# Green Hair Algae!!!!!



## Dougie (5 Apr 2016)

Hi,

I am posting here as a last resort to my issues with ongoing green hair algae.
I have a 30 gallon tank,
fluval LED 25W
Chinese LED off ebay, 25W
EI (mix as per recipe on here) 50ml per day interchanging between macro & micro
C02, pressurised, jbl bubble counter, co2art inline diffuser, on 3 hours before lights on, bright green drop checker at lights on
lights on at 4pm, off at 10pm
filtration is an eheim ecco pro 300, APS 2000lph, and 2 APS WM-2000 for circulation, everything is swirling nicely
I have a full carpet of dwarf hair grass, java moss on all my driftwood, some stem plants at the back to extract excess nutrients.
Also dose liquid co2 at 10ml per day.

GH 4, KH 4, PH 7.9 morning, 6.8 at end of photoperiod. nitrate not so sure... could be a culprit?

My issue is with my moss, I keep getting green hair algae, in abundance, I even went to the extreme the last time of replacing all the moss, only for the problem to return, I have changed to RO to mix my ferts, cleaned all my filter, etc etc.

I recently got rid of it by overdosing liquid co2 but it has now returned and it seems to have developed a resistance to the liquid co2 as it now is not subsiding with overdosing! it is clearly an underlying issue I have with something.
I also do a 50% water change once a week.

I am at my wits end with it and I cannot seem to underpin any issue as to where this is coming from?
Please any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!


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## Aqua360 (5 Apr 2016)

Dougie said:


> Hi,
> 
> I am posting here as a last resort to my issues with ongoing green hair algae.
> I have a 30 gallon tank,
> ...



I'm no expert, but perhaps you have too long a photoperiod? can you confirm how long lights are on?


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## Dougie (5 Apr 2016)

Lights on at 4pm off at 10pm so 6hours. Not too long I assume?

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## Aqua360 (5 Apr 2016)

Dougie said:


> Lights on at 4pm off at 10pm so 6hours. Not too long I assume?
> 
> Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk



I don't know the answer sadly, that doesnt sound like too long a light period to me; but I'll be interested to hear the answer from others on this..

My own photoperiod is 4.5 hours a day, and I also get hair algae that I have to remove every few days manually


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## dw1305 (5 Apr 2016)

Hi all, 





Dougie said:


> My issue is with my moss, I keep getting green hair algae, in abundance, I even went to the extreme the last time of replacing all the moss, only for the problem to return, I have changed to RO to mix my ferts, cleaned all my filter, etc etc.


I think most people who have lovely algae free moss carpets have shrimps to tonsure them. 

Have a look at <"New tank green algae.....">.

cheers Darrel


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## Dougie (5 Apr 2016)

On the subject of shrimps, I cannot ever seem to keep them alive any longer than a couple of weeks? Is there an issue with my set up and water parameters above that is causing this?

**Edit** 
Ok quick look OK here it seems my neon tetra and Betta may be picking off the shrimp slowly without me noticing! I may look into getting a trade at my LFS for my fish to shrimp and get something like microrasbora instead!


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## Paulo Soares (5 Apr 2016)

Good morning, 
As you haven´t post any photos of the tank i can´t make any judment for shure. Photos are always a pretty good way to make an X-ray of the tank. 

If you are really shure that your issue is only related with the moss, the answer with be easy : Lights.

But i don´t believe it. Please do post photos of the tank in general, a general photo to see how the lights are suitable, also macro photos of all plants, also of how you have your´s filter IN and OUT´s .

I´m quite shure that you have more things to solve. Algae is never related to one issue itself. 

Is always related with *BALANCE*. 

Compliments.


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## Easternlethal (5 Apr 2016)

I find that algae grows on moss because moss attracts detritus which rots and produces ammonia. 

So try giving them regular trims right down to the bone and frequent brushes to make them super clean.


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## Dougie (5 Apr 2016)

Easternlethal said:


> I find that algae grows on moss because moss attracts detritus which rots and produces ammonia.
> 
> So try giving them regular trims right down to the bone and frequent brushes to make them super clean.


I think you may have given me a route to try here.

Have attached some pics to show my set up.

















Moss on long shot is brown as it is only 2-3 weeks old and was sent that way, waiting on it recovering.

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## castle (5 Apr 2016)

Is sunlight hitting your tank? The lighting in the last image makes it look like it could be, if so that will definitely cause algae.


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## Easternlethal (6 Apr 2016)

You can try to re-position your fans to keep a stronger flow over the moss as well in order to keep algae spores from settling.

Right now your current is flowing from left to right which means it's going along the length of your driftwood. 

So you can try positioning them at the bank facing forwards. This will cause a torrent to flow down your front glass pane which more evenly distributes the flow to hit your driftwood side on and lift debris up for your intake to suck up.


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## AndyMcD (6 Apr 2016)

In my tank, the green hair algae on moss is worst in the spots where the light is brightest (close to the top and centre of the tank). I'm trying to move lower light loving plants into shadier spots, as exposing them to too much light seems to make them unhappy and brings on the algae (e.g. Anubias).

I've badly suffered with green hair algae, but I'm beginning to make some progress.

My big issue I think was excess ferts / organics in the water caused by not doing enough water changes early on (ADA Amazonia) and planting & re-planting (melting plants).

I'm starting to make headway now, but haven't beaten it yet. I think the following may have helped:
- floating plants - remove excess ferts / cause shade
- reduce ferts for a while
- increased flow - spray bars across back, pointing to front, shortest path so max flow
- clean up crew - shrimp, ottos and Nerite. 

As Darrell has pointed out, green hair algae is quite tough as its needs are very similar to plants, so it is hard to split them.


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## AnhBui (6 Apr 2016)

AndyMcD said:


> My big issue I think was excess ferts / organics in the water caused by not doing enough water changes early on (ADA Amazonia) and planting & re-planting (melting plants).
> - reduce ferts for a while
> - clean up crew - shrimp, ottos and Nerite.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk



I agree with Andy. You will need
1. Cleanup crew. Start with four Siamese algea eaters and two ottos
2. Stop using ferts for three weeks
3. Change water every 2 or 3 days. 30%
4. Keeps 6 hour photo-period but should have on 1 hour off in the middle


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## foxfish (6 Apr 2016)

I rather enjoy removing hair algae, I find it quite satisfying finding a little strand that has intwined amongst the carpet and then extracting it with tweezers!


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## Aqua360 (6 Apr 2016)

Dougie said:


> I think you may have given me a route to try here.
> 
> Have attached some pics to show my set up.
> 
> ...



awesome tank, loving the carpet and betta


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## Aqua360 (6 Apr 2016)

foxfish said:


> I rather enjoy removing hair algae, I find it quite satisfying finding a little strand that has intwined amongst the carpet and then extracting it with tweezers!


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## Dougie (6 Apr 2016)

Love my Betta!! Had him for 4years, big softie. Not the angry fish they are known to be!

I have 8 military helmet snails on hold for pick up today (version of nerite I believe?) So that will start with clean up, I am loathed to try shrimp again. Amano just decided to climb out, cherry's were slowly picked off by Betta and neons. So not for that again as they are expensive!

On the stopping ferts side, I may lower my dosage to half for 2 weeks and see how I get on.
I don't want to stop as I went on holiday last year, left co2 and light period on, but didn't get house sitter to fert the tank (silly I know) and I came back to an unbelievable amount of green hair algae due to this. Also no feeding during that time so that was the reason for that I presume. 

No sun light hitting the tank.

I will have a play about with my wavemakers, would you think one high pointing low and one low pointing high?

Thanks for the replies guys.

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## PARAGUAY (6 Apr 2016)

Richard at Aqua  Essentials one of our sponsers sent me a factsheet about hair algae and algae in general. Its a case usually a couple of things going on and the aquarists reaction  often worsens the problem so in order  what he says  to do 1 lack of CO2 or unstable CO2 is the biggest cause, a couple of drop checkers tried just above substrate levels in different parts is better indication of this than one looking nice green in one place,2 Excess light. Cutt down intensity cut down photoperiod and or raise lighting 3 Use liquid carbon if compatable with plants,if spot dosing wait at least 10 minutes before refilling 4 Under no circumstances reduce fertiliser it worsens the problem 5 More water changes 2 or 3 times a week at least 5 clean all mulm,dirt detrious on the substrate "every nook and cranny" and finally feel as good as Foxfish by physically removing as much as possible


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## AndyMcD (6 Apr 2016)

PARAGUAY said:


> Under no circumstances reduce fertiliser it worsens the problem 5 More water changes 2 or 3 times a week at least



Paraguay, I agree with Richard at Aqua Essentials advice and is what others should follow.

However, in my case, I think the nutrient concentration was too high in my new tank, as I hadn't been doing enough water changes early on (I hoped I had cycled the ADA Amazonia before planting). 

I tried increasing the dosing of fertiliser which made the algae outbreak much worse.

Reducing the fertiliser and having floating plants has helped me to reduce the algae. 

However, I think I am the other side of the fertiliser sweet spot to Richard's advice. I can imagine if you were running a high light, insufficient CO2 set up with lean fertilisers, reducing fertilisers would be the wrong way to go. 

At some point soon I am going to find myself the other side of the sweet and will need to increase the nutrient dosing too.


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## PARAGUAY (6 Apr 2016)

I think he means suddenly stopping nutrients to plants would worsen the problem making plants less able to compete the hair algae but he says the vast percentage of algae and hair algae are first and formost CO2 related not enough or unstable levels


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## AndyMcD (6 Apr 2016)

PARAGUAY said:


> I think he means suddenly stopping nutrients to plants would worsen the problem making plants less able to compete the hair algae but he says the vast percentage of algae and hair algae are first and formost CO2 related not enough or unstable levels



Makes good sense.


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## Paulo Soares (6 Apr 2016)

My notes on what i´m seeing. 

Drop checker position is wrong. At the top is where we have most concentration of Co2. So it is not measuring the bottom where is most needed. So The dropchecker is not accurate to tell us something about co2 dissolution.
Even i don´t know if you´re using a 30 PPM solution. Is lime green?Ok. So what? 
I have a 30PPm Cal Aqua calibrated solution and my plants only start to show improvements by the time i increase CO2 to the point where the solution is even not yellow but transparent. 
So there you have.

I can see green algae inside tubes. Specially in the outflow. If the tube is like that maybe your filter need a clean up. 

Now the algae.. One thing is for shure. Filamentous algae is due to poor CO2. So this scenario would indicate to us that the trilogy CO2+flow+distribution according to the lighting level was not optimized. But i believe it is to this set up and not for the plant itself. Cause the issue only concerns one plant. And that´s the point to focus.

Plants have different needs. And it is very hard to set up all the gear (light+co etc) in order to be optimized for all plants. So what should we do? Take a good care on where we root plants according to their needs and our gear. 

For instance I have Taxi Spiky closely to lights and growing beautifully. This moss is shining beautifully.
And i also have Crhistmas Moss in an under level, more closely to substrate and the growth altough is being good with no algae at all is much slower and not so shiny or beautiful green. And why?

Moss needs lot´s of light. Needs to be in higher levels in the tank to be more closely to lights.

In your case that moss is far from lights. So regarding this the growth is compromised and there you have algae. You may have enough Co2 and nutrientes down there but not light enough for this baby. 
Without enough light down there for the moss it´s not the co2 or flow that will save the moss. Light is energy. 

I´m almost 100% shure that if you put that moss in a higher level you´ll see it growing very nicely.

So now you have two choices. Gave up of that moss cause down there you´ll have to much difficult to make it grow or increase light or photoperiod. But there you go.. if you change light all other plants will react. Diferent needs! 

Will they react positively? 
What measures should you take to increase light? 

Increase also Co2 and nutrients. 
Is it worth it? Compromise all others cause of this moss?

It´s up to you my friend. 
This is my point of view based on my own experience.  

Best regards.


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## Jamie McGrath (6 Apr 2016)

Paulo Soares said:


> I can see green algae inside tubes. Specially in the outflow. If the tube is like that maybe your filter need a clean up.



isnt that the reflection of the carpet?


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## spyder (6 Apr 2016)

+1 on the drop checker. At the surface it's telling you a different story as to whats happening down below. You can't be far off though, that carpet looks great.

Your flow seems to be going in various directions. The upper powerhead aiming across the top and the lower one aiming down low. The lily is going across the tank too but all giving different flow. When this hits the other side of the tank they will hit each other and work against each other. Also is that another input in the right back corner? It's considered best practice to run the flow in 1 direction so all flow devices are working together and not against each other.


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## Hyoscine (17 Apr 2016)

Dougie said:


> I am loathed to try shrimp again. Amano just decided to climb out, cherry's were slowly picked off by Betta and neons. So not for that again as they are expensive!


Just a thought, but maybe ghost/glass shrimp would get on better in your tank? Not as pretty as cherries, but your betta might be less likely to find them.


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## sciencefiction (6 May 2016)

How could CO2 be the main problem with hair algae?  I've never ever seen this algae in my life in any of my tanks.  I've always kept low tech non-co2 injected tanks. Whatever the reason is, it is not co2. My guess is that the grass is gathering a lot of debris, I.e. organic issue. Maybe try trumpet snails if shrimp can't survive the fish. They are quite happy eating anything that stays on the substrate. In one of my fishless tanks they come out for food like proper pets, each time I drop some pellets.


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## rebel (7 May 2016)

Just dose algaefix and kill the green algae. Then lots of water changes to reset the tank.


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