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Hair algae and Flourish Excel

Tony

Tony

Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
Hey all,

Have been battling an outbreak of hair algae in the tank at work for a little while now. Reduced the lighting duration greatly, been manually removing and upping the water changes, but it still persists. Picked up some Flourish Excel the other day and plan on dosing that.

I dosed this morning with the "starter" recommendation on the side of the bottle and plan (5 mL per 10 gal) and plan on following instructions for maintenance (5 mL per 50 gal) every 1-2 days. Is this sufficient to knock out the algae?

Also, any tips on dipping plants to immediately knock out algae?

Cheers,
Tony
 
Tony

Tony

Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
Want to add that I also have some other old Seachem products sitting around. Was planning on dosing regular Flourish. Should I also add the Flourish Iron and Trace? Should I not dose anything else until the algae is under control?
 
ddavila06

ddavila06

Members
i lost the fight oin the 20L i had..the **** thing just wouldnt go away..i used a whole bottle of flourish excell over a month period, did a 4 day light shut down, did many things,...i double dosed excell..nothing!
finally i torn down the tanks, bleached dipped the plants and bleach washed the substrate. all gone - = )

now i set up 20highs, light sits about 4-5 inches above the tanks, same plants no algae
 
Tony

Tony

Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
ddavila06 said:
i lost the fight oin the 20L i had..the **** thing just wouldnt go away..i used a whole bottle of flourish excell over a month period, did a 4 day light shut down, did many things,...i double dosed excell..nothing!
finally i torn down the tanks, bleached dipped the plants and bleach washed the substrate. all gone - = )

now i set up 20highs, light sits about 4-5 inches above the tanks, same plants no algae
Click to expand...

Hey Damian,

I think that is what blew up my algae in the first place... too much lighting and no CO2. My tank is a 20H as well and I was using two fixtures. Backed down to a single Current LED, sitting on the frame of the tank.

Not looking to tear the tank down though... :wacko:
 
Becca

Becca

Members
Tony said:
Hey Damian,

I think that is what blew up my algae in the first place... too much lighting and no CO2. My tank is a 20H as well and I was using two fixtures. Backed down to a single Current LED, sitting on the frame of the tank.

Not looking to tear the tank down though... :wacko:
Click to expand...

I did double doses of Excel for 2-3 weeks when I had an issue in the 29. It didn't seem to have harmed the shrimp (they disappeared for a while and then came back), but you do have to be cautious if you have shrimp in the tank.

When I had issues I also cut back on feeding a little. I didn't really reduce my hours of light much at all. My lights are usually on in that tank 10-12 hours a day. I actually find that I have worse algae when I give the light a midday break.
 
Greengirl

Greengirl

Members
Is hair algae bad? It grows in between the little plentiful leaves of my plastic plant in my angel tank. (At least it looks like the hair algae I see in pictures.) I thought my plant growth was java moss. Thye look similar. How do you tell?
 
B

b considine

a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude
Tony: Viktor's advice is solid. And hydrogen peroxide is much cheaper than Excel.

Alexandra: Hair algae is dark and fine. Moss is green and "scraggly". You may have cladaphora algae or staghorn algae, both of which are much more mossy-looking, but finer.

Kris Weinhold has a nice breakdown of algae types on his Guitarfish blog. Tells you what it is, what causes it, and how to get rid of it. If I could link to it from work, I'd point you directly to it.

Blaise
 
hollyfish2000

hollyfish2000

Members
don't dose with any ferts! That will mostly feed the algae.

When I have it bad, i'll double dose with Excel basically every other day. I'll also pull out anything I can i.e. wood, rocks, equipment and dunk it in straight Excel and put it back in the tank. You can dip plants -- leaves only NOT roots, in a dilute Excel, swish lightly and then get in fresh water. I've lost some anubias leaves doing this -- probably too much Excel for too long, but most plants handle it fine. At times, I've also directly "shot" excel at things using a bulb syringe during water changes when things might be out of the water.

Outcompeting the algae is always a good strategy. So filling up the tank with stuff that grows fast -- like wisteria or water sprite -- is another good strategy.
 
xny89

xny89

Administrator
Staff member
I've been using Purigen in my 45 and it has reduced algae growth significantly. All my plants are plastic, so when I did have alot of growth, I just bleached them along with the other plastic in the tank. Since I started using purigen, I get little to no hair algae growth.
 
Greengirl

Greengirl

Members
I read in the article that a UV sterilizer is good for the green water algae, but can it help reduce the hair algae?

My problem was so bad. The algae was just gunking up all my plants and slowing killing off my water sprite and anubias. I decided to take ALL the plants out and try a bleach dip. It seems to have worked, in case anyone was interested in knowing.
 
B

Brookster123

Members
I'm new to the forumn but not to planted tanks, I've had my fair share of algae battles, while excel can/will blow out hair algae, if your tank is getting a fair amount of direct sunlight than you don't stand a chance..it's also caused by nutrient imbalances in the water.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
xny89

xny89

Administrator
Staff member
I'd also added a pair of Siamese algea eaters to my 45 and have only a few spots of hair algae on some airline tubing near the water surface. From what I've recently read, you need to be aware of species comparability with these guys. I've got two in a 45 gal. tank and they do chase each other around, but don't seem the worst for wear. They don't bother my breeding Krebs or their offspring.
 
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