Roborep1 Posted January 12, 2015 Report Posted January 12, 2015 So after cycling my tank. I had a huge outbreak in hair algae. I was using fish less so ammonia likely contributed. I also from hitchhiker have what appear to be pond snails exploding in population. I don't really kind the snails but mention in the event there is something I should be concerned with. Do they eat the algae? At this time I do not have shrimp but will in a few weeks. There is fish in there but they are moving soon. I do not use ferts or co2 or excel. Plants are lots of moss, Val's, anubias, water sprite, elodia The light is powerful and I have cutback to 8 hours. Parameters Ph 6.5 Temp 71 No ammonia , nitrite, or nitrates TDS 148 Thoughts on best way to control hair algae? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote
Dendrobatez Posted January 12, 2015 Report Posted January 12, 2015 For some reason my tanks always have an outbreak at the end of or just after the cycle has ended. I tried a lot of things to get rid of it and they all had varying degrees of success but on the last 3 tanks I cycled I used seachem Phosguard (on 2) and chemi-pure elite (on 1) which leads me to believe (in my case at least) that the algae was due to higher levels of phosphates or silicates. Also in my experience the snails don't do much for hair algae, they might eat some of the new growth but they don't seem to eliminate it, I have MTS and ramshorns in all of my tanks. In my cases I would get rid of the silicates and phosphates and once the moss and other plants started to take off I didn't need the products anymore Quote
Roborep1 Posted January 13, 2015 Author Report Posted January 13, 2015 Han- It's a 9 gallon Eheim aquastyle which is 14x12x12. The light is probably 6" from the water and the substrate is 3". The light is a 7w LED with 81 diodes. It's bright if u ask me. There is a way to raise the light higher but I would need to move tank. It's under kitchen counter and the light is touching cabinet above. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote
Roborep1 Posted January 13, 2015 Author Report Posted January 13, 2015 In addition to the eheim internal filter I am running an Azoo Mignon65 with Purigen for water clarity. Not mentioned in my first post there is dwarf water lettuce, duckweed, and crypts. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote
h4n Posted January 13, 2015 Report Posted January 13, 2015 How many hours were you running light before cutting back to 8 hrs? Quote
Roborep1 Posted January 13, 2015 Author Report Posted January 13, 2015 12 for sure. Maybe more. Because of space issues there is no timer. I manually turn it on off. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote
chibikaie Posted January 14, 2015 Report Posted January 14, 2015 Check out Home Depot or a similar hardware store. I have a two-prong timer that is no more than a few cubic inches, and it was cheap, too. If you look hard enough, I think you can find one that works. Quote
Roborep1 Posted January 20, 2015 Author Report Posted January 20, 2015 So besides reducing light any advice on how to rid my tank of this algae ? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote
chibikaie Posted January 20, 2015 Report Posted January 20, 2015 Try the rooibos. It worked for me. Quote
Rodan76 Posted January 20, 2015 Report Posted January 20, 2015 i have used flourish excel to kill any hair algae and it has worked for both bba and green hair (recently) i would suggest going ahead and dosing it for a week or so and it should kill it, but after that i would do a large water change...also go ahead and dose it before you add the shrimp to be on the safe side...i have done small doses with shrimp in tank with success and no losses as well... Quote
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