# Hair algae taking over



## joeyk (May 30, 2016)

Just got back from a trip to find this lucious hair algae growth taking over my planted tank. 

Currently running pressurized Co2, 3x120W equiv. LED floodlights, and dosing flourish 3x weekly, but looking to change to dry ferts soon. 

Is there anything I can add (livestock or additive?) that will eliminate it? Or is manual removal my only option? 

Any tips for preventing future growth?


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## dino (Aug 29, 2011)

looks like you could manually remove most of that


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## Dou (Dec 4, 2015)

You don't have enough plant mass for the amount of light & duration you're set at. It doesn't matter if you change fertilizers or not if you have too much light and not enough plants to use it. Something (algae) will make use of all that energy. I recommend either adding more plants and/or reducing light intensity/duration. If adding plants is not an option right now, reduce light period by 2-3 hours + manually remove as much as possible.


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## joeyk (May 30, 2016)

dino said:


> looks like you could manually remove most of that


I think that will likely be my first step.



Dou said:


> You don't have enough plant mass for the amount of light & duration you're set at. It doesn't matter if you change fertilizers or not if you have too much light and not enough plants to use it. Something (algae) will make use of all that energy. I recommend either adding more plants and/or reducing light intensity/duration. If adding plants is not an option right now, reduce light period by 2-3 hours + manually remove as much as possible.


Reducing intensity isn't an option with the fixture I'm using. The tank is pretty short on floor space right now, but most of the plants are still fairly small. I'll maybe try adding a few more plants and reducing my light period. Thanks for the tips!

(excuse the subpar iPhone photo quality)


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## Dou (Dec 4, 2015)

joeyk said:


> I think that will likely be my first step.
> 
> Reducing intensity isn't an option with the fixture I'm using. The tank is pretty short on floor space right now, but most of the plants are still fairly small. I'll maybe try adding a few more plants and reducing my light period. Thanks for the tips!
> 
> (excuse the subpar iPhone photo quality)


Maybe you could turn off one of the three led floodlights in the mean time? Sorry I'm not too familiar with how your lighting works...


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## joeyk (May 30, 2016)

Dou said:


> Maybe you could turn off one of the three led floodlights in the mean time? Sorry I'm not too familiar with how your lighting works...


Unfortunately the beams from each floodlight are fairly narrow. I haven't been able to get coverage I'm satisfied with while running only two of them.

That being said, they're a very basic system. They were on clearance at Home Depot not too long ago. I think the whole thing ended up costing me around $40. I'm hoping all I will need to do is tweak the light period to really make them work well.


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## Tanku87 (Dec 1, 2016)

who was feeding while u were on the trip. how long was the trip. 
from the pic looks like sunlight got into it(i assume from the glare on the tank.)
just reduce feeding by half, lighting by 1/3 and some water chance. 
that is how i fix my problem anyways.
hope this helps


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## Tropica North America (Jun 19, 2016)

There are a number of things you could do that have already been stated.

1. Manually remove the algae
2. Reduce photoperiod and/or
a. eliminate one light
b. raise lights from the surface (this will help with spread)
3. Lower your dosing routine. With the number of fish and the feeding you may be adding more N,P, and K than the tank can handle
4. Add more plants
a. add fast growing plants (Limnophila sessiliflora/Heteranthera zostrifolia for eg) to assist with nutrient uptake


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## joeyk (May 30, 2016)

Tanku87 said:


> who was feeding while u were on the trip. how long was the trip.
> from the pic looks like sunlight got into it(i assume from the glare on the tank.)
> just reduce feeding by half, lighting by 1/3 and some water chance.
> that is how i fix my problem anyways.
> hope this helps


I had a family member feeding my tanks while I was away. I set aside all the feeding portions in ziplock bags with dates written on them before I left (quick little travel life hack) to avoid accidental over feeding. There might be a small amount of sunlight the reaches the tank, but it has never been an issue in the past.



Tropica North America said:


> There are a number of things you could do that have already been stated.
> 
> 1. Manually remove the algae
> 2. Reduce photoperiod and/or
> ...


Thanks for the advice. I plan on building a frame/canopy to hang the lights from in the future, and that may allow me to eliminate one of the lights. In the mean time I'll reduce the lighting period by a couple hours. In addition, I'll add a few more plants and re-evaluate my dosing.

Thanks everyone for the tips and advice. Just a quick update/side note; I removed about 1/4 of the hair algae into a bucket during a water change and found a few unidentifiable fry and about 15-20+ very tiny RCS living in it. I've moved the clump I removed into a seperate tank. I'll have to give some thought as to what I'll do with what's remaining in the tank.


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