Green Hair Algae

[AussieDIYFK]

ahh now were talking keeping water not fish. well if its non planted its 1000% easy, cut your lighting to just when you look at your fish and do more waterchanges this will remove excess nitrate and phosphate, also dont overfeed.
with planted this is a whole new ball park and will require testkits for phosphate,nitate plus premixing your water and getting a fert dosing plan to suite your lighting photoperiod. sounds technical becouse it is and may take alot of trial and error at first to get your tank optimal and algae free but when you get there its a real achievment. some say hightech planted is harder than keeping reef becouse you need microtraces of nitrate and phosphate not nill like marine

[petdog]

All good advice, minimizing food input and potential fertilizer will all help combat hair algae. Hair algae is able to grow when there is excess nutrients available that are not being consumed by your desirable plants. You need a multiple faceted approach to rid this nuisance algae.
Small weekly water changes 5%. So not to stress your occupants. Use a good quality water for these changes. Low phosphates, low silicates, low nitrate, low ammonia and low nitrites water is essential. RO - DI may be your best choice. More desirable plants also help take in the excess nutrients. See if you can find true algae eaters. Crossocheilus siamensis is probably one of the few fish that will eat hair algae. If you can obtain them, get a group of them to keep it in check. In addition you may want to cut back on the co2 supplementation until under control. Good luck, it will not disappear over night but you will be able to get it under control with diligent maintenance.

[HillbillyHomer]

Thank You

[reefin]

has anyone used the same barley pellets in a fresh water fish tank like they use in ponds for hair algae? I use it in my pond every year and works great! Might be a bandaid forsure but would it work?

[BrianL]

i could be wrong but dont mystery snails eat hair algae? It may have been a golden apple snail? of coarse, then you have a snail in your tank, so creating a new problem to solve another, you could put one in just till its done its job and remove it to some other tank if available.

[Divinehammer]

12" common pleco, will do away with it fast, mind you will prob have to replant the tank, but it will be algae free. LOL! but I would prob go with decreasing the lights schedule and swall water changes to remove the excess nitrates and phosphates from the water, decrease the amount of food being feed to the fish as well.