I'm pretty sure I've got a green hair algae issue. What if anything is the easiest way to get rid of it?
Cut down the number of hours I've got the light on? I'm currently running 2 20w life-glo bulbs for 12 hours and have pretty much cut down on dosing flourish comprehensive to once a week.
It is mainly isolated to the stems and leaves of the watersprite at the top of my water column. I removed about half of the watersprite last week that was "infected" with the algae in an attempt to get rid of it but it has returned.
Even if I reduce the light to resolve the problem, am I going to need to get rid of all the "infected" watersprite?
I would definitely cut back on the hours of lighting. Stay with just once a week with the fertz. I use to have the same problem on my rotala indica and my jungle val. I would cut off the infected parts if possible or another method I have read about is getting a bush and wrapping the hair algae around it and pulling it off. I don't know how well this works I just cut my plants back. I also reduced my hours of lights
Once you reduce the lighting and find the right amount of hours the algae should not spread anymore and the infected plants that the algae is on should die but I would still remove it. When I was trying to get rid of my problem I left a section of my rotala indica that it was on alone to see if it would grow anymore once I figured out it wasn't then I cut it off. It has yet to come back.
You can try 10 hours and see what that does. I honestly don't know how much you should cut back as every tank is different. In my situation I was running my lights for 8 hours a day and I cut it back to 6 (Which is the lowest amount that you can go and the plants still be alright. Well thats my understanding anyways.). I am thinking I am going to go up to 7 and see what happens. IF after a week or so if you don't see any difference cut back the hours some more.
Just to ensure we are discussing the correct algae, here's a photo of hair algae. Reducing the light is key, as Boredomb said. Don't reduce nutrients (Flourish Comp) unless it is too much generally, as the plants won't be able to out-compete the algae without nutrients. Light is the key. Reduce the period and observe for a couple weeks; if the algae does not increase, fine, but if it still increases, reduce light further until you find the balance.
Yep, that is exactly what I observed. I removed all my "infected" watersprite and reduced my timer to have lights on for 10 hrs. Ill see how that goes and go from there! Thanks y'all. Jet wanted to ensure I was taking the right coarse of action. Posted via Mobile Device
When I started out using 2 T5HO tubes, I had green hair algae issues. I dropped to one tube and then I cut my light to 8 hours/day. You may want to cut back from the 10 hours to even 6 hours until the algae is under control and then increase slowly until you hit the "sweet spot" for length of light. The other thing that worked for me was using a toothbrush - I'd spin it and wrap up the algae on the plant leaves like cotton candy. It worked remarkably well to remove it.
You need any of your watersprite back - let me know :lol:
Did any of your plants seem to be affected by cutting back that much? No worries on the watersprite... if I can get it growing as fast as it was after I fix the algae issue, ill be back in business in no time!
I will cut the lighting back even further... I haven't seen much change going to 10 hrs Posted via Mobile Device
I didn't notice any difference in my plant growth when I cut them back. They still grow like crazy LoL. If you still don't see any difference. I might try going down to 6hrs like DKRST mentioned. That way you can go back up and find that sweet spot. I am up to 7hrs on my mine have been for the last 2 weeks and I haven't noticed any hair aglae. Though I might after this week. I dunno will have to wait and see. I took all of my duckweed out of my tank. I couldn't stand that stuff. Though it is a great plant to have if you have too much nutrients as it will pull it out of the water fast. I just got tired of how it was looking and couldn't keep it under control to well. It spreads/grows super fast.
I got some duckweed in my tank unintentionally... Not sure which plant it came in on either lol but I know what you mean. I figured out the whole reason my rooted plants were starting to look bad was because of the amount of duckweed, frogbit, and watersprite I had floating on top. That duckweed grows like.... well... a weed I suppose lol. I just cut it down to seven... I'm debating if I want to go down to six. I actually had it at 9, not 10 and I wasn't seeing much of a difference, though I think it was growing slower.
The floating plants probably help limit algal growth by taking up nutrients. I have not run across any info that indicates floating plants, in any way, increase algal growth!
Byron can speak more eloquently on the topic, but I believe floating plants help a good bit with algae control, as long as they don't shade things too much. My limit for floating plants is about 25% of the surface and I "corral" my floating plants using suction cups and black thread barriers to keep them where I want them on the surface. I keep my floating plants over my lower-light plants, or over specific parts of the tank where algae starts to reappear once in a while.
I currently run my lights at 7-7.5 hours/day, even dosing with Flourish Excel daily. Six hours of light didn't seem to bother any of my plants when I cut if back for a two-week anti-algae effort. The only plants it seemed top bother were the ones I was already having issues with, the Cabomba and Myrophillium that like pretty high light.
It's absolutely a light length/intensity issue. It can be exacerbated by nutrient excesses, but as Byron said, light is the key element be it intensity or duration of the light.
FYI - My hair algae never "died back", it just stopped growing and I had to eventually either removed it with a toothbrush or removed the infested plant part with the attached algae.
The floating plants probably help limit algal growth by taking up nutrients. I have not run across any info that indicates floating plants, in any way, increase algal growth!.
Byron can speak more eloquently on the topic, but I believe floating plants help a good bit with algae control.
Just wants to say that I was not saying that floating plants cause algae. What I was getting at in my tank is I may see an algae problem now that I don't have anymore floating plants. For the reason my tank is twice as bright as it was. I may not have not said it the best way and probably need to learn how to communicate better. Sorry if it sounded like I was misleading. That was not my intention!
Yea, I got rid of about 90% of my floating plants... mainly because those were the only plants that had the hair algae. I have found a little of it on my driftwood but other than that it has been entirely limited to my floating plants. It didn't grow as fast since I cut back the light and I removed just about all that I could see. Unfortunately I didn't try the toothbrush method. The algae has only been showing up on the leaves and roots to my watersprite with the one exception of a small location on my driftwood. I'm only dosing comprehensive once a week now.... Posted via Mobile Device
It is light that causes algae, as DKRST said. So be careful cutting back on nutrients (Flourish Comp) as the plants need the nutrients with the light in balance or they can't photosynthesize and algae will take advantage. I know it is tempting to cut back on ferts when algae appears, I have experiemented with this too, but it didn't work; the light is the issue.
Floating plants should help with algae by reducing the light entering the tank.
Finding that balance is crucial, and it can vary with the seasons. I have always noticed an increase in brush algae in the summer, and this year I have kept the blinds and drapes covering the windows of the fishroom since May, and so far I have not seen any increase as previously. More proof it is the light. That is another advantage of a "fishroom," being able to control light/dark specifically for the fish and not other activities.
Plants at or close to the surface will naturally be the first to attraqct algae. The trick is not letting it spread further down. And that is light intensity and duration.
I will be sure to keep up with the ferts. Do you think I may be more vulnerable to the issue because I removed the majority of my floating plants? It was pretty much isolated to them, which is why I removed them. Posted via Mobile Device
Now that I think of it.... I believe I began to slack on the twice a week with ferts and maybe that is what started the issue to begin with... the plants not receiving enough nutrients to photosynthesize. And algae taking advantage... interesting... Posted via Mobile Device
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