Update: Hair algae success - Tracking Progress

[Sunny]

Starting this thread/ journal to track my algae battle with the Aquario Neo CO2 kit. My 29 gallon tank just cranks out hair algae, whereas it’s never been a problem in my 10 gallon in the hallway. I’ve got two limiting factors that made me decide to try a co2 kit for this tank:

1. This tank gets direct sunlight in winter, spring, and fall. Usually not more than 30 mins, but that’s still a lot (at least I’ve balanced it to where the green water hasn’t come back…)

2. My husband likes to stay up late and watch the fish with the lights on, which I’ve complained about before, but I also want him to keep enjoying the tank!

I’ve been able to reduce the hair algae production to a steady, sort of manageable amount, but my plants are starting to suffer and they need a boost to compete.

I’m using the Aquario CO2 kit, with the large diffuser from the coop instead of the small one in the kit. I put the diffuser in last night, so let’s see how this goes!

ETA: this tank was de-algaed one week ago, but the really small hairs don’t come of the plant leaves easily, even with a toothbrush. 

Edited May 21, 2022 by Sunny
Added a thought.

[Flumpweesel]

Lovely tank hope this turns the algae corner for you. I only light my fish from after work till bedtime so I max joy out of limited light hours. 

I do get algae but it's normally just the short dense stuff so I leave it on most surfaces. Since being able to add plants it has been receding slowly which is interesting to watch. Because it's set into my old fireplace I only have to clean the front anyway.

[Sunny]

On 11/9/2021 at 4:12 AM, Flumpweesel said:

Lovely tank hope this turns the algae corner for you. I only light my fish from after work till bedtime so I max joy out of limited light hours. 

I do get algae but it's normally just the short dense stuff so I leave it on most surfaces. Since being able to add plants it has been receding slowly which is interesting to watch. Because it's set into my old fireplace I only have to clean the front anyway.

So far the hair algae is really enjoying the co2, hah.

Your tank is set into a fireplace? That’s really cool! Do you have a photo of it?

[Flumpweesel]

If only everything in life was as easy to please as algae

Never tidy when I need photos, anyway there is my set up I was originally going to drill through the wall and keep the filter ect in the cupboard but I chickened out.

Now the bioload has reduced in there thinking of moving to internal filtration.

[Sunny]

That’s so cool! I think it’s beautiful and I don’t see any algae.

[Sunny]

Cleaned out a lot of the hair algae, and had to remove some of the plants that were suffering from lack of photosynthesis. New growth is occurring so that’s good, but I don’t know if it’s faster. Maybe the carpeting stuff being successful will be a good measure. I also moved a dwarf lily that just would not produce more than one scrawny leaf in my other tank no matter how many root tabs I shoved under there, so maybe a little CO2 boost will help.

 

[Sunny]

This hair algae is incredibly stubborn. My plants are finally outgrowing it, thanks I think to the small amounts I of CO2, but I definitely think that the CO2 is helping the algae, too…

Did another algae extraction and cleaning rocks and plants. I bought some easy carbon and have been dosing it daily for about four days. 
 

 

[Sunny]

Been a while since I updated, the hair algae battle was wearing me down. But I’m happy to report I’ve had success! It’s been a month without any significant hair algae growth and new growth on plants is free! Here’s what I’ve done over the last 5 months:

1. the neo CO2 thing was mostly a fail. Maybe in a 5 gallon it’d work, but 29 was too large. It just ended up growing the hair algae on the airline tubing really well.

2. Got a real light. I upgraded from the kit lid light to a Fluval planted light. It didn’t fix the hair algae immediately but I was able to play with it to figure out the balance.

3. I slowly stepped down the amount of light intensity and timing and then left it at my current setting to see if the algae would respond.

4. I tried squirting hydrogen peroxide into the tank with a Turkey baster. I have no idea if this did anything but the hair algae on the gravel didn’t go anywhere or turn brown, so I gave up on that.

5. I kept planting plants. Just trying to get something that would grow and use nutrients, hopefully that would outpace the algae. I did go through quite a few plants and had to toss a lot that just ended up too matted with hair algae. 
 

Things finally started turning around:

6. One of the things I think made a difference was sticking a dracaena in the tank to suck up some excess nutrients. It’s not a looker but I hide the roots behind the heater and the leaves itself behind a peace lily. I don’t think it’ll ever look decent, but it’s doing a job.

7. Coop Easy Carbon. I finally bit the bullet just to try it out. I was dosing every day for a month. It seemed to keep the algae at bay, long enough for the new plants to start getting established.

8. Finally, the last bane of my existence, was the short hair algae that grew on the glass. I could not for the life of me get this to stop growing, even as I noticed the tank balance. I wiped it every other day with a paper towel, I let it sit there and then cleaned it, I used a melamine sponge. To be honest I’m not really sure what caused it to finally clear up, I guess some combination of the above.

9. I won’t know for sure if this all did anything until next winter. Currently the sun has moved so that it doesn’t shine directly on the tank anymore (though it is plenty bright). So, who knows! For now I’m enjoying my hair algae free tank!!