Algae, what am I doing wrong?!

[furnfins]

So I've got hair algae in my 40b. I keep taking it out as much as I can.
The parameters are good, 0-amm 0-nitrites 0-5ppm nitrates
6.8-7.0 ph.
The lighting is very low, especially since one bulb isn't working, only 21w.
I was thinking on getting amano shrimp I see Rachel has them in again but I'd rather fix the problem instead of adding more livestock.
Any input would be helpful. Googled it but can't really find much that's helpful. Thanks

[Monster Fish]

Do you have any excess sunlight hitting the tank? I have a little bit of hair algae in my 5 gallon since it sits right in front of a south facing window. I just manually remove it when it gets too thick. Excel will also help clear it up and so will amanos.

[ryu1]

If it is those green string algae. API Algaefix did work, at least for me when I accidentally transfer some from my moss on my shrimp tank. Search algaefix in Algae forum. Again fix root cause.

[AVN]

Errrthing, yer doin' ERRRRTHANG wrong!

As opposed to "fixing" algae, I say you take preventative measures instead!
Why pour in bottles of goop or spend $$$ on Amanos?

- Amanos only munch on the tips of algae, and only when there is no other food available in the tank
- Photoperiod too long (IE too much light)
- Unbalanced nutrients (not enough plants?) algae pops up to consume excess nutrients in the watah so get nitrite hogging plants like mosses, water lettuce, duckweed, water sprite, etc

[furnfins]

Originally Posted by Monster Fish

Do you have any excess sunlight hitting the tank? I have a little bit of hair algae in my 5 gallon since it sits right in front of a south facing window. I just manually remove it when it gets too thick. Excel will also help clear it up and so will amanos.

The side of the tank faces the driveway window, so there is some light but no sun. I'll try closing the shade a bit more and see if that helps.Also I'll double the amount of excell. Did that with some green algae I had in another tank and it worked for that. Thanks

[furnfins]

Originally Posted by AVN

Errrthing, yer doin' ERRRRTHANG wrong!

As opposed to "fixing" algae, I say you take preventative measures instead!
Why pour in bottles of goop or spend $$$ on Amanos?

- Amanos only munch on the tips of algae, and only when there is no other food available in the tank
- Photoperiod too long (IE too much light)
- Unbalanced nutrients (not enough plants?) algae pops up to consume excess nutrients in the watah so get nitrite hogging plants like mosses, water lettuce, duckweed, water sprite, etc

First of all I'm asking because I wanted to fix the problem. I don't have
much light at all in that tank like I said and not much hitting it from a driveway window. I have quite afew plants in there, f.fiss.,anubias,Sunset Hygro.,and a few others plus duckweed..can't get rid of it. I'll keep trying and see what happens. I will probably add the excell to see what happens.the fish don't seem to mind it, it's just getting too much.

[jellie]

^maybe you had a spike of something and it got out of hand. Move any plants lately? Lose any fish or snails?

Is manual removal reducing them or not really? Where exactly is it growing, by the light fixture? Where the window faces it? Don't forget that the sun has moved for the winter, is it possibly hitting your tank while you're at work?

Originally Posted by AVN

Errrthing, yer doin' ERRRRTHANG wrong!

furnfins didn't say nothing about pouring nor spending. You're not helping and she's no noob, so chill.

[gordonrichards]

Do a water change.

Drop photo period to 4 hours on, 2 hours off, 4 hours on.

Photoperiod will help within a few weeks, but algae will still survive.

Removing plants and treating them in a bucket would work.
Turning off filters/airpump and directly treating with peroxide would work as well.

-Gordon

[acitydweller]

Have you noticed any excess food left uneaten. I know its a odd question but its been proven to be a nutrient source for plants. Just wondering if there's an spike in nutrients which has fed the ever so opportunistic hair algae.


[IGNORE] AVN [/IGNORE]

[AlyeskaGirl]

Algae indicates you've got an imbalance. It's just figuring out what it is.

Lighting
Nutrients
CO2

It could be excess nutrients with too low of lighting. I'd do some extra water changes, reduce feeding and keep pulling the algae out. It just takes little patience.

[furnfins]

Originally Posted by jellie

^maybe you had a spike of something and it got out of hand. Move any plants lately? Lose any fish or snails?

Is manual removal reducing them or not really? Where exactly is it growing, by the light fixture? Where the window faces it? Don't forget that the sun has moved for the winter, is it possibly hitting your tank while you're at work?


furnfins didn't say nothing about pouring nor spending. You're not helping and she's no noob, so chill.

I have to do the KH and GH maybe that will show something. I regular params are fine nothing out of the way at all. I have to get a pic of it later and I'll show you. It looks like wispy fuzzy stuff on all the fiss and some plant tops. Looks kinda ethereal, weird... Light is very low and it's halfway across the floor from the window. Somethings got to be up. This week I'll be able to spend a little more time on it. Could that happen from not cleaning the tank every week like I was? Been doing it every couple of week lately.
And as for that person I just ignore his silliness next time, won't even answer. Thanks Juls!

[furnfins]

Originally Posted by acitydweller

Have you noticed any excess food left uneaten. I know its a odd question but its been proven to be a nutrient source for plants. Just wondering if there's an spike in nutrients which has fed the ever so opportunistic hair algae.


[IGNORE] AVN [/IGNORE]

I try and feed just what they'll eat but I'm sure some food gets down to the floor and goes uneaten. I have 6 punctatus cory's and 2 pygmy cory's going to be 8 later today Going to meet Frank at the Aquarium, yay! But a possibility none the less.

[furnfins]

Originally Posted by AlyeskaGirl

Algae indicates you've got an imbalance. It's just figuring out what it is.

Lighting
Nutrients
CO2

It could be excess nutrients with too low of lighting. I'd do some extra water changes, reduce feeding and keep pulling the algae out. It just takes little patience.

Hmmm, too low light?! I did't think you could get algae from that, but now that you say it I do have low light in that tank. Only 21w 6700 and 21w 10000k bulbs. Unless I figured it out wrong...which isn't far from possible,heheh. One of the lights, the 6700k isn't working, bought another and for some reason is not coming on. I'll have to take the whole thing over to WCAquarium and ask them why. Maybe that's it.