I'm beating green hair but now brown thread algae has arrived

[MrMuggles]

I'm a broken record at this point again but I guess the plan is to repeat this until I"m good:
1. exfoliate the swords like crazy, take no prisoners
2. turn light down more, less time and intensity
3. wait another week

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

It’s a frustrating game I understand. My tank right now gets light 6 hours a day at 50% on an Twinstar S and receives no ferts or co2. Fluffy diatoms and green thread algae is my nemesis at the moment. In fairness, Im doing absolutely nothing to curb it other than manual removal when I feel like it and I just feed my fish. Interesting to see though which algae’s thrive in neglect and others that require more encouragement.

 

[ryancamaratta]

Curious what you're doing to combat the hair algae, I got some going on that I can't seem to shake. Easy to brush off plants but the stuff growing on the sub here and there is difficult

 

[MrMuggles]

Curious what you're doing to combat the hair algae, I got some going on that I can't seem to shake. Easy to brush off plants but the stuff growing on the sub here and there is difficult

The things that are working, in my case, seem to be:
1. Extra water changes (went from 30% weekly to 30-50% twice weekly), ++increased fertilizer dosing to replace additional WCs, increased filter flow
2. aggressive removal of the heavily algae-infected leaves.
3. obsessively measuring for consistent CO2 levels and optimizing diffuser position in response
4. reducing light schedule and intensity

THe brown hair algae and black beard on plants seem to benefit particularly from excessive light but thats pure hearsay not science

 

[MrMuggles]

welp, I can't actually beat green hair algae on swords.

Other plants, maybe yes. Driftwood and decor is all well under control.

But the swords, just never. having been diligently stripped of algae-covered leaves for weeks, are now down to almost nothing just a few leaves and still there's hair algae pretty much covering them. I don't think they'll ever be algae free. I don't see how it will ever balance out as i'm constantly crippling them with leaf removal now. Every leaf I take slows new growth, which makes it easy for the algae to win again. it seems truly impossible with the swords!

 

[MrMuggles]

I'm changing out 100% of my water, at least, every week now. So none of the things that supposedly build up to cause algae could possibly be building up any more. I'm at a loss.

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

I could be wrong, but looking at the swords leaves it looks like staghorn to me not hair algae. Usually staghorn is a co2 issue.

 

[Art]

To me it looks like filamentous algae that is sometimes called fuzz algae. Some think it's an early stage of hair algae. Either way, it comes as a result of your plants being stressed for some reason.

Is this tank new? Did you recently plant or re-plant these swords? How's maintenance? Any big change in the big three - CO2, fertilizer, light?

As always, you need to correct the imbalance and get your plants growing in a stable fashion. The algae will then go away. In the meantime, I usually spot treat with Excel. If you can lower the water enough, I also use a paint brush to paint the leaves with Excel during water changes.

 

[MrMuggles]

I could be wrong, but looking at the swords leaves it looks like staghorn to me not hair algae. Usually staghorn is a co2 issue.

interesting, I thought I had remnants of staghorn on edges of leaves just going on visual ID vs pictures I'm able to find. that brown on the edge of leaf horse hair looking stuff. receding since my CO2 issues were sorted out.

In the margins of the leaves there is this more daunting, super fine slimey single filaments that appear to form a thick green carpet when left unchecked. Scrubbing them will release fragments from the ends of the filaments (presumably liberating spores and spreading the problem) but in my experience you can never remove it once it's attached to a leaf, only give it a hair cut.

 

[MrMuggles]

comes as a result of your plants being stressed for some reason

definitely, they were blasted with too much light in January while I was trying to dial things in. At some point I was under the impression that too much light causes it but now I've seen it persist easily under lower lighting too.

When I remove those leaves they smell like a bad swampy smell, and the leaves will have a subtle off color rather than happy green.

Also, the most ill swords are those I've had for 2 years that went through a traumatic tank move in Aug '22. I suspect they should be replaced at this point because I've perpetually mistreated them. They spent their first year+ in agony with no proper nutrition. I still have algae problems on newer swords added post-move but they're not so bad.

spot treat with Excel

+1 good idea. I tried this a couple times with Easy Carbon (i believe it has the same disinfectant) and I didn't see any improvement. However, my situation was even more exteme the last time I tried it, the stubborn fuzzy/hairy stuff had been ruling every surface in my tank for a solid 6 months at that point and was not controlled at all even on hardscape.

 

[MrMuggles]

on closer inspection, it does look like staghorn. brown in color and more gnarly than the single strands of wispy green fuzz/hair that I used to see more.

CO2 drop check and ph test kit results both appear to confirm a good level throughout the tank. I've been steadily moving the timer earlier in the morning now it's on about 2.5 hours before lights. what else can I look at related to CO2? That drop check is almost a solid yellow, barely any hint of green left, and sits at the opposite end of the tank from diffuser.

maybe revisit flow?
My return pump is now maxed out and I'm considering upgrading it or getting a supplemental wave maker.

 

[MrMuggles]

I adopted 2 young Siamese Algae Eaters from a local fish clubber who didn't have proper habitat for them. They are amazing, the staghorn/brown algae is pretty much gone, its been less than a week. Hell, I may need to cultivate some algae to keep them happy. Now the only real nuisance is some minor diatom films that rub off easily.

I made additional changes this week as noted in other posts: +DIY Co2 reactor, replaced high jet return spouts with gentle flowing spray loops.

I think my previous center overflow return configuration created 2 problems that contributed to imbalance:
1. excessive current/jet from my returns was limiting plant growth for plants in the middle and front of the tank. I noticed they simply won't grow "up" if its too windy
2. insufficient flow in the lower rear of the tank was allowing various algae to flourish, leading to CO2 inconsistency, etc

 

[Art]

Good to hear. Please keep us updated to see how it's going.