Hair Algae :(

[MalawiCich]

How have you guys tried to control hair algae in your planted tanks? I removed them manually from plants/hairgrass daily using a toothbrush (just twist around them), but the next morning...there they are again! Why can't money be like that? One day you spend, the next it comes back in double, lol.

I just ordered 20 ghost shrimps, has anyone tried using them to control hair algae?

[Jeff1192]

I don't know if ghost shrimp will do much for hair algae....amano shrimp definitely will. Most important thing is to figure out what's causing it. Are you dosing any ferts? If so you're probably over-dosing something.

Jeff

[Zigot]

Is it just a plant tank or do you have fishes in it also?
Did you read the black-out in the plants-tips? It work very well.

[MalawiCich]

Thanks for the replies. I use Seachem Flourish daily with every water change (I change 10 gallons of water a day and add a few drops of Flourish). I have 4 Discus and 10 Tetras. Will read the recommended article, thanks. For now, I'll remove the darn things manually with a toothbrush (the things we do for fish/plants!)

[apuppet]

what works best is an american flagfish, ugly, but does the job.  semi agressive, and like to nibble on plants,, exspecially exposed young tender roots, but no hair algea issue.

[MalawiCich]

Got 5 SAEs and they took care of al my algae problems

[charlie]

Got 5 SAEs and they took care of al my algae problems

That`s one way of looking at it  , the other way is that you took care of the symptom of the problem & not the cause   

[MalawiCich]

Being a fairly new tank (just over 1 month), I was expecting the algae issue, especially after I planted the hairgrass and realized afterwards that they came with lots of hair algae with them....of course I've also planted more plants, reduced the amount of fertilizer and shortened the lighting to 8 hours a day, I was also already changing 10 gallons of water every day (Discus tank)...but the algae that was there still continued to a certain degree, though those little industrial fish have now worked endlessly to end that.

[MalawiCich]

Oh, BTW, my discus ate all my 20 shrimp in 3 days 

[Toss]

SAE will stop eating the algae when it grows older and will start competing with your discus and tetra for food. SAE is only temporary solution, unless you want to keep buying the young ones