[jebarj90]

I have been doign research on this stuff and I still havent found the best way to treat it. Could someone give me some advice on this???

 

[jebarj90]

Anyone????

 

[Wasserpest]

I found that the best way to get rid of hair alga is to keep a close eye on nutrients (especially CO2) and be patient.

If sufficient nutrients for rapid plant growth are available, algae will disappear all by themselves.

Are your plants growing quickly?

(If you give a little bit more background information about your tank, equipment, current routines, maybe a picture... you would certainly get more responses.)

 

[jebarj90]

Hey wasser,
Thanks for saying anything at all. To begin I have a 55 gallon. Pressurized CO2. ADA amazonia. I am dosing Potassium Nitrate 1/2 tsp. Mono Potassium phosphate 1/8 tsp. and Potassium sulfate 1/8 tsp. ALL every other day. Then on off days of those I am dosing 2ml seachem iron, and 1/8 tsp. plantex CSM+B. I will post a picture of the algae tomorrow. All of my plants are growing great but the only problem is so is this algae. Am I not dosing correctly?

 

[dodgefreak8]

Hey jebar90 I just put aquasoil in my 29 gal and I haven't had to dose nitrate for 3 weeks. The soil is keeping me at 20ppm!! I would check your nitrates and make sure you even need to add it. I wold also check your iron. You are over dosing if your plants aren't massive iron drinkers

 

[Wasserpest]

Sounds like you are dosing enuff. Like dodge says, you might want to back off a bit on the N and P. It's not that elevated levels cause algae per se, but they sure feed them well!

Again I am guessing... If this is a new tank (?) don't go hogwild with the lights, in the beginning. Also, always good to start with too many rather than too little plants.

If you have access to Amano shrimp (and nothing large in your tank that eats them) they are great little algae eaters. Not that they can overcome a full-grown hair algae explosion, but once they are retreating and you help with some mechanical removal the shrimp can do a great job cleaning up.

 

[jebarj90]

Thanks for the reply dodge and wasser. Dodge and wasser I have had this tank running for about 1 month now. Wasser, I think i might have too much light over the tank. This is what i was suspecting... 2x55 watt ah supply, and a 2x65 watt coralife. I was thinking about doing what a lot of others do such as all four bulbs for a amount of time and then maybe just the coralife or the ah for a while. What do you think the timing+lighting should be? What kind of timer could i get from the home depot that will work well?

 

[Wasserpest]

I'd stay with 1 fixture until the algae is under control. It's not like (most) plants NEED that much light, 2w/gal is enough to grow (most of) them at speeds that require weekly pruning.

Pretty much any timer will work... You can get mechanical ones for under $5 at Target for example, and they do a good job.

 

[jebarj90]

Thanks for your help. I am just going to use the 2x55 for now. How many hours of light would be good??