persistant hair algae
 

I have been battling what has been diagnosed as hair algae from my
local fish store, for several months now. I have a 55gal with 2X55W
compact fluorescent on 7hr a day. I dose daily with PMDD, but I am
careful not to dose too much, only about 7-10 drops. I have tried
algaefix for several weeks making sure all of the activated carbon was
out of the filter. I have used phosphate remover several times and
nothing works. I am spending over an hour a week removing the algae
from my frill and a few other plant species but it just keeps growing
back. My local store always suggests turning on the lights less, but
I have never heard that anywhere on the internet and I am afraid that
my plants might not be getting enough light if I turn them down any
more. For some reason the algae has only invaded certain species of
plants, so I am about ready to rip up all of the infected plants and
get more plants to replace them. Is there anything else I can try?

Jason

persistant hair algae
 

"jgreene" wrote in message
om...
I have been battling what has been diagnosed as hair algae from my
local fish store, for several months now.

Always difficult to recommend a treatment as there are so
many variables. I had hair/thread algae for a week or two but it
eventually died off of it's own accord. if it persists however this
is what I would do:

1. Clean out as much algae as possible.
2. Increase light to 10 hours.
3. Keep up with the PMDD
4. Add CO2
5. Make sure the tank is full of fast growing plants
6. Feed fish only every other day.
7. Stop using algae reducing chemicals
8. Weekly 30% water changes

Whatever you do, good luck and don't give up.

--
Graham Ramsay
Blairgowrie (UK)

persistant hair algae
 

jgreene wrote:

I have been battling what has been diagnosed as hair algae from my
local fish store, for several months now. I have a 55gal with 2X55W
compact fluorescent on 7hr a day. I dose daily with PMDD, but I am
careful not to dose too much, only about 7-10 drops. I have tried
algaefix for several weeks making sure all of the activated carbon was
out of the filter. I have used phosphate remover several times and
nothing works. I am spending over an hour a week removing the algae
from my frill and a few other plant species but it just keeps growing
back. My local store always suggests turning on the lights less, but
I have never heard that anywhere on the internet and I am afraid that
my plants might not be getting enough light if I turn them down any
more. For some reason the algae has only invaded certain species of
plants, so I am about ready to rip up all of the infected plants and
get more plants to replace them. Is there anything else I can try?

Bump the light to 12 hours per day. Plants need light. Keep PMDD up.

In my case, I was able to eliminate hair algae by reducing IRON. My Java
Moss was so thick with it that any handful of Java Moss was approximately
40% algae if you took an hour to separate it all out with tweezers (which
I did a couple times as part of an experiment).

I separate Iron from traces by using Flourish Iron and Flourish
separately. This is what works for me. Good luck.

persistant hair algae
 

Good suggestions so far. I have had hair algae in my tank for 2 years, and
its a real pain, and never really goes away, just slows down. I pinch it
out here and there, and keep it looking ok.


Do you want to control it or eradicate it? If you want to keep
it under control try the things people have already suggested.

If you want to eradicate it, you'll have to bleach
everything and quarentine incoming plants and/or bleach them.

Bleach mixed 20:1 with water is safe for 2-4 minutes for most plants.
They'll die back but will recover. Even crypts. Use 50% bleach to
clean the tank, sand, any hoses or equipment algae infected
water has ever touched. One cell of thread algae and it's game over
(again).


--
Richard Sexton | Mercedes Parts: http://parts.mbz.org
http://www.mbz.org Mailing lists: http://lists.mbz.org
W108, W126 Mercedes Classifieds: http://ads.mbz.org

persistant hair algae
 

"Richard J. Sexton (At work)" wrote in message
...
Good suggestions so far. I have had hair algae in my tank for 2 years,
and
its a real pain, and never really goes away, just slows down. I pinch it
out here and there, and keep it looking ok.


Do you want to control it or eradicate it? If you want to keep
it under control try the things people have already suggested.

If you want to eradicate it, you'll have to bleach
everything and quarentine incoming plants and/or bleach them.

Bleach mixed 20:1 with water is safe for 2-4 minutes for most plants.
They'll die back but will recover. Even crypts. Use 50% bleach to
clean the tank, sand, any hoses or equipment algae infected
water has ever touched. One cell of thread algae and it's game over
(again).


--
Richard Sexton | Mercedes Parts: http://parts.mbz.org
http://www.mbz.org Mailing lists: http://lists.mbz.org
W108, W126 Mercedes Classifieds: http://ads.mbz.org


right on the nose with that one. I had it, nothing worked so I bleached
everything, cut back the plants, reestablished the tank and so far so good.

Rick

persistant hair algae
 

I had a bad case of hair algea, nothing would get rid of it, water,
fish, light, plants, scrubbing, cleaning, testing, fert; finally did
the H2O2 treatment and got rid of all algea w/o hurting plants or
fish. Do a search on H2O2 just be careful can kill EVERYTHING. I
posted procedure a few weeks ago.

I have been battling what has been diagnosed as hair algae from my
local fish store, for several months now. I have a 55gal with 2X55W
compact fluorescent on 7hr a day. I dose daily with PMDD, but I am
careful not to dose too much, only about 7-10 drops. I have tried
algaefix for several weeks making sure all of the activated carbon was
out of the filter. I have used phosphate remover several times and
nothing works. I am spending over an hour a week removing the algae
from my frill and a few other plant species but it just keeps growing
back. My local store always suggests turning on the lights less, but
I have never heard that anywhere on the internet and I am afraid that
my plants might not be getting enough light if I turn them down any
more. For some reason the algae has only invaded certain species of
plants, so I am about ready to rip up all of the infected plants and
get more plants to replace them. Is there anything else I can try?

Jason

persistant hair algae
 

What function does cutting back on feeding serve? Just curious.
pete

Bruce wrote:

Good suggestions so far. I have had hair algae in my tank for 2 years, and
its a real pain, and never really goes away, just slows down. I pinch it
out here and there, and keep it looking ok.

The best offense against algae is to get the plants growing like mad. Add
some fast growing plants. My favorite weed is hygrophilia. You don't have
to plant it if you don't want to, just throw it in, and don't pull any off
it out for a while. Stop adding phosphate removers (do you have high
phosphates in the water? If you have phosphates in your tap water, stop
doing water changes for a while. This is my major problem, phosphates out
of the tap are off the scale of my test kit.) Stop the algae chemicals --
they typically kill anything green. Cut your fish feeding in half -- maybe
even stop for a few days.

PMDD: What are you basing your dosage on? You have two options with
fertilizer either add more or add less. More may enable the plants to grow
better, but might boost the algae too. Less could allow the algae grow
better too. If the plants don't have a 'balanced diet', they will run out
of some nutrients and leave an excess of others. Algae has fewer needs, and
can take advantage of an excess of one or two nutrients.

"jgreene" wrote in message
om...
I have been battling what has been diagnosed as hair algae from my
local fish store, for several months now. I have a 55gal with 2X55W
compact fluorescent on 7hr a day. I dose daily with PMDD, but I am
careful not to dose too much, only about 7-10 drops. I have tried
algaefix for several weeks making sure all of the activated carbon was
out of the filter. I have used phosphate remover several times and
nothing works. I am spending over an hour a week removing the algae
from my frill and a few other plant species but it just keeps growing
back. My local store always suggests turning on the lights less, but
I have never heard that anywhere on the internet and I am afraid that
my plants might not be getting enough light if I turn them down any
more. For some reason the algae has only invaded certain species of
plants, so I am about ready to rip up all of the infected plants and
get more plants to replace them. Is there anything else I can try?

Jason

persistant hair algae
 

Its possible that he's over feeding the fish, and that he could have excess
phosphates and nitrates from that. A lot of people over feed their fish
without knowing it.

As for my algae, I've decide to keep it in check, with the hope that
eventually the plants will out compete it and it will not be too noticable
(I'm not the original poster of this thread.)

Bruce.
"pete" wrote in message
. ..
What function does cutting back on feeding serve? Just curious.
pete

Bruce wrote:

Good suggestions so far. I have had hair algae in my tank for 2 years,
and
its a real pain, and never really goes away, just slows down. I pinch
it
out here and there, and keep it looking ok.

The best offense against algae is to get the plants growing like mad.
Add
some fast growing plants. My favorite weed is hygrophilia. You don't
have
to plant it if you don't want to, just throw it in, and don't pull any
off
it out for a while. Stop adding phosphate removers (do you have high
phosphates in the water? If you have phosphates in your tap water, stop
doing water changes for a while. This is my major problem, phosphates
out
of the tap are off the scale of my test kit.) Stop the algae
chemicals --
they typically kill anything green. Cut your fish feeding in half --
maybe
even stop for a few days.

PMDD: What are you basing your dosage on? You have two options with
fertilizer either add more or add less. More may enable the plants to
grow
better, but might boost the algae too. Less could allow the algae grow
better too. If the plants don't have a 'balanced diet', they will run
out
of some nutrients and leave an excess of others. Algae has fewer needs,
and
can take advantage of an excess of one or two nutrients.

"jgreene" wrote in message
om...
I have been battling what has been diagnosed as hair algae from my
local fish store, for several months now. I have a 55gal with 2X55W
compact fluorescent on 7hr a day. I dose daily with PMDD, but I am
careful not to dose too much, only about 7-10 drops. I have tried
algaefix for several weeks making sure all of the activated carbon was
out of the filter. I have used phosphate remover several times and
nothing works. I am spending over an hour a week removing the algae
from my frill and a few other plant species but it just keeps growing
back. My local store always suggests turning on the lights less, but
I have never heard that anywhere on the internet and I am afraid that
my plants might not be getting enough light if I turn them down any
more. For some reason the algae has only invaded certain species of
plants, so I am about ready to rip up all of the infected plants and
get more plants to replace them. Is there anything else I can try?

Jason

persistant hair algae
 

I see. Would it be a safe assumption to make then that if one's nitrates and
phosphates are nearly undetectable (nitrates *are* undetectable, actually, at
least according to my AP test kit - I have a very low fish load which I plan to
gradually increase), then overfeeding is probably not happening? My algae is
the long thin green threads that tend to get attached to and bunch around and
between my plants. I hesitate to name it since even after perusing various
algae description webpages I don't seem to be able to fit all of it into a
single category. I probably have a couple types; green threads and hair are the
common elements. Long ago I used to have massive amts of BBA (and had extremely
high nitrates and low water quality), but I don't have any BBA at all anymore.
Fish load is lower, and water quality is much higher. Now I actually do water
changes. :-) Back then - couple years ago when I was a complete novice - I
didn't understand the great good that they are.

I couldn't get plants to grow to save my life back then, but now I have more
success. Easy plants to be sure - vals, anacharis, 1 red melon sword, 1 crypt,
but the tall ones perl O2 and grow well enough that I have to continue to prune
them.

55gal, 80W

pete

Bruce wrote:

Its possible that he's over feeding the fish, and that he could have excess
phosphates and nitrates from that. A lot of people over feed their fish
without knowing it.

As for my algae, I've decide to keep it in check, with the hope that
eventually the plants will out compete it and it will not be too noticable
(I'm not the original poster of this thread.)

Bruce.
"pete" wrote in message
. ..
What function does cutting back on feeding serve? Just curious.
pete

Bruce wrote:

Good suggestions so far. I have had hair algae in my tank for 2 years,
and
its a real pain, and never really goes away, just slows down. I pinch
it
out here and there, and keep it looking ok.

The best offense against algae is to get the plants growing like mad.
Add
some fast growing plants. My favorite weed is hygrophilia. You don't
have
to plant it if you don't want to, just throw it in, and don't pull any
off
it out for a while. Stop adding phosphate removers (do you have high
phosphates in the water? If you have phosphates in your tap water, stop
doing water changes for a while. This is my major problem, phosphates
out
of the tap are off the scale of my test kit.) Stop the algae
chemicals --
they typically kill anything green. Cut your fish feeding in half --
maybe
even stop for a few days.

PMDD: What are you basing your dosage on? You have two options with
fertilizer either add more or add less. More may enable the plants to
grow
better, but might boost the algae too. Less could allow the algae grow
better too. If the plants don't have a 'balanced diet', they will run
out
of some nutrients and leave an excess of others. Algae has fewer needs,
and
can take advantage of an excess of one or two nutrients.

"jgreene" wrote in message
om...
I have been battling what has been diagnosed as hair algae from my
local fish store, for several months now. I have a 55gal with 2X55W
compact fluorescent on 7hr a day. I dose daily with PMDD, but I am
careful not to dose too much, only about 7-10 drops. I have tried
algaefix for several weeks making sure all of the activated carbon was
out of the filter. I have used phosphate remover several times and
nothing works. I am spending over an hour a week removing the algae
from my frill and a few other plant species but it just keeps growing
back. My local store always suggests turning on the lights less, but
I have never heard that anywhere on the internet and I am afraid that
my plants might not be getting enough light if I turn them down any
more. For some reason the algae has only invaded certain species of
plants, so I am about ready to rip up all of the infected plants and
get more plants to replace them. Is there anything else I can try?

Jason

persistant hair algae
 

Somewhere, someone put out a great explanation about how to feed your fish,
I wish I had the link still. The gist of it is that you should feed in tiny
amounts, and watch the fish and the food. If you are properly feeding the
fish, you shouldn't see any food make it down to the bottom of the tank.
You should feed in these tiny doses until the fish stop chasing the food so
actively and food starts hitting the bottom (or, my method, until you think
they have had enough, and you're tired.) I'll feed my fish about 7 or 8
times over the course of an evening. Not even a pea sized wad of food.
Maybe bb sized.

I can't guess whether no nitrates = proper fish feeding, and even the
assumption of high nitrates = overfeeding is not always accurate, but I
would say that they are both good enough assumptions.

Bruce.


"pete" wrote in message
.. .
I see. Would it be a safe assumption to make then that if one's nitrates
and
phosphates are nearly undetectable (nitrates *are* undetectable, actually,
at
least according to my AP test kit - I have a very low fish load which I
plan to
gradually increase), then overfeeding is probably not happening? My algae
is
the long thin green threads that tend to get attached to and bunch around
and
between my plants. I hesitate to name it since even after perusing
various
algae description webpages I don't seem to be able to fit all of it into a
single category. I probably have a couple types; green threads and hair
are the
common elements. Long ago I used to have massive amts of BBA (and had
extremely
high nitrates and low water quality), but I don't have any BBA at all
anymore.
Fish load is lower, and water quality is much higher. Now I actually do
water
changes. :-) Back then - couple years ago when I was a complete novice -
I
didn't understand the great good that they are.

I couldn't get plants to grow to save my life back then, but now I have
more
success. Easy plants to be sure - vals, anacharis, 1 red melon sword, 1
crypt,
but the tall ones perl O2 and grow well enough that I have to continue to
prune
them.

55gal, 80W

pete

Bruce wrote:

Its possible that he's over feeding the fish, and that he could have
excess
phosphates and nitrates from that. A lot of people over feed their fish
without knowing it.

As for my algae, I've decide to keep it in check, with the hope that
eventually the plants will out compete it and it will not be too
noticable
(I'm not the original poster of this thread.)

Bruce.
"pete" wrote in message
. ..
What function does cutting back on feeding serve? Just curious.
pete

Bruce wrote:

Good suggestions so far. I have had hair algae in my tank for 2
years,
and
its a real pain, and never really goes away, just slows down. I
pinch
it
out here and there, and keep it looking ok.

The best offense against algae is to get the plants growing like
mad.
Add
some fast growing plants. My favorite weed is hygrophilia. You
don't
have
to plant it if you don't want to, just throw it in, and don't pull
any
off
it out for a while. Stop adding phosphate removers (do you have
high
phosphates in the water? If you have phosphates in your tap water,
stop
doing water changes for a while. This is my major problem,
phosphates
out
of the tap are off the scale of my test kit.) Stop the algae
chemicals --
they typically kill anything green. Cut your fish feeding in
half --
maybe
even stop for a few days.

PMDD: What are you basing your dosage on? You have two options
with
fertilizer either add more or add less. More may enable the plants
to
grow
better, but might boost the algae too. Less could allow the algae
grow
better too. If the plants don't have a 'balanced diet', they will
run
out
of some nutrients and leave an excess of others. Algae has fewer
needs,
and
can take advantage of an excess of one or two nutrients.

"jgreene" wrote in message
om...
I have been battling what has been diagnosed as hair algae from my
local fish store, for several months now. I have a 55gal with
2X55W
compact fluorescent on 7hr a day. I dose daily with PMDD, but I
am
careful not to dose too much, only about 7-10 drops. I have tried
algaefix for several weeks making sure all of the activated carbon
was
out of the filter. I have used phosphate remover several times
and
nothing works. I am spending over an hour a week removing the
algae
from my frill and a few other plant species but it just keeps
growing
back. My local store always suggests turning on the lights less,
but
I have never heard that anywhere on the internet and I am afraid
that
my plants might not be getting enough light if I turn them down
any
more. For some reason the algae has only invaded certain species
of
plants, so I am about ready to rip up all of the infected plants
and
get more plants to replace them. Is there anything else I can
try?

Jason

persistant hair algae
 

pete wrote:

I see. Would it be a safe assumption to make then that if one's nitrates and
phosphates are nearly undetectable (nitrates *are* undetectable, actually, at
least according to my AP test kit - I have a very low fish load which I plan to
gradually increase), then overfeeding is probably not happening?

Overfeeding is probably a blind alley for you. Unfortunately, as so often is the
case on Usenet, the important point is being missed. If your Nitrates are
undetectable, what are your plants using for Nitrogen? Ditto phosphates?

Many of us with CO2 and lots of plants have to dose Nitrates in order to keep up
plant growth. I'm dosing almost 1ppm Nitrate per day now, and still Nitrates measure
right near 5ppm or below.

My hair algae problem seems to be linked to excess Iron. When I cut the Iron dosing
down to almost nothing, it went away.

persistant hair algae
 

No disagreement with the other statements about too much nutrients for
plants/algae. I had a bad case of hair algae in a newly setup planted
30 gal. Got two rosy barbs. That fixed that.

Bob
Sid6.7 wrote in message . ..
I had a bad case of hair algea, nothing would get rid of it, water,
fish, light, plants, scrubbing, cleaning, testing, fert; finally did
the H2O2 treatment and got rid of all algea w/o hurting plants or
fish. Do a search on H2O2 just be careful can kill EVERYTHING. I
posted procedure a few weeks ago.

I have been battling what has been diagnosed as hair algae from my
local fish store, for several months now. I have a 55gal with 2X55W
compact fluorescent on 7hr a day. I dose daily with PMDD, but I am
careful not to dose too much, only about 7-10 drops. I have tried
algaefix for several weeks making sure all of the activated carbon was
out of the filter. I have used phosphate remover several times and
nothing works. I am spending over an hour a week removing the algae
from my frill and a few other plant species but it just keeps growing
back. My local store always suggests turning on the lights less, but
I have never heard that anywhere on the internet and I am afraid that
my plants might not be getting enough light if I turn them down any
more. For some reason the algae has only invaded certain species of
plants, so I am about ready to rip up all of the infected plants and
get more plants to replace them. Is there anything else I can try?

Jason

Algae
 

Looks like Beard algae.
http://faq.thekrib.com/algae.html

Quote

Beard algae
Grows on plant leaves and is bright green. Individual strands have a very fine
texture but it grows in thick patches and looks just like a green beard. It
grows up to 4 cm. It cannot be removed mechanically. This does not indicate bad
water quality but grows very fast and overtakes the tank, making it a "bad"
alga. Can be eliminated with Simazine (Aquarium Pharmaceuticals
"Algae-Destroyer").

end quote


Also, please refrain from posting binaries (pics, other files) in the
newsgroups. The binaries groups are specifically for this.
--
------
Billy
www.mbass.org
-----
*AOL is Sucks*
-----
Women are expected to do twice as much as men in half the time and for
no credit. Fortunately, this isn't difficult."- Charlotte Whitton (1896 - 1975)
-----
"Karl" wrote in message
. net...
: Could anyone tell me what kind of algae is this, it is all over the edge of
: the sword's leaf and stem. Can Otto or SAE clean up this mass?
: Thanks in advance
:
: Karl
:
:
:

Algae
 

Ottos won't eat it once it grows out. Red ramshead snails (and probably
most other snails) are your best bet if there's nothing else more appetizing
to distract them. I've never had SAEs.

Guppies and such-like are supposed to enjoy nibbling on it. I have a four
red-eye tetras who take care of mine when they're in the mood.

Best advice: If you already have ottos, fire them - they should have seen it
before you did. If you don't have ottos, get a whole bunch of them, remove
the worst of the old leaves, and the ottos will do their darndest to keep up
with the new stuff. Even if you use AlgaeDestroyer, you're still going to
have to pick off the worst. By the way, AlgaeDestroyer makes ottos sulk; it
doesn't actually kill them (unless you use it for a long time and they
starve).

I'm a fine one to talk, but if you've got beard you probably have a lot of
light and not enough CO2 or trace. The good news is that beard's one of the
easiest one's to fix. I have a 20-long with blue smear I CANNOT get rid of,
but that's another story...

Good luck,
kush
"You can't have everything - where would you put it?"

Karl wrote in message
. net...
Could anyone tell me what kind of algae is this, it is all over the edge
of
the sword's leaf and stem. Can Otto or SAE clean up this mass?
Thanks in advance

Karl