Diatom and Brown Hair Outbreak

[Ampatent]

For some bizzare reason my planted 29 gallon decided to host a festival for brown hair and diatom algae, and I'm baffled as to why.

-The only changes that I've made since before the outbreak are 1) I stopped dosing Flourish and 2) I cut back the lighting time by 2 hours.

I vacuumed the substrate like crazy during my water change today and it all came back within hours, it looks like I didn't even do a thing to hinder it's frenzy.













So, my question is what do I need to change and how can I get this stuff to either stop or at least slow down?

[invert1]

Not sure how to help but my tank is doing this now and it's just finished it's initial cycle (planted, no livestock). I've never seen brown hair before it broke out it my tank...it has a disgusting texture and I almost gagged while taking it out of the tank b/c it's soft and breaks easily and spreads all over.

For the diatom, otos love diatomic algae - two of them will solve your problem. Also diatoms usually happen with lower light so that might explain it for that, check your nitrates as well b/c mine have spiked (obviously b/c of the cycle) and I think that may contribute. I'd wait a few days before worrying though because if the diatom dies back you'll know it was just the light adjustment that caused it. If it doesn't get some otos for the long-term and short-term fix and then reeval the parameters to see how to address the brown hair.

[anastasisariel]

If this is a new tank you don't have anything long term to worry about. Couple things I would do and I just did:

1. Make sure you are doing a 50% water change every week, at least for the next month.
2. Buy 2-4 Otts (sorry, I didn't see the tank size)
3. If you don't mind Malaysian Trumpet snails then get some; they will love your sand and they will janitor it very well, but some people don't like them saying they can uproot HC and I'm sure they can.. but they will attack your diatoms on the surface of the sand and will also borough into the sand eating leftover food and algae
4. If your light is low then increase it a little bit
5. Add more plants and add C02 as well.

I'm not sure how old your tank is but either way these steps should help.

The two main reasons for brown algae is low light and high nitrates and definitely both work together.

[Ampatent]

The tank has been going now for about 2 months, and it's been fully cycled for at least 1 month.

[anastasisariel]

What is your lighting? Do you have c02? Do you know how high your nitrates are?

[Ampatent]

65W 6000k/10000k, no CO2, pH is >7.6, Nitrates are at 5.0 ppm.

[anastasisariel]

Well, your lighting is good. That's T5 right?

I think you definitely need to go with C02 though to give your plants the advantage over the algae and get many more high light plants. Do a weekly 50% water change and get yourself a decent cleanup crew and you would be good. I just went through the same problem myself although my tank is a little younger than yours. Good Luck!

[Ampatent]

The lighting is Power Compact Fluorescent, and I've got about 15 Red Cherry Shrimp in the aquarium right now, but I don't think they'll do much for the diatoms or hair algae.

[anastasisariel]

Yeah, I would just get like 3 or 4 Otts and they would tear up the diatoms.

[sewingalot]

Originally Posted by Ampatent

The only changes that I've made since before the outbreak are 1) I stopped dosing Flourish and 2) I cut back the lighting time by 2 hours.

This sounds like your reason. Why did you cut back on lighting and stop with the dosing?

[Ampatent]

Originally Posted by sewingalot

This sounds like your reason. Why did you cut back on lighting and stop with the dosing?

It appeared that the Windelov's and Ludwigia were getting hair algae. The lights were on for 10 hours daily and I was dosing Flourish and Aquarium Vital every other day.

[anastasisariel]

Yeah, if you are dosing ferts, have good light, and algae breaks out the first thing I would look at is are you using Co2? You aren't, so that's the first step I would take. I might cut back on ferts a little but not totally and see how the C02 helps (it will). Then if you have to cut back the lighting period a bit then do so incrementally.

Again, more plants (well fed with c02, ferts, and light) will out compete the aglae and some Otts will clear the diatoms.

Anyone with more experience second that?