# Thread/Hair Algae Problem - Please Help!



## GGlass (1 Apr 2019)

Hello to all,

In my tank the main problem is thread algae. I cannot find the solution is anyone can help me to solve?

My tank info;

*80x40x50h High Tech
*48 watt power led (1 watt each different colors mostly 6500 k cold white) DIY
*CO2 tube 1 lt with selenoid valve opens 2 hours before lights.
*Eheim 2213 400 lt/h canister filter.
*DIY NPK + Seachem Iron + Reeflowers Trace with Estimative Index Method.
*Only Hagen
*8 Hours lighting directly.
 substrade.








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## PARAGUAY (1 Apr 2019)

Difficult to actually be definitive but as your ,off the images,plants  look in quite good health why not try reducing lighting period a couple of hours, gathering as much algae,toothbrush works well,every day by hand,the experts often cite CO2 not getting to all areas of the aquarium so why not try a small wavemaker or powerhead to increase flow?Moving the drop checker around should tell you something.I had a lot of hair algae problems and tried a small internal filter as well as already the 2000l/h external. the hair algae all but disapeared,the addition of the internal wasnt pretty but did the job. Assuming your weekly W/C regime try more W/Cs


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## GGlass (2 Apr 2019)

PARAGUAY said:


> Difficult to actually be definitive but as your ,off the images,plants  look in quite good health why not try reducing lighting period a couple of hours, gathering as much algae,toothbrush works well,every day by hand,the experts often cite CO2 not getting to all areas of the aquarium so why not try a small wavemaker or powerhead to increase flow?Moving the drop checker around should tell you something.I had a lot of hair algae problems and tried a small internal filter as well as already the 2000l/h external. the hair algae all but disapeared,the addition of the internal wasnt pretty but did the job. Assuming your weekly W/C regime try more W/Cs


Thank you so much for your comments. Yes my plants look quite good health but I think as you say there is a flow problem almost no wave in the tank. Plants never moves. My tank is not glass to glass so I can not change the direction of the lily pipe for the flow. I ordered a wave maker to try and increase the flow. I hope it will helps. I can also see the water is little bit cloudly in these days not so clear. I cleaned the external filter a few days ago and change the stuff in it. It also make some chaos. I take off the hair algae with the tooth brush it works well bu I get bored of this. For the lighting I am not sure that it seems to high? I don't know. Also some of my plants not grow much. Like Rotala Wallichii and Palustris cuba. They don't grow much and not so reddish.


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## Zeus. (2 Apr 2019)

Have you done a pH profile for your tank? also what colour does the DC change. Is your DC next to your atomiser?
I think Flow is the main issue with your light. Reduce the light improve the flow then when/if issue resolves the light can be increased.



Arkun said:


> I take off the hair algae with the tooth brush it works well bu I get bored of this.



One of the joys of aquascaping, I spend at least a hour a week just getting bits of moss out of my carpet in my 500l, without the effect the carpet wouldn't look as good IMO, If it was easy wheres the challenge


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## GGlass (2 Apr 2019)

Zeus. said:


> Have you done a pH profile for your tank? also what colour does the DC change. Is your DC next to your atomiser?
> I think Flow is the main issue with your light. Reduce the light improve the flow then when/if issue resolves the light can be increased.
> 
> 
> ...



Sorry I am very new in English terms in aquascaping. what do you mean by pH profile? My pH at my last measurement is around 6.9. DC is dark green may be it is little bit low. You can see the photos below. It was next to my atomizer but I changed the location today. I ordered a wave maker I will try to increase the flow. I have my own DIY lighting as you can see in the photos. I only can close the one bar and it will be really less for the plants so I am not sure for that but I can try. I cleaned today again all the hair algeas with toothbrush. I was out the coconut yesterday directly the water has some smoke today I am not sure what is the reason. Also I started to use jbl biotopol.

IMO means please


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## PARAGUAY (3 Apr 2019)

If it was my tank this is what I would do concentrate on flow- getting CO2 to all over the tank,this ensures all the plants recieve fertilsers too,not always easy but noticed with George Farmer he recommends the lily pipe outflow near the front glass and the intake on the same end as the outflow. Tweak the lighting less photoperiod at first?I would not be to radical with filter cleans as lon as its done regular a gentle squeeze in tank water for the sponges and gentle swish only occasionally with any bio. Try not to overfill it and if you use filter wool or pads you probably dont need them, I only use it for temporary measures like replanting any substrate disturbance. have a look at the  tutorials and members own journal journeys are a good . Zeus own featured journal will help


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## Zeus. (3 Apr 2019)

Arkun said:


> what do you mean by pH profile?



basically to record the pH of the water in your tank every 30 minutes from pre CO2 on till CO2 off. Ideally it should peak when lights go on then remain stable till CO2 off. The reason is the [CO2] controls the Rubisco production which costs the plant energy 



ceg4048 said:


> we know that when the plant senses that high concentrations of CO2 is available, it responds by reducing the production of expensive Rubisco. When it senses a lower CO2 concentration it must increase Rubisco production, however because this protein is so complicated and heavy, the increased production requires 2-3 weeks in order to change the density in the leaf to match the new gas concentration level. So it is much easier to reduce production than it is to increase production. When increasing gas injection therefore, it hardly takes any time to see an improvement in health. When lowering the concentration, the plant will suffer because it must now ramp up Rubisco production to account for the loss of CO2 availability.







Arkun said:


> IMO means please



'In My Opinion'



Arkun said:


> Sorry I am very new in English terms in aquascaping



Hats off m8 your English is pretty good to me


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## The Scaper’s Scene (4 Apr 2019)

Reduce lighting period on 5 hours per day, do more than 50% water change per week, it will help.


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