Hair algae- To dose or not to dose?

[JoeH]

So I have a hair algae EXPLOSION in my tank in my weeping moss on the wood. I panicked and cut all nutrients and liquid c02 in the tank. Today I reduced my lighting hours, should I start dosing co2 again then? Really need to get this sorted as my moss is dying

Any help would be appreciated, thanks

Tank specs
120l
45w 6 hours per day
About 8 shrimp
20 galaxy rasboras
Now doing 20% water change ounce a fortnight
Fluval 205 with spray bar

 

[Jose]

The decision about running co2 or not has to be made by you. You can get rid of the algae with and w/o the co2. The main thing is for you to make up your mind. If you go with the co2 then you n3ed to keep it very stable and dose EI. Read tutorials on the turorial section as many times as needed.

 

[zozo]

Which hair algae do you have? I recently had a explosion of Cladophora an Staghorn at the same time.. I my case it was already in there i knew that and was triggered by doing a lot af water changes to fight of a parasite infection introduced with some infected fish. The algae explosion was the gift a got with it for free in 2 weeks time.

As Jose said, read the tutorials.. You need to get things stable.. That is stable and constant firtilization, co2 is a part of that. Doing a lot of water changes makes your co2 supply in your tank unstable. Plants need a steady supply, once they are used to it, they start to grow. Algae on the other hand like it messy, they are much more addapted to unstable conditions. The plants don't know what to do, don't get a chance to make up their mind and the algae party on that.

You can make things stable with cutting back on everything or other way around as long it is a stable supply so the plants feel at home. This takes a while, can take up to 2 weeks before you see the plants want to explode instead of the algae. Mean while you have to fight the algae manualy, this you can do with sciccors, tweezers, vacuming the substrate and keep the filter clean. Or you can go chemical on them with Liquid carbon or H2O2. At the point where you see your plants growing, you can start to trim even more infected leaves out, while trimming you will find nests of algae.

I used some h2o2 to kill off some places where the algae like to nest. It was also in the moss. Like Fissidens and Pelia. Moss don't realy like h2o2, it shocks them a bit, so you need to be carefull not to kill the moss as well. The pelia hates it and one treat to much and it's killed as well. The fissidens is harder but suffers a major set back and needs time to heal from the damage.

But first find out what hair algae you have and search the forum with that.. You'll find dosens of nice tips.. I did and it helped me a great deal.

Btw i did fight it off with uping everything.. More and stable Co2, more firts, little bit less light.. Make your plants boom and rock and roll with the tweezers and sciccors.. Don't be afraid to cut, cutting means new growth. That wath plants do, grow back new when you cut them. I know the feeling "All for nothing" But that isnt true, you need to go trough that phase if you have a algae party going..

 

[zozo]

Oh ps. What also did help me a great deal.. With cutting back infected plants and wait for them to want to grow again.. Go to the shop and buy some Egeria Densa, just throw it in the tank, don't need to put it in the substrate. It grows fast, and takes exces firts out of the water, so you don't need to cut back on the firts. After some time you got other things stable and growing again, throw out the Egeria again.

 

[JoeH]

Thanks a lot for your help I upped the liquid carbon dose and the hair algae is now dying and turning black whoo! Not sure weather to start dosing nutrients again as I have a dirted tank so I believe this is leeching enough nutrients for the plants. My shrimp have also had loads of babies that are eating away at the dead algae. So things are looking up, Algae 1 me 1!