Hair Algae on my new tank

HisXlency

Junior Poster
Feb 13, 2013
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Friends I have lots of hair algae in my tank. What did I do wrong? Here is the scenario

New 20L with Co2 on an eheim 2215 with a Ray II for lighting and it all sits on Eco Complete. Lots of plants and it has been running for about 2 weeks now. I seeded with some gravel and water from a local donor. ph is 7.2 as of yesterday.

The only changes I made were new plants added from a forum member. In my hurry I did not scrub them or anything of the sort and 24 hours later I had massive amounts of hair algae. I manually unplug my soloenoid every night and kill the lights. Lights on is about 10ish hours.

Any insight is apprreciated

Pics below for your viewing

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Mar 20, 2013
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No fertilizers? That's a problem. RayII? That's also a problem.

And I wouldn't consider that a lot of plants. I would consider it lightly planted. But you'd need to fertilize and reduce the lighting for a while. Raise the lights a few inches off the surface, maybe more to reduce the lighting.

Oh, and it appears your hair algae is just the beginning of your problems. You better make corrections quick.
 

HisXlency

Junior Poster
Feb 13, 2013
21
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Thanks for the suggestions. I am fertilizing 2-3 days a week with Comprehensive.

Should I increase the dosage? Shall I add more plants? What other fertz can I go with?

I have already decreased my lighting period to just a few hours a day until I resolve this
 
Mar 20, 2013
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How is CO2 dispersed? Is there flow directly at the diffuser? It looks like most of the CO2 is reaching the surface which means little for the plants. Do the plants pearl?
 

HisXlency

Junior Poster
Feb 13, 2013
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Solcielo lawrencia;114902 said:
How is CO2 dispersed? Is there flow directly at the diffuser? It looks like most of the CO2 is reaching the surface which means little for the plants. Do the plants pearl?

I am using the in tank diffuser now, I have an inline one that I am not sure is working right. Yes the bubbles do seem to hit the surface. Might go back to the inline and see what becomes of it

The plants pearled for a while initially but dont now
 
Mar 20, 2013
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That's a sign of CO2 deficiency. Inline diffusers tend to be far more efficient than any in-tank diffusing method. I'd try using the inline diffuser again. You shouldn't see any gas bubbles come out of the outlet pipe if its working efficiently.
 

HisXlency

Junior Poster
Feb 13, 2013
21
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Solcielo lawrencia;114910 said:
That's a sign of CO2 deficiency. Inline diffusers tend to be far more efficient than any in-tank diffusing method. I'd try using the inline diffuser again. You shouldn't see any gas bubbles come out of the outlet pipe if its working efficiently.

Switched back to it this AM and will limit lighting for a few days as well. We shall see!

Thanks for the suggestions. This has delayed my fish stocking but better clean and stable than sorry I guess. Plus no one locally has any CPD's in stock at the moment
 

Desertsp

Junior Poster
Apr 24, 2013
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My tank is no role model, but it is outfitted nearly identically to yours. Eco complete, ray2, and an eheim 2215. I have another thread with some photos etc.

I too was hit by algae pretty hard initially. Mostly staghorn but also hair, green fuzz, and diatoms. Still getting things under control about 2 months later. What helped me was doubling the amount of plants, getting the diy yeast co2 correctly dissolved by feeding it directly into the filter (this may or may not work for you), cutting lights down to 6 hours, reducing fertilization, glutaraldehyde, and manually scrubbing algae every other day. Once things started to improve I tried not to mess with the tank so much, because every time I did, the algae would start coming back. In fact I did a large water change this past weekend and added fertilizer afterwards, and now the tank is teaming with several new types of algae. Plants are growing great but so is algae.

My experience goes against what a lot of the pros here will tell you, which is that fertilizer excess will not cause algae, but I think in my tank it does due to the fact that the tank is not "balanced" yet, nor is my co2 adequate to be non-limiting ( too afraid to raise it that high with unregulated DIY yeast). Also I do not own test kits so I have no idea what my nutrient levels really are...it's possible that they're sufficient from the fish waste and tap water alone.

Good luck and keep us updated.
 

HisXlency

Junior Poster
Feb 13, 2013
21
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Thanks for the input. Hope your 20L continues to be better.

I have no fish so I will increase co2 a bit as I feel its low right now. I have a regulator that I think I will add a bubble counter to to ensure I dont go over board but thats a few weeks away.

24 hours after going to 3 hours of light and co2 back on the inline diffuser the algae seems to be dying. Its already brown and starting to get thinner. I hope it continues this trend as I also have more plants en route. Should be better once more plants are added.

More updates to come..
 

Desertsp

Junior Poster
Apr 24, 2013
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Yes definitely bump up the CO2. There's a technique where you blast high levels into the tank to help the plants get established, and then cut it back before adding fish. Do you have a drop checker?

BTW my tank is an 18" cube, 25 gallons. So your light is probably more intense than mine due to your tank being shorter. I dimmed my output by drawing red and blue patterns onto a piece of tape applied to the lamp. Improved the appearance of the aquarium IMO...made colors pop a little bit, and the fish seem to be happier in the slightly dimmer light.
 

HisXlency

Junior Poster
Feb 13, 2013
21
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Hair algae gone, co2 cranked up a bit. Photo period down a few hours. 20% water change and all is well again.

More dwarf hair grass added as well.

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