Green Hair Algae?

[Brandxn]

Came back from vacation and my tank was being taken over by what I think is green hair algae, correct me if I’m wrong. I have 3 snails and 4 Ottos to help in the 20 gallon but they aren’t helping. I was wondering what eats this kind of algae to keep it down. It’s all over the plants and walls. I’ve thought about shrimp but don’t know anything about them and heard they’re sensitive to water. But would love to have some. Please help. 

[Flumpweesel]

Wow that's impressive. Might be best to just try and manually remove the bulk of that.

Now your back the tank should get back into balance so hopefully it won't return.

Have a good gravel vac and water change in case of overfeeding in your absence

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

As @Flumpweesel said- best to just remove it manually- Neither the snails (though you don't mention what kind you have however Nerites, Mystery and Bladders do not eat this sort of algae) and Otocinclus (aka Otos) also do not eat hair algae- they only for the most part feed on short algaes like diatoms and biofilms. There are fish that eat hair algae but IMO the ones I can think of are too big and sometimes too aggressive for what you have. Get yourself a toothbrush and roll it up on it, or get your fingers in there and pull it out. I get it from time to time and it's super easy to remove. 

Edited July 18, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[EVoyager31]

I’m having this same issue in my 20 tall and I have manually removed a couple of times. It seems to gather mostly on one problem plant so I am pretty close to just pulling it out and replacing it with water change and gravel vac.

[Beed]

I've always had to pull that much by hand. You might be able to adjust your lighting schedule to prevent it from growing back so big. I get a bloom every spring if I'm not careful, just from the increase in daylight intensity/hours through a basement window under a deck.