# Hair like Alge- how do i get rid of it. HELP!!



## sassyfins (Mar 5, 2010)

I have noticed alge, or atleast i think it is, growing on my tanks it surrounds my plants, I can reach in and pull the majority of it off, but it seems to keep growing back. It looks like a cotton ball spread thin. or like floating cobwebs. i have tried to upload a picture, but the files are too big.

It seems to be a hearty pain in the butt, does not fall apart when you pull it off,

Any thoughts
muchly appreciated. 

55 gallon
Running, amazon swords- java fern, and cabomba, and Wisperia.
Running 3x54 watt sunblaster bulbs,


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## NeonFlux (May 15, 2008)

How long are your lights on during the day? Try a different lighting schedule. I would suggest removing them manually. How circulated is your tank? A blackout for a couple days may work and use Flourish Excel, clean your filters (remove any old media like black carbon and such and make sure you don't clean your quilt battlings with tap water, but with your tank water) and also do a water change. Good luck.


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## sassyfins (Mar 5, 2010)

thanks for the info. I am currently running a aqua clear 70 on it, so it doesnt have the qult batting in it, but the foam blocks. I will try the light off for a few days and see it that makes a differnece, will it bother my other plants? and with the excel, do i follow directions on the bottle or do i , overdose the tank to try and over come this. Do you think removing the heater will do anything ?

thanks

So other than the filter the water isnt getting much circulation, , i dont have a powerhead in there anymore, would even a bubble bar or something like that be better?


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## NeonFlux (May 15, 2008)

As for the flourish excel, yes you should x2 the regular amount. The plants you have should be able to sustain themselves for while so you don't have to worry too much; just don't go too long for blackouts. I think 2-3 days may possibly be adequate.


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## NeonFlux (May 15, 2008)

So for the past few days, how did it go?


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

I nuke my algea problem on my plants with a bleach water treatment. I make a bucket of 1 table spoon of bleach to 1 gallon of water. I soak the plants in it for 15 minutes and then place them into a gallon of fresh water with dechlorinator treatment in it to soak for 15 minutes. The algea should fall off or turn brown. What is left on the plants, your snails should take care of cleaning it.


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## sassyfins (Mar 5, 2010)

I went out and got the flourish excel.( had to wait for payday) the tank is currenltly in black out mode since last night, did a water change about 30%. Hopeing this will go well, I have really noticed over the last few days that my cabomba had really taken a huge hit, I think it may be due to the constant cleaning of the algea. But i am going to try this trick, and it id doesnt work i will try the bleach idea. What do i use as a declorinator?

I really appreciate all the help.


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## NeonFlux (May 15, 2008)

Ah great, so you started. Lets see what will happen.


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## aquatic_clay (Aug 17, 2009)

Hair algae is caused by a lack of Nitrogen in the tank. Dosing more N will help solve this problem with out doing a black out. I had a bad hair algae out break in my 29 and I started dosing more N and it was gone in under a week.

Just my $0.02.


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## laradavidson (May 23, 2010)

does your fish tank receive too much sunlight. if yes, try to relocate the fish tank in a space with less sunlight.
You should also scrub the walls of you fish tank to remove those pestering algae.

happy cleaning


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## fishyjoe24 (May 18, 2010)

hi everyone make I added on to this one, inside of making my own. same problem green hair carpet algae on my flourite substrate. do i just shorten down my lights on, and slam it with excel, and a big water change like everyone said? also how do I get rid of all the mult.-plying like rabbit sails, with out having to use loaches? should I just drain the tank, and scoop them out with a small net?


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## fishyjoe24 (May 18, 2010)

aquatic_clay said:


> Hair algae is caused by a lack of Nitrogen in the tank. Dosing more N will help solve this problem with out doing a black out. I had a bad hair algae out break in my 29 and I started dosing more N and it was gone in under a week.
> 
> Just my $0.02.


woo Thanks, I didn't see this at first, this was the answer I need.
hows this for NITROGEN! 7.5-10 pound bottle. can I dose nitrogen this way?
Uploaded with ImageShack.us


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## aquatic_clay (Aug 17, 2009)

fishyjoe24 said:


> woo Thanks, I didn't see this at first, this was the answer I need.
> hows this for NITROGEN! 7.5-10 pound bottle. can I dose nitrogen this way?
> Uploaded with ImageShack.us


HA! 

I don't think that that would work out it might be possible but i have a pretty good feeling that that will kill your fish. The best thing to do would be to find a dry mix from a fertilizer supply or take the easy route and use seachem's pre-mixed solution.


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## sassyfins (Mar 5, 2010)

well it has been 4 days now, and it seems like it has take a large hit. i am plannig on doing a water change in the morning, and trying to pull any of the remaining hairs out, I appreciate all the help, I will try the nitrogen thing if the problem doesnt go away or comes back,

thanks again


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## fishyjoe24 (May 18, 2010)

aquatic_clay said:


> HA!
> 
> I don't think that that would work out it might be possible but i have a pretty good feeling that that will kill your fish. The best thing to do would be to find a dry mix from a fertilizer supply or take the easy route and use seachem's pre-mixed solution.


cool I picked up some flourish,flourish excel, and flourish iron 3.4 oz bottles all for 7 dollars.
now if I can just fine nitrogen and photaseum(spelling?) I should be good to go, oh and the only fish in the tank are snails,snails,more snails, and snails, oh and did I say snails. oh and 7-8 cory cats.

if I wanted to use that bottle, I would need to get it drained, then hydro tested right, then find a solenoid and regulator right, then filled with c02?


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## agy (Sep 18, 2009)

aquatic_clay said:


> HA!
> 
> I don't think that that would work out it might be possible but i have a pretty good feeling that that will kill your fish. The best thing to do would be to find a dry mix from a fertilizer supply or take the easy route and use seachem's pre-mixed solution.


 hi hi
Small Nitrate Bomb for Aquarium


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## agy (Sep 18, 2009)

fishyjoe24 said:


> woo Thanks, I didn't see this at first, this was the answer I need.
> hows this for NITROGEN! 7.5-10 pound bottle. can I dose nitrogen this way?
> Uploaded with ImageShack.us


 hi hi
Small Nitrate Bomb for Aquarium


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## Emily6 (Feb 14, 2006)

Hey FishyJoe- I had an over pop. of snails once and what did was make a "snail hotel." I took a tall chinese food container (the clear cylindrical ones w/ a lid) and cut 1" holes about 1 inch below the lid . I put algae wafers inside, then flipped it upside in the tank with a rock on top (weighing it down). The snails went in over night so in the morning, I just flipped the container right-side up again and pulled it out. Presto! Snails in a jar!  What you do with them afterwards I don't know... give them away? Make a snail tank? Escargo?


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## Daniil (Oct 30, 2009)

aquatic_clay said:


> Hair algae is caused by a lack of Nitrogen in the tank. Dosing more N will help solve this problem with out doing a black out. I had a bad hair algae out break in my 29 and I started dosing more N and it was gone in under a week.
> 
> Just my $0.02.


Thanks aquatic_clay.
I had Hair like Alge in my tank, I tried to kill it with Flourish Excel did't have much success.
Then I dosed with Nitrogen for 2 days and after 5 days Hair Alge was gone.
Thanks again aquatic_clay.:fencing:


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## aquatic_clay (Aug 17, 2009)

Daniil said:


> Thanks aquatic_clay.
> I had Hair like Alge in my tank, I tried to kill it with Flourish Excel did't have much success.
> Then I dosed with Nitrogen for 2 days and after 5 days Hair Alge was gone.
> Thanks again aquatic_clay.:fencing:


Good to hear that you won the battle! Luckily hair algea is pretty easy to take care of. I would keep up with the N just to make sure there's not any small patches of H algea hidin g out in the tank just waiting to make a comeback :ninja:


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## Clive (Jul 14, 2010)

how can i get a nitrogen?i got this matter as well


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## czernia03 (Apr 16, 2010)

I think this should work :
http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3746+9904&pcatid=9904


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## czernia03 (Apr 16, 2010)

So today I came back after a long weekend away and noticed that my Dwarf Hairgrass is getting attacked by this stuff that was after my previous reply. What is the best way to treat it?? I do have Valls in my tank so Excel is not an option for me. I did raise my CO2 to a point that I lost one of my fish I am using h2o2 ( h2o2 seems to have a bad effect on Valls I have a lot of dead leaves that I pull off) and started dosing more Nitrogen I am trimming the effected plants I only 7hr of light in my 26g and it just seems to jump around. I thought I had it under control 
What can I use on Dwarf Hairgrass???


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## czernia03 (Apr 16, 2010)

czernia03 said:


> So today I came back after a long weekend away and noticed that my Dwarf Hairgrass is getting attacked by this stuff that was after my previous reply. What is the best way to treat it?? I do have Valls in my tank so Excel is not an option for me. I did raise my CO2 to a point that I lost one of my fish I am using h2o2 ( h2o2 seems to have a bad effect on Valls I have a lot of dead leaves that I pull off) and started dosing more Nitrogen I am trimming the effected plants I only 7hr of light in my 26g and it just seems to jump around. I thought I had it under control
> What can I use on Dwarf Hairgrass???


ANY ONE ??????


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## suaojan (Oct 21, 2006)

I am experimenting a new method to treat hair algae. I tripled the dosage of boric acid and it seems to help controlling hair algae. My other plants and fishes are fine with the exceeding boron. I do observe that the plants pearl less but they still look healthy. However, I don't have invertebrates in this tank so I can not comment if boron would hurt them. Try at your own risk


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## Gordonrichards (Apr 28, 2009)

For me, cutting back my light schedule,dosing flourish comprehensive once a week and excel at the same time seems to have fixed almost all algae issues in my 33 gallon.

Perhaps you should invest in some floating plants to shade areas in your tank?


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## czernia03 (Apr 16, 2010)

I have some floating plants and they get BBA so I have to keep trimming them 
If I would stop dosing fertz would that help ??


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## Gordonrichards (Apr 28, 2009)

I would pull the floating plants and spray them with a bit of hydrogen peroxide to kill the algae.


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## aquatic_clay (Aug 17, 2009)

czernia03 said:


> I have some floating plants and they get BBA so I have to keep trimming them
> If I would stop dosing fertz would that help ??


BBA is caused by an unstable supply of CO2. Try treating it with excel it will be gone in about a week. If you stop dosing ferts that will just make the situation worse.


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## m3177o (Jan 16, 2009)

ugh ALGAE, i've used OD on Excel and it works. just my 2 pennys


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## virgo888 (Jun 25, 2009)

i got a little too. pull it out with your hands.


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