Overrun!

[ADMWNDSR83]

I need help!  I have a 6 gallon cube, unheated, which at the moment is housing 4 golden white cloud minnows.  Filtration is through a Co-op sponge fillter, with dwarf hairgrass, java moss, and "japan" also from the coop.  The bottom and sides, along with the filter, have been taken over by a coating of green hair algae.  I've pulled some out manually, and cleaned the sponge, but every time I try to pull more off the bottom it uproots the hairgrass and lifts the java moss square from it's place.  What can I do to get it gone???  With the plants I have in there, they like heavy light, so I have a 24/7 hygger to try and keep them happy.  I'd appreciate any thoughts and suggestions the wiser fishkeepers may have!  

[Streetwise]

What is your lighting schedule? Do you have any window light?

Hair algae won’t hurt anything, but it is nice to get it under control.

[ADMWNDSR83]

My office is sadly in the center of the building, with no windows for miles and miles.  As far as my lighting schedule, it's the preset in the hygger 24/7, which comes on very dim red at about 6am, slowly increases until full light around noon, then decreases again to a dim blue and finally off at around 10p.  It may be that I need to stop using that and just use a timer to turn on and off at full power, but I was thinking this would help my other plants.

[eatyourpeas]

Too much light, in my opinion. I have the exact same setup for my BBA, and all the other algae are thriving, but BBA is taking its sweet time in taking over. I do have Riccia fluitans successfully outcompeting Duckweed, but a cover may not help your other plants get the light they need.

I would try cutting light period and see how it goes.

Edited April 2, 2022 by eatyourpeas

[Guppysnail]

For me hair algae grows best in blue light. Actually grows scary fast. In just white or white red. It will stay as 1/2 inch strands on my pothos roots without growing more for a month or more. Maybe try killing blue for a bit v

[Torrey]

On 4/2/2022 at 11:38 AM, ADMWNDSR83 said:

My office is sadly in the center of the building, with no windows for miles and miles.  As far as my lighting schedule, it's the preset in the hygger 24/7, which comes on very dim red at about 6am, slowly increases until full light around noon, then decreases again to a dim blue and finally off at around 10p.  It may be that I need to stop using that and just use a timer to turn on and off at full power, but I was thinking this would help my other plants.

Unless you are running CO2, that's way too much light.

Many people will have many opinions, and I think each of us discover that difference in water parameters (especially ones we can't measure) influence success/failure making each tank truly unique. 

What works for me may not work for you. 

That being said, I have had far fewer problems with algae ever since I moved all of my tanks to a siesta system. 

Dimmer lights (Walstad inspired and grow out tank) are on up to 5 hours at a time. 

All tanks have a 4 hour break in the middle of the day.

Brightest lights are on 3.5 hours, 4 hours off, 4 hours on, off for the night. 

I still had a cyanobacteria problem, but lowering my TDS got that under control. 

[Jenja]

On 4/2/2022 at 3:15 PM, eatyourpeas said:

Too much light, in my opinion. I have the exact same setup for my BBA, and all the other algae are thriving, but BBA is taking its sweet time in taking over. I do have Riccia fluitans successfully outcompeting Duckweed, but a cover may not help your other plants get the light they need.

I would try cutting light period and see how it goes.

@eatyourpeas Add extra iron. I thought I was seeing iron deficiency in a new plant (pale new leaves with dark veins) so I added 1 pump of easy iron (it was approximately a 10g)....one tiny tuft of BBA multiplied exponentially. The tank had a fairly heavy bioload as well, so nitrate + iron seems to be the key to BBA.

@ADMWNDSR83 Even with the ramp up that's a really long lighting period. Hairgrass likes high light yes, but I don't think it needs more than 12 hours of light to thrive.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Jenjairon deficiency and potassium deficiency can look similar sometimes so it’s possible it’s the lack of K+. Iron has always been and addition to my pleco and shrimp tanks to grow more algae so the sprouting up of the bba makes total sense to me. @ADMWNDSR83youve gotten good suggestions. I would not bomb it as this is such a small tank and very susceptible to parameters fluctuations. I would spot treat every 2-3 days with your choice of a “liquid carbon” or good ok’ h202 using a syringe or spray bottle during water changes and then do another treatment and water change 3 days later. You sound like you need some faster growing stems in there to outcompete the algae. 

[lefty o]

i tend to think too much light all together, but 100% kill the blue light.

[eatyourpeas]

 

On 4/2/2022 at 1:50 PM, Jenja said:

The tank had a fairly heavy bioload as well, so nitrate + iron seems to be the key to BBA.

Thank you! Following @lefty o's suggestion, I am dosing Leaf Zone and have an extra blue light. It is just taking a while. 😎