hair algae...not just a marine tank problem...

[salt creepette]

Just set up the 55 gallon planted tank with florabase substrate and lotsa plants. am getting dark olive green hairy algae growing ON the plants and driftwood. I used tapwater to set up the tank (I know, dumb move) but now use RO/DI water for topoff and water changes (open top=evap). Anyone know what will munch on this hairy algae? I have three otocinclus, a siamensis, and a golden algae eater thus far on the algae-eating fish front. any recommendations for algae hungry yet small-adult-sized fish? thanks! or, would you recommend a phosphate media of some sort?

[Stang69]

Do you use any type of fertlizer? The amano shrimp work well in a planted tank. Me personally I would use ro di and do a water change it is caused from excess nutrients I believe but I could be wrong.


Jeff

[salt creepette]

i do not use fertilizer and all my plants have 'low light' requirements. I dont supplement with co2. I have a lot of fish; 2 new guinea rainbowfish, 2 gold dojo loaches, 3 yo yo loaches, 2 male congo tetras, 1 pencilfish, 2 white sailfin lyretail mollies, 16 neon tetras, 3 otocinclus, and three amano shrimp. the shrimp do not move freely about the tank I assume because they are intimidated by all the movement. the tank is not heavily planted but it does have a decent amound of plants. here let me show you.

[Deborah]

"Mechanical" removal (get that arm wet) and water changes are probably the way to go. You need to find an equilibrium between nutrients and plant growth so that the plants can out compete the algae. You might want to dump a bunch of fast growning plants in the tank for the short term: anachris, water sprite, etc.

[salt creepette]

i added some phosban and all is well with the world. (it took a few weeks but i could definitely tell that bit by bit it was disappearing and now its gone.)

[tabwyo]

You need a batch of faster growing plants. They will bind up the nutrients faster and out compete the alge. If you have low light tolerant plants then you can get away with breaking up you photo period. Timer the light to turn on say 6am and off at 9am then back on at 4-5pm and off say 7-9pm. Abient light will be a big help(if you are in a well lit room). That will officially freak out the alge which need the constant light to survive but the bigger plants will get along just fine. It's like a metabolism thing. Larger more complex plants(good) can do just fine in a lower light situation because they don't need to run full bore to survive. Phosban isn't bad but you'll get addicted to it and not really fix the problem. Use it to get the situation under control and until your faster growing plants get established then ween off. Your new plants should out compete the alge then. It's is a fine thin line you tred my friend. You may just find keep a planted tank in it's prime is just as challenging as a reef tank.

[Graham]

Phosphate is needed in the planted tank. I've had as many problems due to no P as I have to too much P.
Most often, planted tank algae problems can be attributed to the following:

**Too much light, not enough CO2
**Phosphate:Nitrate ratio is out of whack. Shooting for 1:10 is about optimal. I myself try to keep about 1ppm:10ppm, but I also use lots of CO2 and real high lighting.
**Some macro or micro nutrient is absent and limiting the plants, allowing algae to outcompete.

It all boils down to light, CO2 and nutrients. Nothing else matters.

I also agree with the above in that, fast growing plants are the best way to outcompete algae early on. Try some water wisteria, but don't root it. You can almost hear it grow!

[Phishnoob]

My puny little Chinese algae eater is just awesome. He avoids getting eaten by the blue lobster and there is not a peep of that algae now. We had the algae eater that looks like a tadpole (I don't know boo about FW) and he got eaten on his second day.

I cannot believe a fish the size of a guppy can eat that much algae.

[rottielover]

IME my hair and beard algea problem in my 75gal planted went away when I did these things:

Added CO2, Added fast growing plants (I can't remember the name off the top of my head but it looks just like grass), and added SAE (siamise algea eaters) and a gold nugget pleco. The gold nugget is a good choice because it's colorful, and doesn't get huge like the Trinidad (sailfin) does (sailfin get's to 12-13" gold nugget 6-7")