# Help please !



## aquamaniac (Apr 14, 2005)

Can someone help me, how to fight this hairy algae? I remove them almost every day, but reproduce very fast, they are everywhere and my effort is worthless. If there are some people, who had this ugly algae, please share with me your experience.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

To me it looks like Thread algae: Easily removed, grows very fast and a handful can be removed on a daily basis. 

Knowing more about your tank setup, water parameters, ferts being used etc will help us narrow down the problem.

In the meantime make sure that you have around 10ppm of nitrates/1ppm of phosphates, 20-30ppm of injected C02 (or using Seachem Excel), regular removal of algae, weekly water changes and tank maintenance.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Also, make sure you don't have any dead fish in the tank, or any large quantity of dead leaves. And, if you use root fertilizing, make sure you do a big water change anytime you disturb the substrate by pulling up plants or planting more plants. Ammonia is a result of any of the above and it can trigger algae blooms.


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## aquamaniac (Apr 14, 2005)

My tank setup :

Tank : 90 G (344 L) 
NO3 : 20-30 mg/l
PO4 : 1-2 mg/l
plenty of CO2 because fishes are gasping somtimes
PH: 6,8 - 7
Fe: I dose 3X 0,3 mg/l a week, when I also add some micros

I have no dead lives and fish, because always remove as fast I can.And I do not use any root tabs for my plants, ferts added only to the wather column. I absolutley agree this algae grows very fast, what I remove today, tomorrow we'll be back again  
Should I use H2O to fight them ?


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

How much light do you have?
What kind and how many plants do you have in there?
How often do you change the water?
How many fish do you have and how much and how often do you feed?
What kind of filter do you have?


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

Sounds like your water parameters and nutrient levels are in the decent ranges. So it must be a lighting issue. Reduce lighting by an hour and see how that effects the algae.

-John N.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

I used to use a 10+ hour a day light period, but since I reduced it to around 8- hours a lot of my algae woes have gone away. I'm convinced that lighting is one of the best things to adjust to affect algae.


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## erijnal (Apr 5, 2006)

Same boat as hoppy, I reduced my photoperiod by two hours and saw no adverse affects in my plants, but saw every algae problem disappear eventually. After manually removing as much as you can, a 3-day blackout would expediate the algae die-off, and most plants won't mind it.

Anyway, tell us how your situation changes.


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## aquamaniac (Apr 14, 2005)

After a lot of search I've just realised that my home made CO2 reactor was not effective enough and my plants didn't have CO2. But they had a lot of nutrients, because I thougt that the main problem is nutrient deficiency and I increasd my daily doseing, especialy Fe and Macros.
I also noticed a big algae boom (thread) after the whater changes and I have no idea why it happens? I've put the CO2 back to my external canister filter and the resoult is incredible. My plants are pearling a lot. Let see what will happen with the algaes? I post some new pictures about my situation.

Best wishes..


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Having a lot of fertilizers present, but little CO2 present prevents the plants from using those fertillizers. So, that could leave a lot available for the algae. When you made a water change, the new tap water could well have had a lot more CO2 in it than the tank water. That spike in CO2, followed by a big drop in CO2 could have signaled the algae to start growing. I'll bet now that your CO2 is doing better the algae will be much less vigorous and if you remove virtually all of it, it won't come back.


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