Mr. F Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 Hey all, I have a 3g fully planted CRS tank with the worst hair algae problem I've ever see. For about a month it was doing fine. It has HC, downoi, dwarf Elocharis, and hygrophila angustafolia as well as heavily Xmas-wrapped driftwood. The substrate is Mr Aqua Aquarium soil (the one with Star Wars font as the logo) and ferts are csm+b and flourish. I've reduced the light, increased CO2, and have been applying excel directly to the algae in hopes that it's reducing properties will help the plants beneath outcompete. I also introduced more ramshorns and 2 small Amanos, but for three weeks I've noticed only a small difference in the algae's growth. Has anyone had experience using H2O2 as an algaecide? The biochemistry behind the theory is sound. The idea is that, in the presence of an oxidizer like hydrogen peroxide, the algae will be unable to restrict the influx of oxygen and swell, causing the cells to burst. Plants can resist this process due to the presence of stomata on their leaves; however, Cyanobacteria and similar macroalgae lack these organelles and thus succumb to osmotic pressure. But how will the shrimp do? I've read from multiple sources that a dose of 3 mL per gallon of 3% food grade at peak growth times followed by a 10-20% WC after 20 minutes of letting it sit will kill the algae in a few days without affecting the fauna. However, I would like to know from if you have tried this, what was your experience? Day 1: One month: Now it's even worse. I might post a picture tomorrow when the lights are on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DETAquarium Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 To start don't panic. From the images above this doesn't look to be hair algae, more so like diatoms/brown algae which is all part of the cycling process. Since it is such a small tank the balancing act of CO2, Light, and Ferts will be quite a challenge, but doable. Manually remove by siphon. I have many questions though: How long are your lights on? How high are your lights to the top of the aquarium, do you have a PAR value to the bottom? How many BPS for CO2? How often are you dosing micros and macros? See if this will help with contributing answers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
countryboy12484 Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 To answer your question peroxide is perfectly safe. I've used it many many times in shrimp tanks as well as my reef tanks Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Soothing Shrimp and Mr. F 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimple minded Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 Countryboy! Is that really you? Soothing Shrimp and countryboy12484 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
countryboy12484 Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 Haha yeah I'm still lurking around. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Soothing Shrimp 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. F Posted February 17, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 To start don't panic. From the images above this doesn't look to be hair algae, more so like diatoms/brown algae which is all part of the cycling process. Since it is such a small tank the balancing act of CO2, Light, and Ferts will be quite a challenge, but doable. Manually remove by siphon. I have many questions though: How long are your lights on? How high are your lights to the top of the aquarium, do you have a PAR value to the bottom? How many BPS for CO2? How often are you dosing micros and macros? See if this will help with contributing answers.Lights are 10-12 hr period now. 1-3 bps for co2. Can't say exact par, but the light are 1.5 watts cool white and blue and sit about 4 inches above the surface of the water, so par can't really be that high. I have to say I have been fairly inconsistent with my ferts tho, so that may be a huge factor here...Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crackhead Johny Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 I had a little of that begin to show up in one of my Fluvals last week (puffer ate the previous algae control). So I got some ghost shrimp. In a fed days the ghosts ate the little bit of algae then took up killing each other because they are jerks. I now have to manually clean my glass as the 1-2 remaining ghosts do not care about algae on glass (I didn't figure they would) and snail live for minutes in the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fennexe Posted February 19, 2016 Report Share Posted February 19, 2016 Are you dosing macros? I've only maintained my semi-high tech planted tank for a couple of months now, so take this with a grain of salt, but it sounds like you're primarily dosing micros and micros. My understanding is that Flourish isn't designed to add a substantial amount of NPK to the aquarium (the Seachem website suggests dosing macros individually with Flourish Potassium etc). If you're using the whole suite of Flourish products, then disregard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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