# Planted Tanks > Fertilisation and Algae >  Battling Hair Algae

## dnsfpl

are these hair algae?



what is the root cause for such problem?
is pl 36w 6500k, 8 hours a day too much light for my tank?
what is the best way to clear them in a crs tank?
my NO3 is below 5ppm

some solution i gather

nuke with chemical eg seachem excel or h2o2 OUT
large water change OUT
add fauna to consume them are amano/yamato or malayan shrimp CRS friendly? any other type i can consider?
blackout for days good idea but might stress the plants

thinking of blackout + malayan shrimp + 1/2 recommended dosage of seachem excel

any better solutions?

thanks

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## TyroneGenade

I've read that the root cause is too much Iron and the best way to deal with this pest is manual removal + algae eaters (shrimp, guppies, rosy barbs, mollies) + water changes. You may want to increase the NO3 to help the plants take up the excess nutrients.

I am experimenting with Cabomba to deal with my hair algae woes... Cabomba is a rich source of allelochemicals to kill the algae. Myriophyllum is apparently even a better algae killer but can't be obtain locally.

Good luck in your battles with hair algae. If you find a way to win, please let me know.

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## jiajuen900

Hi, i had the same problem with a whole lot of algae in my 80L tank, especially with hair algae. What i di is probably not suitable for a tank with shrimps but may help. I bombed the algae with AZOO alage treatment along with blackout for a week. All my plants survived. 

Did a 80&#37; water change and cleared as much algae as possible and refilled water. Dosed ferts properly and added double dose of excel. 

My hair algae turned from black to brownish green and most algae is gone now. No fauna died.

But excel is not the best treatment i cant see much improvement after adding it.

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## barmby

Tooth brush and elbow grease is the best for your kind of setup.

Btw, add:- 


> Hygrophila difformis is beautiful and undemanding. A plant for beginners which can help create a balance in the aquarium from the start. Its rapid growth helps prevent algae because the plant absorbs a great number of nutrients from the water. The shortage of micro-nutrients leads to pale leaves, which may be an indication that the aquarium needs fertiliser. In large aquariums its lobed leaves can create a distinctive group.


 - from www.tropica.com

And try hortwort.

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## dnsfpl

added 20+ malayan shrimps and did a 3 days blackout

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## Biofeedback

haha, your before and after picture looked like you took out the bunch of HC

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## TyroneGenade

> haha, your before and after picture looked like you took out the bunch of HC


I thought the same thing but am fed up of being accused of being a cynic...

Add some young/baby platies (variatus if you can find them) or mollies and see how that works. When young they are voracious feeders and don't turn up their nose to algae.

tt

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## dnsfpl

i did try to remove some manually, but give up
here is a better picture, 100% cleared

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## mackeith

does black out for 2 days clear these?

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## jiajuen900

Try black out for longer periods. But for hair algae blackouts are not the most effective.
I did it for 6 days with slight results. For hair algae, you can try overdosing excel, this does not work well for shrimp tanks.

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## Rayong

Hi bro i am having the same problem .

My tank is a CRS setup please advise how to get rid of the algae with out any risk .

Thanks....

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## barmby

Rayong, 
1) Tooth brush and manual removal is the best for your request.
2) Add hortwort

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## TyroneGenade

Hornwort? What does it do, out compete the algae for nutrients?

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## barmby

Yes, hornwort. There is something about this plant. keep algae growth to a minimum.

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## TyroneGenade

@barmby

Well, I guess I will go home and put some hornwort in my planted tank and see if it can kill of my hair algae.

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## barmby

Just like filtration - It slow down pollution, It does not prevent pollution. Likewise in this case, slow down algae growth, it does not prevent algae growth. In the end, I still have to remove what is in there.

Hornwort ain't no silver bullet  :Smile:

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## StanChung

I believe if any of the plant growing 'elements' are missing with the exception of light, algae will start to grow.
The seed of the type of algae is present or not present depending on your luck. So when things go wrong those seeds will start to colonise your tank.

Just last week my CO2 tank was empty and I wasn't around for a week. Hair algae started to grow on the glass and I had started to get green water.
Luckily I have a spare CO2 tank. Quickly siphoned out the green hair algae from the glass and 50% WC. Plugged in the UVS and green water was stopped in two days.

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## beetroot

Hehe... hornwort can help? I dumped in some hornwort a few weeks ago to cycle my new tank - to absorb excess nutrients, and guess what... algae was growing on the hornwort too  :Laughing:   :Opps: . Put in some malayan shrimps + yamato + water change and that reduced it tremendously, plus throw away some hairy hornwort.  :Embarassed:

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## barmby

_DO NOT GET MISLEAD_

No. UV will only kill algae that floats in the water column. It means it kills the spores only. 

One I am very certain. Whatever that is already there, you have to remove it:- be it mechanically or chemical warfare.

Stanchung did was. Kill off the offspring (spores) by UV. Kill off the adult algae by manual removal

Beetroot did was. Manual removal by sending an army of shrimps to do it. one or two will not help of cos. For example, you buy a bag 100-500 shrimps, it will definitely conquer all. 

It does not mean a certain shrimp species eat hair algae or etc. Just that they are too many and everyone eat abit. Algae just cannot propagate fast enough. Therefore, I always tell myself to slow down algae growth. The point is to work harder than the algae. If they are slow, it means I don't have to work very hard or spend money on more shrimps. 

I was told by Gan Aquarium. Some Aquascape business people, simply buy Otocinlus and shrimps by the hundreds to nuke their customer's tank.

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## TyroneGenade

It would probably kill the spores and fragments that are in the water column.

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## beetroot

Wah... not that many lah... for my 2ft, i sent in 50 malayan shrimps, 2 yamato (do not want them to dig up/pull out plants), 2 ottos, and 3 nerite snails. Yes, to tackle different algae, everyone does its bit  :Grin: . Am sure the hair algae battle was mostly done by the malayans and yamatos.

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## barmby

Also, please do not forget.





> That's the real question.
> What causes new algae growth?
> The adults that are already there will quickly die over time, with pruning etc and good conditions for the plants.
> 
> So the focus is on the new production of both plants and algae.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Tom Barr

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## blackBRUSHalgae

so what happens to the army of shrimps and otocinclus after the algae is gone? Not very cost effective and will not really solve the problem on the long run as you do not exactly know what is the root of the problem.

I think the harmony of Light/CO2/nutrients is the key to not only producing healthy and lush plants, but also eliminate algae. 

I think most people overlooked the importance of the delicate balance between these 3 elements inside an enclosed ecosystem (your planted tank). Most only provides these elements in a fixed formulae taken from the internet, but never really understand the relationship between them. Your tank is alive with many many microscopic living things other than flora and fauna, and being alive also means when you try to tackle it with some fix equations, you might not be able to solve anything, and eventually you get more frustrated, which I can see why, after all you have done everything what you have read, but it does not solve anything.

A planted tank is not a simple thing, but a very very complex minature ecosytem that you are trying to mimic from the nature, but yet far from it. It is not as simple as dosing what the instructions stated, or providing the amount of light using the watt/gallon method. All these are merely a simple guide to start off with. Once you are into it, you should try to understand the kind of plants you have and their needs, and by some trial and error playing with the amount and duration of light and the amount of nutrients and CO2 needed, you might just be able to strike some balance in it and produce a healthy planted tank. I seriously doubt that there is a fixed equation of these 3 elements that could satisfiy any planted tank out there. 

And once you get the plants growing healthily, you will need to spend even more time trimming them to keep them looking nice and neat or the way you wanted your scape to be, as once they grow readily, they will be like growing like weeds  :Smile:

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## StanChung

Yes, if you WC like in nature's streams, you'd hardly get any algae.  :Grin:

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## blackBRUSHalgae

As for the thread starter, you basically have no plant mass at all to begin with. If your focus is high grade CRS shrimps, then I guess you should just turn your tank into a 100% moss tank with low tech setup. 

A high demanding planted tank with high grade CRS shrimps is very difficult to accomplished, whcih requires some money and a lot of experience.

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## blackBRUSHalgae

> Yes, if you WC like in nature's streams, you'd hardly get any algae.


hahahha plus free dosage of CO2 and nutrients at the perfect amount!


Hey you know that part of that stream in south amazon with this coordinates 37 23.516 - 122 02.625? My tank is there, with automated dosing and WC, even with automated plant pruning and fauna breeding rapidly!

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## beetroot

yes, agree, need some trial and error to try and strike the right balance.

no worries, i still feed my shrimps and ottos - i will not let them starve. but funny thing is the malayans are not interested in the mosura shrimp food (which i feed other shrimps), haha, ottos are more keen. hope when the new tank settles, there won't be that much of an algae problem  :Smile:  - still monitoring but looks safe.

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## TyroneGenade

Read an interesting thing last night. Hair algae can use bicarbonates as a CO2 source and are less effective at using CO2, so by dropping the pH one can empower the plants and disadvantage the algae... I will try this.

tt4n

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## jiajuen900

But i thought when co2 disolves into the water it forms bicarbonates which the plants take up. Am i wrong by saying this? Is'nt bicarbonates just the result of injecting co2. For example excel is made up of bicarbonates which plants take up as a source of co2 shound'nt excel and co2 that is injected have something in common?

Also, drop the ph by increasing co2 right?

hope im not wrong

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## Ebi

> Hi bro i am having the same problem .
> 
> My tank is a CRS setup please advise how to get rid of the algae with out any risk .
> 
> Thanks....


Hi Rayong,

Here's a link http://www.aquariumalgae.blogspot.com/ you might want to have a look to ID your algae type before deciding on treatment approach.

I gave up on fighting spirogyra though. Found an excuse to start another shrimp tank...  :Grin: .

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## Rayong

> Hi Rayong,
> 
> Here's a link http://www.aquariumalgae.blogspot.com/ you might want to have a look to ID your algae type before deciding on treatment approach.
> 
> I gave up on fighting spirogyra though. Found an excuse to start another shrimp tank... .


Hi bro thank you for your link . :Well done:

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## mackeith

i was having algae issues especially hair algae a couple of weeks back. 
my tank is a 2 feet planted with 24W light(mainly us fissiden).
even after attempts to black out for 3 days, it does not help. I took the extreme path later. increase dosage of CO2 to 2/sec, Excel (2 capfuls per day). took me a bout 2 weeks and almost half bottle of excel. finally triumph over the hair algae but not without loses. loss a lot of shrimps (cherry/sakura, malayan, snowball, tiger.....even netrite snails) 
after a while i realised the outbreak was mainly cause by the "shift of sun". when is first setup the tank, the sun will not "hit my tank" but during this time of the year, it changes and my tank are exposed to the sun during the morning. Now i had to use a cloth to cover up the front side of my tank to prevent sunlight.

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## TyroneGenade

> But i thought when co2 disolves into the water it forms bicarbonates which the plants take up... Also, drop the ph by increasing co2 right?


The reactions are as follows CO2 + H2O <=> H2CO3 <=> H^+ + HCO3^- <=> 2H^+ + CO3^2-

The pKa of bicarbonate is 8.5, this means that at a pH of 8.5 half of the CO2 will be in the form of HCO3^- and CO3^2-. The pKa of carbonic acid (H2CO3) is 6.10, so at pH 6.10 half will be in the form of H2CO3 and half in the form of HCO3^-. At a pH of 6, only 44% is in the form of HCO3^-. At pH 5, this drops to 7% meaning 93% is in the form of H2CO3 which plants can easily extract the CO2 from. I don't intend to drop my pH to 5... But by keeping it at about 6 I can already favour the plants at the expense of the algae.

What I have also done, taking the advice on algae control from Walstad's book, is switch to cool white to reduce the amount of blue light which will cause iron to go from Fe3+ to Fe2+ (which is soluble) so the iron will remain in the sediment where the plant roots can extract it while the algae can't. I have also begun carbon filtering to remove all organics which can chelate the iron and provide it to the algae. I will let you know how this goes.

I'm also going to supplement with N, K, Ca and Mg to keep my plants happy and so they can use iron and phosphate in the water. I'm hoping that this will cause the hair algae to grow slower and then I remove it manually. I will be feeding my fish less so they should tuck into the algae.  :Smile:

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## Plantbrain

This is not about algae outcompeting plants for Carbon(CO2 or HCO3).

Algae are never limited by carbon in the aquarium.
Plants? Typically they are. That is why plants grow much better if you add CO2 gas. 

Algae are "limited" by light more than anything else in aquariums.
Plants are limited mostly by CO2.
Some can use HCO3, but they are still going to grow much slower on HCO3 if they can use it.

Poor plant growth leads to algae, this is not about competing, or limiting algae, it's about growing plants.


Regards, 
Tom Barr

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## StanChung

I don't know anybody planted shrimp tank [CRS] that's not been attacked by hair algae and it's not about the CO2 too. 
That's such a poor one size fits all comment that's led to hobbyists blindly/negligently killing their pets to solve their algae problem.
It's fine for somebody who knows what they're doing but most guys *only think they know what they're doing*.

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## Plantbrain

> I don't know anybody planted shrimp tank [CRS] that's not been attacked by hair algae and it's not about the CO2 too. 
> That's such a poor one size fits all comment that's led to hobbyists blindly/negligently killing their pets to solve their algae problem.
> It's fine for somebody who knows what they're doing but most guys *only think they know what they're doing*.


I have to agree.
Poor CO2 use will get any and everyone. 
Fish, shrimp come first.

Then plants/algae issues.

I think there are good ways to reduce the risk with CO2, but many seem to wing it. Then learn the hard way either dealing with lots of algae issues, or dead fish, shrimp etc.

I watch the tank closely and very slow and progressively adjust the CO2, I make sure I have good current and some water surface movement, not enough to break the surface, but close.

That keeps the O2 up, and then CO2 loss I can simply add a bit more with a turn of the valve. A good CO2 dual stage regulator, damn good needle valve, good solenoid, check valve, diffuser method and (also diffusers need kept clean)..........every step in the delivery system is carefully considered.'
I also use a circular ruler dial on the valve itself using the swagelok vernier caliper handles. Makes adjustment and then the observation there after... very simple and easy.

I think careful slow observation and adjustments are the trick for most folks. They often just do not do it. Impatient I suppose. 

Still, you can also use less light and reduce intensity and get a similar effect without changing much else since less light = less CO2 demand by plants.

Doing that + tweaking the CO2 is the better long term resolution.
CO2 is central to the green algae issues.

Regards, 
Tom Barr












Regards, 
Tom Barr

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## TyroneGenade

I can't understand why algae are more limited by light than plants? Algae are far more efficient photosynthesizers than plants, being able to use lower levels or light while plants can't but that is mainly due to CO2 limitation. Various algae have been grown under conditions which have allowed up to 5% Photosynthetic efficiency (plants average about 2%) and some biofuel companies boast up to 11% and that at low light levels---as little as 8.8 to 25 umol photons m-2s-1 or about 5 W/m2 (calculated assuming 100% yellow light) in the case of the marine algae Ulva lactuca while a sunny summer day will give you about 1-2000 umol photons m-2s-1 or about 407 W/m2 assuming 100% yellow light (Plant Light Measurement & Calculations by David R. Hershey The American Biology Teacher 1991 53:351-353). Do not underestimate the capacity of algae to use light. Where plants won't grow, algae will (which is perhaps why aquariums with happy growing plants are algae free). My current hair algae infestation survived many weeks in a dark bucket wherein the green plants melted and only the Java moss, fern and Anubias made it out alive. Unless the tank is kept in complete darkness the algae will continue to grow regardless of its colour.

The article "How Do Algae Concentrate CO2 to Increase the Efficiency of Photosynthetic Carbon Fixation?" by J. V. Moroney and A. Somanchi (Plant Physiol 1999, 119: 9–16) may explain why algae are so damn efficient. They only review the research performed on single cell algae and Cyanobacteria but the bottom line is: algae are photosynthetically more efficient than plants because they can stock-pile HCO3- in their tissues which plants can't do (unless the plant uses CAM or C4 photosynthetic pathways). As such, they escape the CO2 limitation that plants experience and even though plants may have more efficient light harvesting equipment the algae can better use what little light is there. The algae stock-pile the HCO3- using a sodium synport system.

Sadly, and quite unexpectedly, since I have dropped my pH (and thus the HCO3- level) my Cabomba (which supposed likes soft acidic water) hasn't been growing as fast as before. I can't say I have observed any change in the growth rate of my hair algae to dropping the pH but by adding N,K,Ca,Mg and S to the tank the plants have been happier which I hope will make the algae unhappy. The cursed stuff certainly didn't undergo a burst of growth when I added micronutrients 2 days ago as I had observed previously.

Anyone tried dosing the tank with H2O2? I have a protocol: 2 mL 3% (10 volume) H2O2/4 L with the dose repeated the next day. Apparently the shrimp and fish survived fine. There is no way I will be able to remove every scrap of the cursed stuff and it will be a while before the plants are perfectly happy so I need a way to kill it or at least hurt it very bad.

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## StanChung

Does your hair algae look like this?

Is it nearly as bad? 


It was at a LFS that shall be unnamed- to be continued. need to shoot the AFTER pics this weekend.  :Grin:

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## Plantbrain

Stan, I've fixed a dozen or more tanks like that is as many years.
It was CO2, CO2 and CO2.

I did lower the light intensity, however this directly reduces CO2 demand by plants.

This occurred in the 1600 Gallon tank, a 60 Cube and going back 14 years ago with a 55 gallon tank with too much light, not enough CO2. 

I was able to control it with a rotating 3 day blackout, 2-3 days of normal lighting without harm to plants, while I adjusted just the CO2 and waited.
I was also able to control it with nothing more than reduced light intensity goign from 75 micromols down to 45micromols.

Nutrients where non limiting in all cases in both sediments and water column, but 2 aquariums just had the water column dosing alone.

Same plant also.

Inducement was done a few times back and forth for most tanks for confirmation. 

Still, why not BBA? Or another species of algae?
Why green algae?

I suppose/speculate that the degree of CO2/light mix may have some role.
More intensity of CO2 limitation=> different ecological roles, species compositions. Plants go from defining the system to simply being something to grow on for algae when limited by carbon or large limiting factors.
It's not an on/off type of thing, rather, a continuous gradation over a range that leads to various differences in algae blooms (and perhaps "fixes").

It's much harder to deal with and solve an algae issue at 450 micromols of light than say 50 micromols of light. Easier to destabilize the higher light planted aquariums, and harder to manage the nutrients/CO2.

Some might fix an algae issue with mild changes, whereas another aquarist will require a lot more effort to get things back to normal growth and little algae presence.

While I may induce algae repeatedly, it does not imply cause, it might be somethign else, or a combination of the light, nutrients and the CO2.

Good critical measurement of CO2 is hard as it moves around a lot minute to minute, location to location, hour to hour in aquariums. I can measure light easy enough and adjust it however I wish and nutrients can be ruled out easily or added to the test model. 

Compared to natural systems, we have a very very very low diversity of algae species, even with the varied environments as aquarist we provide.
This seems to point to a much simpler model and cause(and management control) for algae in planted systems.

Regards, 
Tom Barr

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## Plantbrain

> I can't understand why algae are more limited by light than plants?


Here, this is where we likely need to be much more specific, which algae are we speaking of? Periphyton generally. Green water with only one species. 
The rest are all periphyton species.

We simply look at growth rates and critical concentrations etc.
A decent paper of light, periphyton and growth rates:

http://www.jstor.org/pss/2836844

200-300 is a typical range for maximal growth rates for many species of algae. But plants do very well with 50 microles and the growth rates of periphyton decline a great deal going from 200 down to 50 however.

The plant is also much better at allocating enough CO2 to grow at lower light than it is at higher light. 

If you look at light irradiance levels relative to growth rate or photosynthesis or O2 evolution, then you can see over what ranges the rates of growth are for periphyton in freshwater systems. 

http://www.k-state.edu/doddslab/jour...col%201999.pdf

another good paper:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/l17p168327588071/




> Algae are far more efficient photosynthesizers than plants, being able to use lower levels or light while plants can't but that is mainly due to CO2 limitation.


See here for some really low compensation points for CO2 and algae:
http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/reprint/64/5/892.pdf

And when the plants run out of CO2 at higher KH's, then the algae are even less limited. Algae are virtually never limited by CO2 in any aquarium. Nor nutrients. 




> Do not underestimate the capacity of algae to use light.


Well nice to say that, but has little meaning since it's not specific and algae are a pretty diverse group would be an understatement.

Better to look at a specific system and a specific algae, if you we cannot get the same species, we can find many that give us the same genus and similar lotic type systems over the light intensities we find in our aquariums.

Aquatic Plants are pretty good at using light also.
12 micromols etc........and they can allocate resources longer distances from areas where there is higher light, to much less than 12 micromols(Gloss, Crypts most certainly etc often invade sediments where light is really low).

Algae really cannot do this over distances, some macro algae like Cladophora over a cm or so I suppose, but few freshwater species can do this.




> Where plants won't grow, algae will (which is perhaps why aquariums with happy growing plants are algae free). My current hair algae infestation survived many weeks in a dark bucket wherein the green plants melted and only the Java moss, fern and Anubias made it out alive. Unless the tank is kept in complete darkness the algae will continue to grow regardless of its colour.


I was able to kill off Spirogyra easily with a few repeated blackouts, BGA(Oscillitora) is also easily killed off using blackouts, however, it will return if the root issue is not resolved. Also, simply reducing light address the issue is many cases.

Adding more CO2 also resolved the issue. the results of algae blooms seems to be an indirect effect of poor plant growth/health, CO2. Light does drive that and in a big way.

But in high light we can "fix" the algae issue for our tank with adding more CO2, which is not always easy and time is required for plant recovery.




> The article "How Do Algae Concentrate CO2 to Increase the Efficiency of Photosynthetic Carbon Fixation?" by J. V. Moroney and A. Somanchi (Plant Physiol 1999, 119: 916) may explain why algae are so damn efficient. They only review the research performed on single cell algae and Cyanobacteria but the bottom line is: algae are photosynthetically more efficient than plants because they can stock-pile HCO3- in their tissues which plants can't do (unless the plant uses CAM or C4 photosynthetic pathways).


Many aquatic plants can and do use KH/Bicarb, Hydrilla is a classic example, Egeria densa, all pondweeds, many many other aquatic weeds do this. 
See the above reference for a list for CO2 compensation points for a much better reference for this.




> As such, they escape the CO2 limitation that plants experience and even though plants may have more efficient light harvesting equipment the algae can better use what little light is there. The algae stock-pile the HCO3- using a sodium synport system.


Well, there's much less biomass of algae to start with than aquatic plants(several orders of magnitude) in our aquariums. Much much less. So the demand for CO2, nutrients is also extremely small.
CCM(Carbon concentrating mechanisms) in algae are common, plants have a much greater need for CO2 however.

I'm sure if you search around, you will find a lot of references to this effect.




> Sadly, and quite unexpectedly, since I have dropped my pH (and thus the HCO3- level) my Cabomba (which supposed likes soft acidic water) hasn't been growing as fast as before. I can't say I have observed any change in the growth rate of my hair algae to dropping the pH but by adding N,K,Ca,Mg and S to the tank the plants have been happier which I hope will make the algae unhappy. The cursed stuff certainly didn't undergo a burst of growth when I added micronutrients 2 days ago as I had observed previously.


If you removed the KH but did not add CO2, then the total amount of carbon is less. Cabomba is a poor bicarb user, it will do a little, see Van, Bowes, Haller, 1975 for light/CO2/HCO3 usage in Cabomba.

Also, see allocation and CO2 in aquatic plants from Tropica, by Ole, Claus and Troels on Tropica's web site, it's a very good article for hobbyists about growth in light/CO2 for aquatic plants.




> Anyone tried dosing the tank with H2O2? I have a protocol: 2 mL 3% (10 volume) H2O2/4 L with the dose repeated the next day. Apparently the shrimp and fish survived fine. There is no way I will be able to remove every scrap of the cursed stuff and it will be a while before the plants are perfectly happy so I need a way to kill it or at least hurt it very bad.


Reduce light, increase CO2.
Do this slowly and carefully and watch the fish and plant's growth. Be patience, it does go away if you have managed the CO2/light balance correctly.

Regards, 
Tom Barr

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## Blue Whale

Mua never studies ar...so always got a lot of spelling errors here and there. Thanks to AQ admin doing all the correction behind.

Bicarbonate of SODA is more on water hardness, so far I do not see any links with algae. On the less chim (deep) side, yeap, it always about that Lighting thingy. Tom bring out one good point about understanding your plant. How hard the water do you think your plant need?

I do not measure light in terms of microns, and so what do I do if I got one light with 2 tubes and 1 switch? Flip the light over, turn one light until its off, there we go, half light! ha ha...Of course, you can remove the entire tube if you do not have a protective cover below the light. Most CO2 tank setup will follow the cycle of the timer we set. Now how about CO2 tank + DIY CO2? Simple, just make sure that you add Bicarbonate of SODA to the sugar solution, less yeast, the bubble rate will reduce, last longer. Now remember that day time there is still sun light. So even if the tank light is not on, you still have to watch out for direct sun which can contribute to the growth of the algae. Night time, you do not need a DIY CO2 with super bubble rate to di-oxygenate the entire tank.

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## TyroneGenade

Thanks for the replies Tom.

I have been increasing the CO2 but think my diffuser isn't efficient enough so I have ordered a better one. The response of the Cabomba is surprising as I would have though it would have preferred the low pH (and thus higher CO2:HCO3- ratio) but it didn't. But I have changed many things at once so it may be the switch from mostly Aquastar to mostly Cool white which is the problem. I'm not back to 1 Grolux: 1 Cool White: 1 Aquastar and will see how that goes.

I have 172.4 W/m2 (or about 850 micromol photons/m2 based on the wavelength of yellow light). Guess I need to tone this down or increase the CO2... My Riccia, at a depth of about 40 cm, pearls while other plants don't. In the past I used to run 153 W/m2 over this tank without any algae and luxuriant plant growth---of course back then the tank was very overstocked so plant nutrients would have been in excess.

To increase the day-time CO2 I would turn off the filter during the day. The fish would be hanging about near the surface of the tank by midday so the CO2 was very high of course, K, Ca and Mg was lacking... Maybe that will change not that they are added.

Thanks again for the information and articles.

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## mozaqua

Tom,

How do we maintain good KH? My tap water is 7.5 PH, GH:11, KH:3.
Old setups the KH will rise to 7 and CO2 injection works (plants make O2 and no cyanobacteria). I have used peat filtration and resin to soften the water in previous setups with success. Problem with the resin filtration is it removes too many plant nutrients and the plants grow very slowly.
I don't want to use the peat in this tank, so I tried reducing PH with HCL, but it will not stay below 7.5. 
My latest setup the CO2 is not dissolving well, and lots of cyano. So I checked the KH, PH. PH is rising, and KH will not. 
Oh, I also just started the CO2 injection this week(just repaired leak), which is why I have so much hair algae to begin with.


Regards

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## blackBRUSHalgae

> Does your hair algae look like this?
> 
> Is it nearly as bad? 
> It was at a LFS that shall be unnamed- to be continued. need to shoot the AFTER pics this weekend.


Mine was worst than this Stan!!!

Lush and thick clump of green filamentous algae up to 30cmm or more!!!  :Evil: 

It flourished and bloomed in both my 3-1/2' tank and 1' cube. I rescaped both the tanks and this algae came with my new plants. And of course being an algae, they adapted better than my new plants under good condition of strong light (4x39W T5HO for 3-1/2' and 24W twister for 1' x 8hrs for both) good dosing and 24/7 CO2 ( 4bps for 3-1/2' and 1bps for 1').

With the same amount of lighting, dosing, CO2 and weekly water change with mechanical removal of the algae (they comes back stronger everytime I mowed them down) which I allowed this to continue for about 1 month or so, in order to let me plants to adapt into "weed" growing form hehehe... so did the algae ~_~" The algae had evolved into made-in-china-mass-production-form, that they even grew madly in my filter media in the filter canistor!!!

And so finally my plants are in good shape, which is the time I decided to take action against the algae. I cut down my lighting to 4hrs (same intensity), clean up my filters and add in the not-so-secret algae eater, rosy barb (one each). The algae disappeared within 3 days in my 1' and a week in my 3-1/2'

Currently, I've increased the lighting for both to 6hrs (which I think is the sweet spot for my setup now), and of course I can only see green healthy plants  :Jump for joy:

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## TyroneGenade

Hi,

Manually removed as much of the cursed stuff this weekend and dosed with trace and macro. So far so good, no visible rebound by the algae. The plants look happy and I hope they will be able to out compete the algae but we will see... I will have the hydrogen peroxide on standby in case the algae gets going.

Sadly, Rosy barbs are not an option for me as I will never be able to catch them out the tank!

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## StanChung

> Mine was worst than this Stan!!!
> 
> Lush and thick clump of green filamentous algae up to 30cmm or more!!!


It was neglect then. Quite a common thing to let algae take over when the maintenance guy is away.  :Grin: 

Cleaning it up is 2 blackout for this variety + some potion from ADA.  :Razz: 
None of the plants were harmed amazingly and really quick turnaround for something that looked like a lot of elbow grease was expected.

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## Blue Whale

-.-" Sometimes I have a hard time trying to understand whether are you all planting aquatic plants or trying to grow specialised algae.

Stan, well said. ("Quite a common thing to let algae take over when the maintenance guy is away.")

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## blackBRUSHalgae

> It was neglect then. Quite a common thing to let algae take over when the maintenance guy is away. 
> 
> Cleaning it up is 2 blackout for this variety + some potion from ADA. 
> None of the plants were harmed amazingly and really quick turnaround for something that looked like a lot of elbow grease was expected.


 
hahhaha it has bloomed not because I have neglected it but instead I have fueled it with very good amount of light and ferts  :Smile:  But of course my plants have benefited as well.

But once I fine tune my lighting and dosing, it never came back.

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## StanChung

You're a strange one. :Razz:

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## myfishid

Appears to me that your tank is pretty empty. Probably due to too much nutrients. Good to plant densely to limit algae problem. I don't think your lighting is a cause for concern

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## TyroneGenade

Hello,

I dosed with H2O2 last week.

The dose was 2 mL of a 12% H2O2 per 15.2 L of water. (12% is the same as 40 volume, the original protocol called with 2 mL 3% H2O2 per 3.8 L. 3% is 10 volume H2O2.) I dosed on Wednesday and Thursday as per the protocol. On Wednesday morning I could see that the hair algae looked pale and fuzzy. On Thursday evening I added the second dose and almost immediately the tank was filled with oxygen bubbles (which had not happened on Wednesday). I guess the dying hair algae had released a lot of Fe and other metals into the water which were catalyzing the break down of H2O2 to H2O and O2.

On Saturday I removed as much of the dead algae as I could. My long-leafed Hygro was loosing its older leaves and the stargrass looked a bit burnt. My HM was melting but the new leaves looked OK. My Cambomba and Cryptes were all OK. No fish died and I didn't see any dead shrimp so they also survived (I guess). The snails were less lucky. I think many died.

On the whole I am happy with the treatment. All the plants, fish and shrimp have survived (though some plants are damaged). If the hair algae grows back I will probably try a weaker dose.

tt

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## o2bubble

just sharing my experience with hair algae that worked for me a few times. I just increase co2, add yamatos and manual remove visible hair algae. Clears within a week.

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## o2bubble

btw, i did a change 50% water and reduce fertiliser also. Lights reduce if you can will help also.

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## TyroneGenade

I'm very impressed. Now that the hair algae is dead the plants are thriving. I'm seeing more pearling and better growth. Signs of nutrient deficiency has disappeared and I have STOPPED adding NPK. Nothing has changed other than killing the algae. Same CO2 etc...

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