Hair Algae - How Much Liquid Carbon

[jagz]

Hi guys,

I have a 180l tank, with just under 2wpg lighting for 6 hours a day, im injecting co2 for 8 hours a day this starts 2 hours before lights come on and goes off the same time as the lights, i have hair algae on all my glosso and hair grass, and tbh i think it come in on some plants i had and it has just grown im my tank with the co2 issues i have had and not being able to regulate the co2 properly, but i have now sorted this with a new regulator, i have good flow from the 2 1400lph filters both with spray bars and almost every stem in the tank is swaying so i think the flow is fine, and im sure the cause is irregular co2 and also ammonia from new set up, but i am doing regular water changes of 40-50% to help with this,

i have 6 amano shrimp and about 20 cherries and 3 ember tetras in there now, which i moved over from the other tank, which still has about 100 cherries and some more embers to move over at a later date,

so my question is, what else can i do at the moment with my setup to help sort this hair algae issue, should i reduce the lights a bit more, or increase the co2 upto 10 hours or both, i also know i can dose with liquid carbo but i see most people use excel but will i get the same results from easy carbo, and with this do i dilute it with some tank water and syringe it directly over all the algae, although there it quite a bit on all the glosso so i would have to do alot, or do i just dose the whole tank with it, if this is the way forward what dosage should i use?

thank you all in advance for any help

cheers Ric

 

[ceg4048]

Hi Ric,
You can use AquaCarbon sold at Aquaessentials, which is the same as EasyCarbo or Excel, and might be at a better price. You can dose daily at normal bottle recommended values or even 2X or 3X the regular dosage.

Use a toothbrush to manually remove the hair by twirling the brush and gently pulling.

Hair algae does not need to come from somewhere else. The spores are always in your tank, just waiting for an opportunity to bloom. Assuming you have actually fixed the problem, the strands should not return. You can, and should do multiple large water changes per week.

You also don't need to run the gas until lights off. You can turn it off a few hours before lights off and that will enable you to increase the injection rate and not distress the fish.

Cheers,

 

[jagz]

clive,

thank you as always, i will crack onto all that today,

at the moment my lights and co2 go off at 10pm, so if i dropped the co2 to go off at 8pm i could increase the ammount that is being add to the tank, even though the drop checkers are already in a light green sort of colour,

i only asked about easy carbo as i already have some of this, but when i have ran out i will get some of the AE stuff.

cheers Ric

 

[ceg4048]

Hi Ric,
Yes, an 8PM or even 7PM gas off schedule would be fine. A slightly higher injection rate then leaves a residual concentration level that will do for the tail end of the photoperiod. Just be sure to observe the fish for any discomfort.

Cheers,

 

[jagz]

no problem , cheers clive,

well last night i was removing the hair algae and ended up pulling out all the glosso and the hair grass that it had gone on as there was far to much algae, so im gonna clear this problem then replant some thing, i have also had a good trim of any leaves that didnt look to good, incase they was contributing to anything,

the dose for easy carbo is 1ml per 25l on a highly stocked planted tank, so i added 20ml to my 180l tank which is just over 2x , i will do this daily and let you know how i get on, also doing 50% water change a day

cheers Ric

 

[bigmel]

Did it work mate at the dose you used ?

 

[plantbrain]

Excel etc will not Kill hair algae. API's algaefix will however. It will kill shrimp also, but seems safe for fish and every plant species I've ever tested.