# Not that I'm recommending this as a regular course of action. . .



## waterbox (Nov 26, 2011)

But for those of you who have ever battled a persistent algae problem, I'm in the midst of dosing my tank with Cupramine® in an effort to get rid of a nasty parasite (See "Copper and Driftwood" over in the Hospital Forum if you're interested).

As an unexpected bonus, all of the hair algae infesting the tank disappeared overnight once the Cu concentration reached .25ppm.

We'll see how the higher plants fare, but I have to maintain this concentration for the next two weeks to kill the parasite,so I'm not optimistic about their survival.

Still, if you were desperate to get rid of hair algae and your plants were pretty well smothered in it (as many of mine were) you could try dosing your tank with Cupramine for two days and then pulling it out immediately with carbon filtration and/or water changes.

Just sayin'.


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Good to know. Thanks!


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## macframalama (Apr 17, 2012)

why would you not just remove the plants you dont want to kill?, quaranteen them in a small tank or whatever and re introduce when the coast is clear....?


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## waterbox (Nov 26, 2011)

That's a good idea. But I want to leave them in there just long enough to make absolutely sure that none of the parasites are living on or around them during their free-swimming stage. I just don't want to pull them out and then later re-introduce the parasite with the plants.

The other thing to consider is that the fish are currently undergoing a lot of stress--both from the parasite and what I hope will ultimately prove to be the cure. Pulling all the plants form their environment is only going to add to that stress.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

It's actually a lot safer and simpler to drain the tank down as much as you can and apply a 1:10 solution of Flourish Excel:water with a misting bottle, let sit for a minute and then fill your tank. I do this all the time in tanks which I cannot dose a lot of CO2 and it kills all the algae, which isn't much to begin with, but I like the no algae look.


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Another way to rid algae problems by the OP.

I've been there done that.

Hope these links can help you tackle future occurrences with having to stress the fish. Bound to happen when you rid the algae for the short-term, but over the long-term guarantee algae will come again. I'm going to straight up say to spend a bit of time to sort out why you had the algae problem to start with and go from there.

Working on the same principles.
http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/planted-tank-specific-13/how-get-rid-brown-algae-diatom-bloom-27928/
http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/planted-tank-specific-13/how-get-rid-green-water-algae-28077/
http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/plan...-get-rid-fuzzy-stuff-new-old-driftwood-28112/

*Links obtain via http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/prob...rs-please-read-forum-rules-quick-links-24774/


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