Hair Algea? and What to do... - New to Planted Aquariums

Jess7 · 06-01-2005, 05:37 PM

Hey all,
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...ead.php?t=6713

Here was my setup story... lol

Now I am starting to get this stringy type algea stuff on the glass of the tank and on the leaves of the plants...
Will an oto eat this? If not, how can I get rid of it?

Cavan Allen · 06-01-2005, 11:09 PM

What did you end up doing for co2? That's usually a sign of inadequate carbon dioxide. How are your ferts?

I know it looks bad, but hair algae is actually pretty easy to get rid of. SAEs will help you out until you get the rest of it under control.

AaronT · 06-02-2005, 08:21 AM

You can remove most of it by hand as it does not really attatch to things well, but rather gets entangled in them. As Cavan said you need a good carbon source, wether it be Flourish excel or DIY CO2 or a combination of the two. DIY co2 is very easy to make using an old 2 Liter soda bottle. If you search DIY CO2 on this forum you should be able to find all the info you'll need.

Jess7 · 06-02-2005, 09:35 AM

I've been using Flourish Excel about 3 times a week. Should I use it more. I just don't want to add too much... I aslo have Flourite as a substrate, and use Flourish comp, trace and iron...
I have an Oto, will that eat any of it?

Thanks

AaronT · 06-02-2005, 10:45 AM

For your 10 gallon tank dose 1 ml every day as is stating in the instructions. You don't really have to worry too much about overdosing excel. Every time you do a big water change dose 5 ml. That should start to clear things up. If not, then up your daily dosage to 2 ml. Also, try and manually remove as much as you can to give your tank a jump start in getting rid of it.