Thread: hair algea
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Old 12-01-2006, 07:22 AM posted to rec.aquaria.freshwater.plants
§tudz
 
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Default hair algea


"Gill Passman" wrote in message
.. .

I've not used a CO2 system on my tanks as yet...one sits in a Conservatory
with constant light....but now has no algae problem...defeated by over
planting (and plant food weekly) and a combination of clean up guys
(Flying Foxes, a Plec and some otos)....occassionally I need to manually
pull some hair algae but we are talking once a month at max....the whole
thing is reaching a balance...I have some very pretty algae that is
trimmed by the fish and so not a problem...bit like a lawn on the
driftwood....I've never cut the light to the tank...

I think the whole answer is reaching a balance between plant growth and
fish and accepting that a little algae is OK....of course massive growth
is not acceptable but IME it was defeated by the planting and the clean up
crew, a little bit of manual labour and patience....chemical solutions are
just temporary...we have one tank that used to be full of green
"candyfloss" the over planting has defeated it along with the weekly
pulling it out...hasn't taken long (less than a month) and IMO far better
than any chemical intervention

JME

Gill


yeah very true, I did think about chemical usage, but the effects it may
have long term on my plants and fish, were not a risk I wanted to take.
after the hair algae died back, I had some hard silica-algae on my bogwood,
I put the wood in almost boiling tap water, and then scraped it off, the
algae that was left, has gone form bright green to a dull grey, so hopefully
the silica-algae is dead now to

I have a bulldog plec, 2 otos (was 4, but you know how it goes) I did have
an ancisturs to but he is in a larger tank at the moment.
I also have a baby platy which loves eating the hair algae, lol.

§tudz