Algae Id: Hair..beard..thread?

nursie

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Aug 25, 2006
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Peoria, IL USA
I have an outbreak of algae. It started as a few curley threads...pulled off easily. They became more numerous..and spread. I cut off ends of val...and it's exploded..sort of. A lot of my val and corkscrew val have it on th upper few inches. I'd read to twirl it off with a toothbrush..no can do. Tried scraping off with fingernails...if I can without breaking leaves...seems to leave a residue. I don't have any on gravel, sides of tank...anything else. It seems to be kind of a blue green tinged.
I have a 55 gal tank which I'm dosing as follows:
15 ml Excel every other day
5 ml of Flourish 2 x per wk
5 ml Flourish Iron 2 x per week
4-5 drops Fleet enema 2 x per week
15 ml of potassium made from solution of 1 TBSP/300 ml water solution
3/4 tsp Green lite stump dissolver...dissolved in water.

I have a 2 bulb regular output fluorecent bulb light strip: I estimate 1.5 wpg.
I do not use Co2.

For plants I have:
corkscrew val
regular val
red wendti crypt
african fern
3-4 different strains of Java fern on 3 smallish pieces of driftwood.
duckweed..purely voluntary.

as a note..I did have hornwort...and decided to get rid if it because it kept growing so fast and obstructed light to the lower levels of the tank. Soon after I got rid of it, is when I noticed the first of this algae, and also some green spot algae. I scraped the green spot off, but missed a couple of spots on the front glass of the tank...it's stayed the same, not grown. Also around this time I had been dosing the Excel 7.5 ml daily, and made the hcange to 15 ml every other day.

For fish:
1 starlight bristlenose pleco
2 boesemani rainbows
3 kuhli loaches
3 clown loaches
3 pearl gourami
5 otos
7 harlequin rasboras

Filtration is a Filstar XP2, with foam, polyester fiberfil, and biostars.
I do 50% water changes weekly.
I probably tend to over feed.

I've had this tank going since the beginning of March..I hate to dig it all up :(
I just got everything rooted well.
 

weaverr3

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Jun 12, 2005
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Re: Algae Id: Hair..beard..thread?

Sounds to me like the hornwort was a big part of the equation that allowed your plants to out compete the algae. Most of the plants you named, I think are slow growers. I'd guess you would need to cut down your dosing since you removed a serious weed.

Just my non-expert opinion.
 

Jay

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Jan 26, 2005
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Re: Algae Id: Hair..beard..thread?

Nursie…

I would recommend doing a search here to find Tom’s post called, I think, “Hair algae, how to get rid of it and keep it away”. Worked wonders for me!!