# HairGrass and Algae



## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

After 40 or so days of my setup I'm starting to get some BGA on my hairgrass field. None of the other plants show any algae. Would it be beneficial to put a powerhead down low and have it sweep across the front where the hairgrass is. Thanks for any comments!


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## random_alias (Nov 7, 2005)

I have a plant order containing hairgrass scheduled for delivery tomorrow, so I don't have experience growing it myself.

However, I have heard other people talk about algae problems in their hairgrass. Most of them seemed to think that the hairgrass trapped detritus and this composting was what caused their algae woes. Some of them said that they started using objects (a turkey baster for example) to spray water into their hairgrass before water changes to disturb the collected detritus so they could remove it and keep it from decaying deep down in their hairgrass.

I use a 1.5 inch paintbrush to level my gravel and I also wave it into my thick growths to fluff them and check for trapped detritus. You might want to try that if you have one handy.

If you're only getting BGA in your hairgrass and nowhere else, I would say trapped detritus/lack of circulation is probably a big contributing factor. The powerhead should help _if_ this is the cause of your problem.

Manually remove all the BGA you can BEFORE you start blowing water all over it.

Is the BGA only growing trapped up against the sides of your glass or is it growing out away from the glass?


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

Random,

I do agree that it is the detritus that causes the algae. I actually meant to writhe BBA not BGA. It basically is attaching itself to the leaves of the dwarf hairgrass. I had a similiar problem with slow growing moss as well and have removed most of it, but the hairgrass I've made a pretty big investment in time and maintenance getting it to spread. It was also being uprooted by a bristlenose pleco I had, so those definitely don't work with a hairgrass field.


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## random_alias (Nov 7, 2005)

If that BBA stands for Black Brush Algae or whatever other name people may call it, then the recommended treatment is removing as much of the affected plant matter as possible and immediately upping your Co2 if you have that capability.. Black Brush Algae hates Co2. 

I had some Black Brush Algae start in on a large patch of glosso I used to have a while back and Tom said to up the Co2. Get the Co2 to the right amount and it causes BBA to stop growing. Once it has stopped spreading, I was able to remove the few affected leaves and it hasn't ever grown back since.

This is of course assuming you don't have any parameters way out of whack or other obvious things that need to be taken care of along with this treatment.


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

Well my co2 is already in the 30s ppm, so I'm not sure how much higher I could go. The BBA is only on the hairgrass and no where else. I used to get it on my wisteria, but that is really clean looking. I think in this case it's from lack of water flow.


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## aquasox (Sep 11, 2005)

I've got a 10 gallon tank with a fairly large patch of hairgrass...and about 5 bee-shrimp that remove the algae as well as detritus. Might be easier than manual removal


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