Java Moss and hair algae

[J. Holmes]

I’ve been attacking hair algae in my tank for a few weeks. It’s all wrapped in my Java moss. My tank is fairly new, only had them for 3 months. I checked my water levels and they are all where they should be, so I’m not thinking there’s an obvious imbalance.  My tank is shorter (20 long) and the algae is right at the lights on my driftwood. Is there any way I can get rid of this mess? Thanks so much! 

[Guppysnail]

An unused toothbrush to comb through moss and pothos roots is what I use to manually remove. The light intensity at the top is what causes mine. 

[Jennifer V]

You can trim some of the moss. How long are your lights on? 

[Odd Duck]

Hydrogen peroxide doesn’t hurt moss at a reasonable dose, but it will kill the algae.  I do 3 mls per gallon or 3% H2O2.  I turn off the filters, squirt the peroxide over the algae (it works on many types of algae), leave the filters off for 10 minutes, then restart them.  It works better to do a small section each time and really saturate that area vs. trying to treat the entire tank at once.  The peroxide is heavier than water and will trickle down over the area.  It degrades to water and oxygen, so it won’t hurt your tank as long as you don’t overdue it.

MEASURE YOUR PEROXIDE VOLUME, don’t just guess!  You can kill fish, shrimp, and/or snails if you overdo it.  If you dose correctly, it just ups your oxygen content in the tank temporarily.  I use a syringe with luer tip, a small piece of soft airline tubing, then a piece of rigid tubing.  This lets me be accurate in my dosing.

 

[Odd Duck]

Forgot to mention that most algae eaters - dwarf shrimp, otos, snails, scuds, etc, will help clean your tank much better if you kill the algae with peroxide first.

[J. Holmes]

On 2/26/2022 at 2:46 PM, Jennifer V said:

You can trim some of the moss. How long are your lights on? 

Thank you all for the suggestions. Jennifer V, my lights are on from 7AM to 8PM and are on a lower light setting. 

On 2/26/2022 at 3:24 PM, Odd Duck said:

Hydrogen peroxide doesn’t hurt moss at a reasonable dose, but it will kill the algae.  I do 3 mls per gallon or 3% H2O2.  I turn off the filters, squirt the peroxide over the algae (it works on many types of algae), leave the filters off for 10 minutes, then restart them.  It works better to do a small section each time and really saturate that area vs. trying to treat the entire tank at once.  The peroxide is heavier than water and will trickle down over the area.  It degrades to water and oxygen, so it won’t hurt your tank as long as you don’t overdue it.

MEASURE YOUR PEROXIDE VOLUME, don’t just guess!  You can kill fish, shrimp, and/or snails if you overdo it.  If you dose correctly, it just ups your oxygen content in the tank temporarily.  I use a syringe with luer tip, a small piece of soft airline tubing, then a piece of rigid tubing.  This lets me be accurate in my dosing.

 

Does this hurt your fish? I have mystery snails, a betta, and tetras. Would I need to do a water change shortly after?

[Jennifer V]

@J Holmes you can cut the light back and it'll help. I have a low light tank that had quite a bit of algae so I cut the light back to six hours total with a midday siesta and the algae disappeared in a few weeks. 

[Odd Duck]

On 2/27/2022 at 4:00 PM, J. Holmes said:

Thank you all for the suggestions. Jennifer V, my lights are on from 7AM to 8PM and are on a lower light setting. 

Does this hurt your fish? I have mystery snails, a betta, and tetras. Would I need to do a water change shortly after?

As long as you don’t douse the fish, shrimp, or snails directly, they’re fine.  I usually do a little swirling around with the tip of my dispenser system before deploying the peroxide.