Hair/thread algae issues

[Erik G]

I've got a 75 gallon planted tank, set up about for about 4 months with moderate stocking. I'm running moderate Co2, have two two Finnex 24/7 lights, dosing Easy Green and Easy Iron twice a week. Monthly 30% water changes. Co-op test strips read ~50 nitrates, ~150 ppm hardness, 0 buffer, 6.4 ph. I tried cutting back on the ferts to combat the hair algae (and some bba) but then started seeing nutrient deficiencies in some of the plants. Went back to the pump per gallon twice a week, the plants responding but the green hair algae is booming. I've got some otocinclus, a couple plecos, and nerites but as you know they're not into thread/hair algae.

I know the tank is young and not seasoned yet. Wondering if I need to tailor the fertilization with something other than Easy Green- like for example maybe I've got plenty of nitrogen and/or phosphates but low on other/micronutrients? 

[ccurtis]

Grab yourself a Siamese algae eater.  I was dealing with a similar issue.  It ate all the algae and kept it in check while my tank was balancing.

[Mmiller2001]

You will never starve algae, only kill your plants and feed the algae. You should increase water changes and dose appropriately. Running CO2 at "moderate" levels probably means too low. I would increase CO2 to 25 to 30ppm and will most likely need to increase fertilization. 50ppm is unnecessarily high. You could also lower light intensity until you get things under control. 

A true 50% water change is where I'd begin.

[Pepere]

I found hair algae would get worse with higher easy iron dosing. Cutting back on it helped.

I would also echo on increasing co2 to the point you see a ph drop of 1 from before starting CO2 in morning until co2 levels plateau. I noticed significant reduction in algae once I did that.

I also noted benefits in algae reduction with weekly 50% water changes with running hands through plants as I siphon area to dislodge any settled solids on leaves and remove dissolved organics, keeping nitrates below 20 ppm, upgrading to acanister filter with significant flow through a spray bar to have circular flow throughout entire tank from back to front. And trimming leaves with algae growing on them early rather than trying to save them.

No one measure took care of the issue alone, but each showed some reduction, improvement.

Once under control, water changes can be reduced some either by reducing amounts or extending time between.

 

[Erik G]

Yeah I considered just getting a Siamese algae eater 😅

I actually am running a Fluval 407 so I've got good circulation. I'll take those points of advice and see what transpires. Thanks all!

[Erik G]

As a follow-up, I'm thinking that ph may/also be an issue. There's a large piece of driftwood, and the ph is considerably lower than the tap water. And also addressing that will be the weekly 50% water changes which I've started.

[Mmiller2001]

Injecting CO2 lowers pH. And pH has no bearing on algae. Infact, lower pH is beneficial to most aquarium plants.

My current pH, which is a bit higher than after a water change.

and current plant growth.

 

[hawgs911]

Whenever someone has BBA I always ask if they are dosing Iron. 😄  I say cut the Iron back to once a week but keep the other ferts steady and see how that looks after 3ish weeks.  As someone else said raising CO2 might actually help.

You can also spot treat with Peroxide, Excel, Easy Carbon, etc and get some Algae eaters will take care of the rest.

Edit: Do you have lots of red plants?  You can get plants red without dosing extra Iron.  EG already has some Iron so you may not have enough plants actully using all that Iron.  

Edited June 13 by hawgs911

[JettsPapa]

With your relatively low pH you shouldn't need to be dosing iron at all.  There should be enough in the Easy Green.

Other than that, I've had good luck battling hair algae by reducing light (mine are four hours on starting at 10:00 am, four hours off, and then four hours on, ending at 10:00 pm, and repeat the next day), keeping up with weekly 25% water changes, and keeping my plants healthy with semi-regular fertilizing.