Who can relate?

[Art]

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Who can relate??

Battling crazy hair algae...

 

[ayman.roshdy]

View attachment 589
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Who can relate??

Battling crazy hair algae...

Always see comments from different aquarium hobbyists and aquascapers that they battle algae by darkening everything and preventing the light from going into the tank, but always had my doubts that this method must have a negative impact on the plants and fish, have so many questions:

1. How many days do you do this?
2. How do you feed the fish during this period (@night for example)?
3. What about the plants, won't this impact the plants?
4. Do you stop the CO2 and fertilizing during this period?
5. Is this the only thing you do to battle algae, or do you do some manual algae removing as well?
6. Does it work with any type of algae?
7. Won't this impact the fish, I think they will be too skittish after you remove the covers?

 

[BigWave]

I'm with @ayman.roshdy on blackouts. Never have done one due to the plants already being sub par / week and then hitting them with total darkness.

 

[GreggZ]

In all my years I have never tried this. Does it actually work? Like Steve said I would worry about plants being weak from lack of light. In general weak plants = algae.

What do you think brought on the hair algae? Any measurable ammonia? I've only seen it with fresh soil and lack of PO4. Then it comes with a vengeance.

 

[BigWave]

For me I have always correlated hair algae with excess Iron levels, but that's just me and my observations. Now it is one of the toughest to eradicate. Time, patience, and water changes help tremendously. Lowering lighting intensity and fixing ferts also.

 

[Immortal1]

Hate to say it, but the first thing that comes to my mind is location. I see a whole lot of sunlight rolling into that tank.
I am ever amazed at how strong sunlight is when measured with a Par meter - even thru dirty windows (mine, not yours).

 

[Art]

1. How many days do you do this?
2. How do you feed the fish during this period (@night for example)?
3. What about the plants, won't this impact the plants?
4. Do you stop the CO2 and fertilizing during this period?
5. Is this the only thing you do to battle algae, or do you do some manual algae removing as well?
6. Does it work with any type of algae?
7. Won't this impact the fish, I think they will be too skittish after you remove the covers?

Wow, I didn't think this would get some many that haven't done it.

First let me say that this was THE preferred initial step back in the day. You see it less often now but it does have its place, IMO.

Second, let me answer the questions @ayman.roshdy asked:

1. How many days do you do this?
   • I will do it for 5-7 days.
2. How do you feed the fish during this period?
   • I feed them as I normally would. I lift the cover and feed. Then darkness again.
3. What about the plants, won't this impact the plants?
   • Yes, of course. However, it impacts algae more. Most plants will recover fine from this. Algae, being a simpler organism, is less resilient. Algae is quick to benefit when something is off. However, it is also quick to suffer more when things like this are done.
4. Do you stop CO2 and fertilizing during this period?
   • Yes
5. Is this the only thing you do to battle algae, or do you do some manual algae removing as well?
   • So this is just a step when you have a tank that has been unstable for such a long period of time that algae (especially the harder to kill ones) has taken over and manual removal/proper fertilization will not, solely, do it.
   • You first remove as much algae manually as you can.
6. Does it work with any type of algae?
   • IME, no. When I did it with cyano, it laughed at me when I took the covers off.
   • Hair algae has suffered the most for me.
7. Won't this impact the fish?
   • Fish are fine after this. Never lost one or shrimp.
   • Obviously, you don't want to shock them by going from dark to full light immediately. Go slowly just like when you turn on your lights.

 

[Art]

I'm with @ayman.roshdy on blackouts. Never have done one due to the plants already being sub par / week and then hitting them with total darkness.

I understand and agree when plants are weak.

When you're correcting a tank that has a strong algae infestation, simply optimizing CO2 and ferts isn't going to magically fix things. In this case, I spent some time to beef up the plants. The GHA loved it! Once I felt the plants looked good and were healthy, the black out was enough to set back the GHA so that the plants quickly won the competition. GHA was much less when I ended the blackout and the remaining bunches turned grey, wight and, ultimately, disintegrated. The damage took too much of a toll on them.

 

[Art]

What do you think brought on the hair algae? Any measurable ammonia? I've only seen it with fresh soil and lack of PO4. Then it comes with a vengeance.

Yes, this. It was an immature tank and I hit a very busy work schedule that resulted in it being neglected for a month or so. The new Aquasoil was pumping ammonia and sucking up PO4 quicker than was being added.

 

[Art]

For me I have always correlated hair algae with excess Iron levels, but that's just me and my observations. Now it is one of the toughest to eradicate. Time, patience, and water changes help tremendously. Lowering lighting intensity and fixing ferts also.

Why do you think excess Fe impacts hair algae?

Completely agree on the time, patience, water changes, and proper ferts. You also lowered light intensity, I presume, off of optimal. Why does that help?

Increased Fe and decreased light are designed to impact the algae while your plants endure it. It's the same thing I'm doing. I'm just doing something that punches algae hard and fast. Then going back to correct maintenance usually results in my tank getting back to optimal.

 

[Art]

Hate to say it, but the first thing that comes to my mind is location. I see a whole lot of sunlight rolling into that tank.
I am ever amazed at how strong sunlight is when measured with a Par meter - even thru dirty windows (mine, not yours).

So I appreciate this point. I wouldn't have put it there if I had a choice. This apartment is mostly windows so I had to deal with it (or not have a tank which isn't an option). I also took it like a challenge/experiment.

I knew light would be an issue. Maybe temperature too. So, I decided to go with a white solid background to keep light reflected out of the tank as much as possible. I then tried to compensate for this additional light by decreasing photoperiod, increasing CO2 and ferts. It would be harder than normal because I wasn't in full control of the light.

I will say that after the tank matured, it was absolutely fine in that location. It goes to show that you need to just learn your tank and adjust the valves (light/CO2/fert) for your situation.

Thank you all for the comments. I think this discussion is very worthwhile.

 

[Clare]

Thanks for this thread. I’m thinking of trying a blackout.