Hey!


I know you guys can help with this question... I'm having a really bad time with some kind of green hair algae in my planted tank and some friends recommend me to dose Excel and others recommend me to dose Algaefix. Can I do both at the same time? Just following the backside dosing instructions? I'll try to post some pictures to give you an idea of what I'm dealing


Thanks!

Are there any fish in this tank or is it a new setup.I would be careful dosing 2 things at once,ive never used algaefix but I don't think I would dose both at once.Maybe someone will chime in that has done it before and give a more educated answer than me.

There's no fish in the tank, only plants. I started this tank past September 2nd. If dosing both is not recommended what will work best, the Algaefix or the Excel. Any experience us excel with this kind of algae?

Bump:

wow that is pretty bad. I think you will need more firepower than excel. I would

1st. try to remove as much stringy stuff as you can. take a toothbrush and twirling it around.
2. drop a algae nuke. pour a two tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide into your tank. let it swirl around the tank for 15-30min. take out your good bacteria media from you filter during this process so they hydrogen peroxide doesnt kill your good bacteria.
3. do a 30-70% water change.
4. put in a 1-2 cap of excel
5. not sure what algae fix is, but you can put that in there too and run as normal.

ideally this should kill 80-90% of the algae in there.

i would figure out whats been causing so much algae in the first place. tone down your lights to 3-4 hours a day.

API AlgaeFix is pretty effective on hair types. I'd try that first, following the directions.

Then you're gonna need to find the root cause, whether it be nutrient imbalance (too much of something or not enough) or too much light, inadequate co2, dirty conditions, etc


You can do both algaefix and excel at the same time. Excel and peroxide doesnt do much for hair types in my experience - unless you spot treat but you have WAY too much algae for that.

My course of action would be

Get in there and manually remove all you can. This will take some work. Swirling a toothbrush around the long stuff like spaghetti can help pull it out. Clean the filters. Vacuum the surface of the substrate. Do a 60-70% water change.

Do the Algaefix following instructions. Probably take two rounds.

When that's done do another good cleaning and water change.

In the meantime try to learn what cause it in the first place.

Good luck!

Thanks for the help! I'll try that today after work.

I don't want to sound lazy but what if I trim a little all the plants? Maybe a couple of inches?

trimming away the algae infested limbs will be fine.

Yesterday I started cleaning must of the algae with a tooth brush and my hands for my surprise I found many plants with the stems rotted. I eliminate them and clean the leafs of the live ones. Also I started dosing API AlgaeFix and Excel at the same time. 3 mL of AlgaeFix and 15mL of Excel. Let see what happen un the next days... I'll try to upload pictures tonight

Here's another idea:
https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/23...treatment.html

Would say the tank is still cycling. Don't bother to much with it. Just try to keep the plants as healthy as possible and after this there will most likely be a diatom algae bloom as well. Don't dose any nutrients yet I would say, some excel should not do any harm though and keep your WCs regular during this phase of your tank.

How often you recommend me to do the water changes at this phase and what percentage of water you recommend me to replace? It's a 27gallon cube. No fish and/or shrimps for the moment.

i would say 50% a week. your water parameters are off if you are getting algae. use the water change to hit a "reset" button on your water setting, but changing water to "reset" your tank is not good in the long run. try to figure out what is missing and what is too much in your tank. find that balance, then you wont need to change the water ever.

UPDATE!!

The AlgaeFix and Excel at the same time method is working great! It's a big difference, so thank you guys.

but I want to ask about another recommendation; Cleaning Crew. What cleaning crew, under this circumstances, you recommended me?

Just a quick reminder it's a 27 gallon cube (20"x18"x20")

Thanks!!!

Amano shrimp is the most effective for most types of algae. Not all though, they don't touch BBA though but not many algae eaters do anyways. Smaller shrimp works as well just not as efficiently.
A recommendation is 1 amano per 5L of water. In your case that would be around 20 amano shrimp. I have a 110L (28G;ish) smaller planted tank as well and there is between 20-25 shrimp and it is working out great. My larger tank had around 100 shrimp before and that also worked out great. Killed half of them with an aeration error in a bucket though :'( . 50 new on it's way though.
http://tropica.com/en/guide/algal-control/

There is also the usual ancistrus species, they do however need wood to chew on and they have a bad habit of damaging larger leaved plants. Some of them also get rather big and are not graceful swimmers and also some of them like digging.

Some people like the Siamese algae eater (Crossocheilus oblongus) have no personal experience of them but I think they get pretty big as well and can be somewhat aggressive among themselves, maybe not so suitable for a 27G... not sure tbh. They do however eat the more difficult algae species like BBA, though I heard they ignore BBA if they find other food sources.

There is also snails, some more effective than others. Have no experience with snail either. Maybe someone else can help you there.


Edit : If "under this circumstances" mean during heavy overdosing of algaecides I do not recommend anything living ! :P

After a blackout of 5 days all the algae is gone! I started dosing the Algaeix and the Excel at the same time but after two weeks still looking same so that's why I made the blackout.
My parameter(API Masterkit) are:

pH: 7.2
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 80ppm

I still don't have any fish/shrimps in my tank. It's safe to introduce fish with the nitrates so high? In the past 3 weeks I made 2 water changes of 50% (approx. 13 gallons) and I don't see a change in the nitrates.

Thanks in advance!!!