# Green hair algea on my hc



## tayjay76 (Feb 16, 2013)

I have been having trouble with this algea on my hc, I have three questions. 

1: What causes this algea to grow?

2: What are the best ways to get rid of this algea when it does grow?

3: Will spot treating the hair algea with a syringe on the hc help with this, or will it kill my HC?


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## herns (Aug 28, 2007)

tayjay76 said:


> I have been having trouble with this algea on my hc, I have three questions.
> 
> 1: What causes this algea to grow?
> 
> ...


This type of algae was asked too many times...look around and see what cause this algae in your tank between your CO2, lights, and ferts dosing.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Chances are that if you keep HC then you keep your CO2, ferts, and light sky high. All of these are a bad idea but most people do not understand that it all goes well until you have problems. Then it is very hard to fix anything especially if you are used to thinking "more is better".

The best way to deal with algae is to reduce the nutrients in the water column. But that means that your substrate needs to be able to feed the plants. If you have a rich substrate that can do that then it will be ok reducing the fertilizing in the water. If your substrate is not rich then the plants will suffer.

Either way - the first thing to do is to clean your tank. Virtually everybody's tank is dirty because in the planted tank hobby we know very little about filtration. Start changing water every 2 days, 20% every time. Continue with your fertilization if your substrate is not rich. Reduce the ferts and the fish feeding if your substrate is rich. The water changes will remove substances that play tricks with the exchange of chemicals in the tank. Algae takes advantage of that. Clean your tank first.

As you see - if the main way to feed the plants is through the water then you MUST keep the tank clean. The problem is that even if you change water every week (50% at least) over time different substances manage to accumulate in the tank anyway IF your biofiltration is not good. Most people have filters that are both too small AND improperly setup. When problems show up the only thing to do is to do more water changes and fertilize well. And that is the only advice you will see being given, haha. You are basically constantly keeping the tank on life support. That's exactly what most people do because they do not understand how things can work better. As soon as something goes bad issues arise very fast due to high CO2, ferts, light.

Hope you got more understanding than you expected.


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