# Hair algae growing overnight.



## charbel101 (Apr 25, 2014)

Hello guys, i started this waterbox aquarium 72 gallons 2.5 weeks ago. Im running co2art pro se, with GLA reactor. I have 2 chihiros vivid 2. 2 sets. I run 2 oase canisters, one is the 850, and the other one is 600. Its not heavy planted, but theres some plants, like ludwigia, anubias, rotalas. All stem plants growing like crazy.

-I use RO water, because my tap water fluctuate like crazy. I use an RO unit.
-I use tropica soil, and iv been testing every single day and my ammonia didn't go above 0.25PPM. So i added fritz ammonia, i increased it to 2PPM. I added fritz turbo start 700, and its been 4-5 days already and my ammonia still 2PPM. I have some nitrate, but thats because i dose APT3 complete.

-My water parameters are ph 6.4, ammonia 2ppm, nitrite 0 i havent seen it go above 0. And my nitrate is 10-20ppm.

-iv been dosing liquid fertilizer everyday APT 3 complete. I did 50% water change the first week, and the second week i did another 50%, and now i havent done any water changes leaving things to stabilize.

My issue i got hair algae in the first place, is i had my 2 sets of vivid 2 running at 100% im new, and i didnt realize the consequences. Espcially i dont have a big plant mass. Now i reduced the lighting to 45/25/30. For red/green/blue.

-Im still taking big chunks of hair algae from my monte carlo which are covered. Even my healthy stem plants have it. I manually remove them either by hand, or by a tiny net. But i cant 100% remove them.

Anything i need to do beside what iv been doing? The only thing i didnt test is phosphate. The test kit coming tomorrow. Would hair algae go on its own?


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

Are you cycling with the ammonia?
my guess is too much light and nutrients, not enough plants.


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## charbel101 (Apr 25, 2014)

mistergreen said:


> Are you cycling with the ammonia?
> my guess is too much light and nutrients, not enough plants.


Yes sir i am. What should i do i went from 100% light to 45/25/30. I mean i cut my lights more than half. Its very annoying issue. Should i stop the liquid fertilizer?


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

Yeah, stop dosing nutrients. You have too much for the small number of plants. Maybe do a water change to reduce the nutrients. All those extra nutrients go to feed the algae.

It looks like you are cycled. Ammonia is food for algae too.


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## charbel101 (Apr 25, 2014)

mistergreen said:


> Yeah, stop dosing nutrients. You have too much for the small number of plants. Maybe do a water change to reduce the nutrients. All those extra nutrients go to feed the algae.
> 
> It looks like you are cycled. Ammonia is food for algae too.


Hi. How im cycled if the ammonia i added 4 days ago didnt go down yet?


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

I'm going off you have nitrates and no nitrite.
Ammonia not going down is weird. It could be from your soil.
Here are their instructions


> We recommend that you change 25-50% of the water min. twice a week during the first 4 weeks after establishing the aquarium.


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## charbel101 (Apr 25, 2014)

mistergreen said:


> I'm going off you have nitrates and no nitrite.
> Ammonia not going down is weird. It could be from your soil.
> Here are their instructions


So the nitrate are actually from my liquid fertilizer if im not mistaken i dosed the first week. i did 50% water change the first week and second week another 50%. my ammonia from the soil released only 0.25ppm. people told me that's not enough to cycle so i added fritz ammonia that raise my ammonia to 2ppm. Im beyond frustrated. i dont know what to do. i feel so lonely starting out this hobby as i don't get active help from others like live. i read a lot i even bought books, but really nothing is helping me explain the things thats been happening with me


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

I see. Since your soil is releasing ammonia, you're good to let it cycle on its own. Sit back, relax. Pull out any algae. Algae is part of any tank at first.


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## charbel101 (Apr 25, 2014)

mistergreen said:


> I see. Since your soil is releasing ammonia, you're good to let it cycle on its own. Sit back, relax. Pull out any algae. Algae is part of any tank at first.


I guess im not making much sense haha sorry im not from this country so bear with me. What im trying to say is. If i added ammonia 4 days ago to 2ppm. And i added fritz bacteria the whole bottle before that. Why my ammonia didnt come down yet, if fritz advertise their stuff as fast cycle like 5 days or less? My friend used the same thing and his tank cycled. Why mine i dont see changes?


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## mistergreen (Mar 3, 2007)

Time, it takes time. You don't need to add any more ammonia since your soil produces it naturally.


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