# Will my plants eventually out-compete hair algae?



## yum (Feb 11, 2008)

Hi, all, my 20 gallon low tech NPT is doing quite well thus (about 1 month old) far but I have a lush growth of hair algae on some driftwood, along the gravel and predominantly in my java moss.

I suspect that I encouraged it by floating my java moss for a week before I tied it down on some mesh to form a carpet.

I've got a good assortment of plants in there that are growing nicely.

My question is: will my plants eventually out compete the algae and the algae will eventually die off? or will the algae that is in there remain but it's growth will be subdued by the plants?

I want to get rid of it but pulling the algae out is a messy affair. It rips apart the moss and clings to the gravel. I'm considering borrowing a few of my dad's mollies as a clean up crew or getting some amano shrimp.


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## isu712 (Feb 8, 2008)

Do you have any stem plants or any other fast growers in your tank? I had a high tech tank that was having a problem with hair algae and I added some wisteria and it helped a lot.


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## newbie314 (Mar 2, 2007)

Do you have floaters like frogbit or duckweed.
I personally believe they really are good for a tank. Helps get rid of nutrients out of the water column.
What is the Kelvin color of your lights.
Snails are good too.

In my tanks I would actually take out the duckweed that had algae on the roots.
Eventually I could pull the algae off.
In the big tank I had snails eat (what I assume dieing algae) algae right off my pennywort and saved it.

If plants are growing fast and healthy then no problem.
Are you trimming every two weeks. If you have that much growth then you should be okay.

Watch any sun hitting the soil layer on the side of the tank as it may release Fe into the tank.


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## jazzlvr123 (Apr 29, 2007)

up your Co2 double it even for about a week and hair algae doesn't have a chance


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## yum (Feb 11, 2008)

Thanks for the info!

I don't know if it's growing at a 2 week rate but I did let it get out of hand for a while and I trimmed and replanted last night and I'd say I was cutting about 1/3- 1/2 the height of my tank off each plant. I guess it's growing like crazy! I have no idea what all the plants are called as I got a mish mash of plants from a local club meeting and stuffed them in the tank.

I do know there is rotala, java moss, java fern, duckweed, a few bits of hornwort, some kind of thin leafed plant that propogates by sending runners under the substrate and a few other types. This is a packed salad bowl and it's barely one month old!

I just got my first test kits last night but have not used them yet. All indicators that I can see/smell so far is that my guppies and RCS are spawning and I think the ottos may be spawning as I have some eggs on a high java fern leaf that I can't identify. *crossing my fingers*. The tank also smells like fresh veggies without any rank odors which I read somewhere is a good sign.

The K of my lights? Not sure. One is a basic flourescent (18 watt) and the other is sold as a "Plant" bulb (20 watt)

I had a ton of duckweed with really long hanging roots which I pulled out a massive handful last night. In hindsight, I'm wondering if that was a smart move as I stirred up some dirt during my trimming and the duckweed would have helped soak up any extra nutrients I released?

Also, have some MTS, pond snails and ram horn snails as well.


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