Algae is destroying my tank!

[JAlf987]

Hello!

My tank keeps getting over run with what I believe to be hair algae. I've tried a few different things like having the light on for less time, adding amano shrimp and a siamese algae eater, cutting back on feeding, being more consistent with water changes, adding more plants, dosing easy carbon with water changes..

Some info about the tank:

29 gallons, ~76°F, 30% water changes weekly, fully cycled before adding fish in. HOB & Sponge Filter on opposite ends of the tank

3 dwarf gourami, 5 julli corydoras, 8 danios, 6 kuhli loaches, 10 amano shrimp, 1 siamese algae eater, 1 rabbit snail, 2 nerite snails, and a few bladder and MTS

I plan to add a bubble bar to add aeration, I just have to get more airline tubing for it. I'm also going to start doing EC daily instead of weekly. This algae is all over my tank, but mostly on the walls and plants. It's starting to kill my plants, unfortunately

Any recommendations other than what I've tried? I'm honestly feeling pretty defeated 😅

[sumplkrum]

Killing the light would be the first thing to do. Algae doesn't grow that well without lots of light.
I'd start by turning the light off for a couple days, then reducing the intensity by half after that.

You can manually clean up the plants with a clean toothbrush. The algae eater is obviously not doing his job well enough.

Long-term, I'm a fan of floating plants.
They suck up a lot of the unused nutrients that algae is fond of and kinda solve lighting problems naturally.

[JAlf987]

I have some dwarf water lettuce in there. I'll try adding more

[nabokovfan87]

This is the feeling I get when I see the photos: 😂

Can you please post your test results?  Nitrite, Nitrate, KH, GH, PH.

 

On 5/6/2022 at 2:01 PM, sumplkrum said:

You can manually clean up the plants with a clean toothbrush. The algae eater is obviously not doing his job well enough.

How often are you feeding? How old are the SAEs?

[Kurt Brutting]

More floating plants will help! I purchased from Etsy feeding rings and put floaters inside the rings above problem areas so the light semi is blocked. 
Also fast growing stem plants will help out compete with the algae. 

[AndreaW]

Hair algae is often the "teenager stage" of newer aquariums and usually will clear up on it's own -- but cutting back on lighting, food and nutrients, making sure your plants have enough nutrients (macro & micro) so they can grow and outcompete the hair algae will help.

[Bev C]

Best Wishes .. I have been there,  my heart goes out to your lowering your light intensity and hours helps allot   plus check your water inside tank &out of  tap water my problem was out of my tap water  have to pretreat my water .. Still have some algae, but it is controllable now  with my bristolnose pelco,  & snails  plus I have bought extra plants  and some extra floating plants to help share the light  

[JoeQ]

I think a great first step for you at this point would be to concentrate on building your eco system. Make sure you have good flow, and adding a cleanup crew (ottos and nerite snails) would be a great first step. Along with some fast growing plants, particularly stems with broad leaves (broad leaf stems are easier to grow) also consider water sprite, a nutrient hog which can be floated or planted. It is much easier to control algea in a tank over populated with plants than it is to control algea in a tank with a few plants. As for your light, it is essential for it to be on a timer, consistency is key. As for the whole "cut your light" matra, healthy plants need a healthy amount of light, and while it's good advice to cut, what was left out was why you cut your light. Essentially you are again building your eco system, start with a lower time/intensity. Giving your plants time to grow/adapt. As plant mass starts to grow and they need more light (lower leaves dropping) then bump it up slightly, less light is actually more in many cases. Finally a critical part to algea control is to consider what you are adding to the tank, particularly your feeding schedule of your fish. You can cut all your lighting but algea will still find light it can use to grow, and if it has a food source (over feeding) algea will take over. Good luck, algea control is a constant struggle, itll take baby steps to fully eliminate it and is a battle you will face for the life of your tank. If the fight was as simple as "cut your light" no one would have algae. 

Edited May 8, 2022 by JoeQ

[JoeQ]

Also I didn't mention is to remove/trim any dead organic matter (which add nutrients for algea). 

[Tanked]

I don't think the algae is killing your plants.  It looks like they are under fed.  I would suggest beginning with @sumplkrum's suggestion of cutting back on the light,  two more SAEs. (They like company), and an initial dose of Easy Green root tabs.