out, removing broad leaf Java fern, cutting back bolbitis and other ferns, to try and improve flow to overflow, and removing most stems.
 

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Some thoughts:

Use dry ferts. They are very cheap. I personally buy all mine from greenleafaquariums. Bottled ferts you are just paying for water and IMO they are a major ripoff. Spend the money you save on a backup CO2 tank lol

Moss so close to your lights/surface is going to be tough to manage. I have attempted this in the past as well. Moss doesn't need high light obviously but near the surface it will receive high light. Moss also clings onto any waste matter that passes through it. This combo makes it particularly vulnerable to algae and unlike many other plants it isn't so easy to remove algae from it.

A combination of moss near the surface and stems that need light in a tall tank like this is just going to be hard to manage. You need enough light for the stems to thrive in a tall tank but in doing so you are going to blast your moss / low light plants near the surface with lots more light than it wants/needs and this will be hard to manage once algae starts to take hold on the moss.

I am a huge fan of hanging light fixtures above the tank since it better spreads out the light and makes it so the surface isn't totally blasted with huge amounts of light intensity. This might help you out too if you can do it.

IMO this setup is a great candidate for using low light. Most of your plants are already low light plants and CO2 + lower light setups with slow growing plants works really really well and are very easy to maintain. You will be shocked at how little light you can use and still have beautiful growth on plants like moss, ferns, anubias, crypts, swords, etc... especially with CO2. And you literally will not have to worry about algae anymore. I would hang your fixture above the tank to spread the light out better and more evenly light the entire tank. Less light = less problems. Ditch the stems that want higher levels of light in favor of plants like large crypts/ferns/swords that are much easier to grow with lower light to maintain the height in the corners if you want it.
 
You will be shocked at how little light you can use and still have beautiful growth on plants like moss, ferns, anubias, crypts, swords, etc... especially with CO2.
100% agree. Some of these plants will grow in a bucket in a closet.

And also agree with the moss so close to the light. The drop off of PAR is pretty dramatic. So right at the top of the tank there can be WAY MORE light than at the substrate.

LED panel appropriate for planted tank - currently set on 60% for 7 hrs
When you say this no one can tell what that means. There are loads of LED lights out there at wildly different levels of PAR. If you post the brand it might provide a clue to how PAR they provide.

Keeping stems in this tank as it is set up will be difficult.

And of course CO2 being out for a month is likely a contributor as well. And I doubt flow has much to do with anything. You can usually create more problems with too much flow rather than too little.
 
Hello guys,

I have to say in the 7 months I have been looking for advice on this setup, what you have said is amongst the most helpful, considered, and sensible I have received!

Up until now it’s felt like an arms race to plant as densely, and add ferts +++ as possible, to aim for what I had suspected was an un-achievable and certainly unmaintainable planting, that I had never wanted in the first place!

As an explanation of some queries raised:

- LED is an MML panel, ?120ish PARs at substrate depth. (MML is Make My LED, and Australian made product. Awesome customer service! Mine’s an older model, but similar to this - MML 180cm Flora Sun VividMax Smart Panel - MakeMyLed)

- re flow/circulation - I’ve had issues with dead spots in the corners of the tank, and with the ferns/moss in the path to the overflow collecting all the detritus that should have gone down to the sump….

- re dry ferts - I looked in to this with the brand I use, but the $/L of fert (once reconstituted) worked out to the same! What brands do you guys recommend?

Anyway, quite liberated by your advice!
….I’ll put the stems in my smaller set up, (I’ll need some decent substrate, lighting and CO2 I guess), and work on the crypts, swords, lotuses etc.
….Will need to work out their lighting/CO2/fert requirements. Will also pull moss and possibly ferns from the driftwood at the surface.

Thanks so much for your advice!

Final question - what do you think about a “blackout” to sort the algae/cyanobacteria as a “re-set” now that I have a new plan of attack?
 
100% agree. Some of these plants will grow in a bucket in a closet.

And also agree with the moss so close to the light. The drop off of PAR is pretty dramatic. So right at the top of the tank there can be WAY MORE light than at the substrate.


When you say this no one can tell what that means. There are loads of LED lights out there at wildly different levels of PAR. If you post the brand it might provide a clue to how PAR they provide.

Keeping stems in this tank as it is set up will be difficult.

And of course CO2 being out for a month is likely a contributor as well. And I doubt flow has much to do with anything. You can usually create more problems with too much flow rather than too little.
I should mention, I now have crypts (wendtii, Rosen maiden, balansae) which seem to be doing well, and some lotuses. Have just put in a sword and a buce which were kindly added to a pack, but got knocked around pretty badly.

I’m hoping to really fill the tank out with crypts etc.

Do you think they’ll cope with the lower lighting you have all recommended?
(Maybe I should start another thread about this ie. How to structure planting plan throughout the tank, based on water depth and access to light??)
 
I have to say in the 7 months I have been looking for advice on this setup, what you have said is amongst the most helpful, considered, and sensible I have received!
Yay! This made my day.

what do you think about a “blackout” to sort the algae/cyanobacteria as a “re-set” now that I have a new plan of attack?
I think it's not the right time for this, @Clare. Your tank needs to get back on track first. Otherwise, the algae will just come back.

Do you think they’ll cope with the lower lighting you have all recommended?
The plants you mentioned are all able to handle, and prefer, lower light. Just give the plants time to adjust to your lower light levels.

My recommendation at the moment is to dial in your fertilization and CO2. Be very disciplined about 50%+ water changes weekly. Vacuum your substrate to keep it clean and ensure you're trimming/removing dead or dying material.

One final, semi-controversial, comment. I'm not a fan of capped substrates, especially using sand to cap. IMHO, substrates need to be semi-porous to provide a good, healthy environment for roots and the ecosystem that develops there. When you layer on sand to a soil, the sand ends up plugging up all of the space between the substrate granules and functions more like a plug than a cap. You are then at risk for the substrate to go anoxic and creating dead zones that will impact the tank's overall health.

A better option if you want to have that sand look is to separate the soil from the sand. In other words, in sections, just have soil or just have sand. This will give you the best of both worlds.

Lastly, your experience is very typical of a first planted tank. Don't worry. You will get past this algae outbreak and learn a lot from it. You're on the journey!
 
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