Cant get rid of hair algae, please help

[marekm]

Tank parameters:
1.5 years old
ADA amazonia substrate
200 L
filter: Oase Biomaster 600 thermo - loaded with 4L of seachem matrix and 200ml. of seachem purigen
Eheim skimmer for added flow and surface agitation
Chihiros wrgb2 slim set currently at 68/31/40 (r/g/b)
Lights are on from 12:00 till 18:30
CO2 injection enabled from 8:15 till 18:30, controlled by a PH controller aiming for 1 PH drop (7,6-7,7 in the morning, target PH is set to 6,5) - this has been added 3 weeks ago, previously its pretty likely that I had low levels of CO2
CO2 is injected via an inline atomizer
Fertilization using dry salts / EI, adding 16ppm NO3, 16ppm K, 2ppm PO4, 0,5 ppm FE + micros weekly
Also added some root tabs a month ago

Water parameters:
Temperature ranging between 24.5 - 26 C
KH 4
GH 7
Water changes@50% 1-2x per week

Crew:
4 keyhole cichlids - 1 of them hatched eggs couple of days before
4 gold mollys
10 rasboras
~6 nerite snails
~3 otocinclus

Plants:

• echinodorus - doing generally ok, but the oldest/biggest leaves seem to get hair algae after some time
• cryptocorynes - similar as echinodorus, new leaves looking fine, but the older ones are infected with hair algae, so I keep removing them
• vallisneria
• limnophila sessiliflora - this one helps a lot with the plant mass, it grows quickly even when the conditions are suboptimal during summer
• rotala bonsai - this has been added about a month ago, seems to be unable to establish itself, it keeps rotting in the bottom and then the upper part floats up. i keep replanting these upper parts but seems like its happening again and again
• hydrocotyle tripartita - added about a month ago as well, so far its not doing very well
• ludwigia sp. white - added about a month ago, this one is causing me a lot of headaches, its a beautiful plant, and seemed to be doing great, but the hair algae is slowly starting to grow on this one as well
• eleocharis - added a month ago, seems to be doing ok, new side shoots are starting to appear
• Alternanthera reineckii - added a month ago, seems to be doing ok, even if some leaves have holes in it(probably hungry fish), and a few leaves start to have hair algae

I must admit during summer the aquarium was in pretty bad shape - very few plants, very few water changes, temps around 27 C. I have been trying really hard to improve plant health and overall tank balance, and especially get rid of the hair algae for last 2 months, I have focused on 3 things mainly:

• dialed in CO2 - added a ph controller, made sure the filter is clean and has optimal flow
• added new plants to improve the plant mass
• remove as much algae from leaves/hardscape as possible

The frustrating part is that the hair algae is showing on new growth as well, so I am wondering if there is anything obvious that I am missing. I was thinking that perhaps the biomaster 600 is not enough for the tank and adding a 2nd filter could improve things?

Many thanks for any advices

 

[PARAGUAY]

A couple of observations some plants look slightly nutrient deficient ,this might be your flow needs improving or/ and look at your dosage, CO2 comes off as the light do ,try an hour before lights off ,maybe the lighting too high? You could add some floating plants and more fast growing stem plants, keep manually removing algae and try 2 or 3 water changes a week,?

 

[Zeus.]

You need a clean up crew

I had 50+ amamos and thousands of RCS and snails in my 500 litre tank and never hair algae was never an issue. In my Pot scape I use to get hair algae on some plants and put them in bigger tank for 24hrs and it was all gone. Amamos and RCS had a feast on them.

 

[marekm]

You need a clean up crew

I had 50+ amamos and thousands of RCS and snails in my 500 litre tank and never hair algae was never an issue. In my Pot scape I use to get hair algae on some plants and put them in bigger tank for 24hrs and it was all gone. Amamos and RCS had a feast on them.

unfortunately I cant have shrimp in this tank because of the keyhole cichlids and mollies :/