"John H." wrote in message
...

"§tudz" wrote in message
...

"John H." wrote in message
. ..
I've got a bad case of hair algea in my 55gal. Its mostly attached
itself to broad leaf plants, my amazon swords. It reminds me of that
fine hair you have to clean of corn, its its much finer than that. There
isnt any on the grass I use in forground. ITs really ugly. Not sure
where it came from. I've read that you have to use a 5% bleach soln to
kill it... thats before you put the plants into your tank, right? What
can I do now, trim the affected leaves?
thanks
John

55gal
pH 6.5-7
kH 8-9
eheim canister filter
CO2
no2 & nh4 nil
no3 20
96 watts light X 12 hr/day


I have a similar problem, I'm treating mine by doing bleach dips to the
plants, when it gets outta hand, and reducing tyhe phospates in the tank.
I have also added a CO2 injector.
The growth has slowed, so hopefully its the start of getting rid of the
stuff

bear in mind some plants don't like the bleach and it kills them, I use
less than 5% dip, to be sure, I've lost a lot of plants to the 5% bleach
dips.

§tudz


So you pull the plants out of the tank? and then dip them in the diluted
bleach soln then re-plant them?

Don't forget to rinse and treat them with a heavy dose of dechlorinator
before returning them to the tank.

I recently dipped my BBA covered Anubias in some 5% bleach. Did a great job.