# Hair and Diatoms



## art_b

I finally learned how to post pictures here at APC.

Here are my algae pics. Pic 1 is hair algae:










Another pic of hair algae:










This pic is brown algae (diatoms) ?










These algae are driving me crazy. I used Flourish, Flourish Iron, Flourish Excel. I used dry ferts KN03, KH2P04, and K2SO4. I have 2 T5 (39 watts x 2) on a 36x18x18 inch (48 gallons). I don't have CO2 injection.

Is the hair algae caused by too much Flourish or Flourish Iron ? It became worse when I bump my phosphate (KH2PO4) to 1 ppm. Now I keep phosphate to 0.25 ppm or less. Should I stop or scale down on Flourish Iron too ? My rainbows eat some of my soft leaf plants but does not touch this thing. Are there fish that eat this stuff ?

With regards to the brown algae, I think my tap water has silicates. I do 50% water changes every week. Then after a couple of days, brown dust litters the substrate.

Last week, I installed a Nutrafin CO2 natural plant system which is actually a yeast method of injecting CO2. Hope this helps.

Can anyone please give me advice before I get committed to a mental institution


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## imeridian

I respectively suggest that you start over. You've already lost this war, time to regroup, refine your dosing plan and start injecting CO2 with clean and healthy plants.


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## epicfish

Time to start all over.


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## HeyPK

That algae looks like Oedogonium, one of the worst of the hair algae. It is too tough to be eaten by snails or fish (excepting the snails or fish that will also eat your plants). It is extremely tolerant of low light, and blackouts do not kill it unless you want to wait for years. I have tried six months of absolute darkness, which didn't bother it at all. Give up on the plants, bleach the tank, gravel, and all other equipment, and start over. Move the fish into a quarantine tank with large gravel on the bottom. This tank should be lit only by room light. Move them out of there after a few days into another tank. Hopefully any pieces of Oedogonium that came with them have settled out in the gravel and none got taken with the fish when they were moved into the second tank.


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## art_b

Geez, I had this tank for more than 10 years. Is there a way to keep this tank a fish-only tank. Will the algae die of starvation anyway if I don't fertilize, and turn on lights only when viewing.


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## TAB

I'd think I'd start with stop fertlizing and see what happends. Might just get lucky.


That or barrow a plant eating african cichlid for a couple weeks.


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## bartoli

art_b said:


> Geez, I had this tank for more than 10 years. Is there a way to keep this tank a fish-only tank. Will the algae die of starvation anyway if I don't fertilize, and turn on lights only when viewing.


Just cutting down the lighting by half may work.


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## dj2606

There is no need to fertilize that amount without Co2 injection. I recommend posting these pics in the worst algae competition. I think you could possibly win . First prize I believe is some awesome plants. GOOD LUCK


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## art_b

Ha ha ha, yes, I think I'll join the competition . Yes, I think I over-fertilize . From now on, no more fertilizing except for fish poop.

My wife would not let me get another tank. So there is no way of starting all over again without saving my rainbow fishes. I think I'll take it easy for a while, and see what happens. 

Maybe someday, I can get a bigger tank


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## art_b

bartoli said:


> Just cutting down the lighting by half may work.


Bartoli, do you mean the intensity or the photoperiod. I have mine on for 8 hours.

What is the minimum photoperiod that plants need just to survive ?


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## bartoli

art_b said:


> Bartoli, do you mean the intensity or the photoperiod. I have mine on for 8 hours.


I was thinking about intensity, say by turning off one of the two T5s that you have. It is a drastic cut that will force both plants and algae to adapt. However, algae are not as robust as plants. While some plants may even melt their existing leaves and grow new ones, much of the algae will probably just disappear because it does not respond well to such a drastic cut.

BTW, at one time I used that exact same method to get rid of some algae that was tough to get rid of. The method did the trick and I ended up letting that tank continued with half of its original light intensity. Hope that helps.



art_b said:


> What is the minimum photoperiod that plants need just to survive ?


That I do not know. I suspect that it depends on the specific plants.


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## HeyPK

I tried putting a gallon jar infested with Oedogonium in total darkness for six months. Didn't kill it. When I returned it to the light, it started growing as though nothing had happened.


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## bartoli

In total darkness, nothing is growing - whatever nutrients in the jar remain unused and therefore still available to the algae. When the jar is returned to light, algae resumes its growth using those nutrients.

In a tank with half the light intensity, plants are still growing and therefore using up the nutrients that would otherwise be available to the algae.

Of course, the above is just a hypothesis. There can be many explanations for the same phenomenon.


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## imeridian

I think the key point is that six months of darkness didn't kill it... 

The point I had tried to make with suggesting starting over was that the plants were past the point of saving. Any new plants added without changing the lighting or adding CO2 will inevitably be victim of the same fate as those presently in the tank.


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## HeyPK

I also tried low light with Oedogonium. I had a 15 gallon tank lit by a 15 watt incandescent (not fluorescent) light. Very low lighting, but the Oedogonium multiplied and attached to everything, although it never got densely crowded as it gets with higher lighting.


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