my favorite algae :)

[fishorama]

Today we had a tank maintenance day weeding & water changing. I knew I had hair algae in my 110g but since I can't easily see the tank I kept forgetting. Uh oh, it was in ~1/3 of the tank. I did my usual hair algae removal technique twirling it around my fingers & gently pulling. I got it ALL in just 1 continuous go! It only took a minute or so. I thought there was some in a floating stem plant but further investigation said it was just fine roots from not planting it. I did rip up a few chain swords but not worth picking them out to replant.

Hair algae is my easiest to control, I've had it a few times over the years...But this has to be a record! I'm not really sure what may cause it. The tank has mostly crypts & chain swords with root ferts (palm & fern sticks last time), no fish. But in May a club friend gave me a bucephalandra on a small piece of wood. The hair algae seemed to be around it but I don't know that it started there. I looked really hard at the bucie, it has fairly fine roots so there may be a few algae strands...we'll see, better a little hair algae & a happy bucie than possibly upsetting it, they grow very slowly.

This is a far cry from my black beard algae infected 75g I've been fighting for a couple years now. I also have some soft green, red? & spot algae in my 55g "river-ish" tank that my hillstream loaches like to graze on so I don't mind it. We scrape the front glass so we can see once in a while.

A good tank day!

 

[NoodleCats]

Algae can be a good sign, a nice mature tank haha

Hair algae though can be really impressive. I removed a handful not overly long ago myself too. Moss didn't like being so close to the light lol

 

[fishorama]

Oops, I posted too soon. There some more that must have been hiding. I should have known it was too easy yesterday, lol.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

SAE is are among the fish that love hair algae. I had some SAEs in my high tech planted tank and they would ocasionally try to prune the "hair" algae on the back of my hands when I would work in the tank.

The SAE will eat BBA if they have no other option.

I have always used a smaller hose/rube brush to twirl up hair algae. You can poke it into all sorts of places easier than getting your fingers into them.

I earned my MBA (Mastered By Algae) many years ago........

 

[fishorama]

I had SAE that trimmed black beard when young but didn't eliminate it. I did notice a small BN pleco in some this week, I didn't think they ate it. Maybe some flakes were caught in it.

TTA, our cichlids thought arm hair was worms, they pulled hard. Luckily my husband's was more "tasty" lol

I have a feeling more chain swords will get yanked out, a PITA to replant.

 

[fishorama]

Well, hair algae looks much less today, my filter has been gathering up the loose bits. Just a few more rounds of removal? I hope so...

 

[FreshyFresh]

Sounds too easy! LOL

I had some BB going in my newest 55gal that I've had going about a year, but I've mostly eliminated it. I haven't been able to eliminate the patches of java moss that keep popping up though. In terms of plants, all I have are anubia. Lots of it. Some small leaf. Some big. Java fern and a amazon sword that was being so choked out by anubia, I forgot about it. I cleared it up and it's still hanging in there.

 

[fishorama]

FF, what did you do about the BBA? I dose Excel after water changes, just enough to make my valisneria unhappy but not kill them (yet).

 

[dougall]

I know I am not FF.

But I have had better results spot treating rather than dosing (either with a pipette if the tank is full of water or using a spray bottle after emptying the aquarium as part of a water change then refilling after)

Fresh (note just opened) peroxide can work well too, same application.

Turning off filters and curculation pumos at the time helps too.

For additional infornation you can Google 'one two punch' and maybe throw in aquarium as a search term.

Getting rid of the things that cause it to thrive (dissolved organics, poor water flow) will help.

Some animals will eat it, flag fish, mollies and nerites come to mind.. if it is already dying and turning red, that will help the pricess along .

Never had much luck with blackouts.

 

[NoodleCats]

Finally made that video I had of my mass of hair algae into a gif haha



I just pulled this out by hand. The moss didn't like being so close to the light haha... I'm sure it'll be back.