Hair Algae Issue and Easy Carbon + Easy Iron 1st uses

[Shadow]

I stopped dosing my largest tank with Easy Green and backed off feedings a bit to try & combat the hair algae issue I have had. After trimming plants its still showing anytime they get longer or near the filter return head. I decided to purchase both Easy Carbon and Easy Iron(to help colors pop more) & was curious what success everyone has had with Easy Carbon while also having a CO2 diffuser working inside? Is it pointless to use the Easy Carbon as I already have CO2 running and should I continue using both Easy Green/start Easy Iron while the hair algae issue is ongoing?

Any advice would be appreciated....cheers!

[Mmiller2001]

On 7/30/2023 at 9:38 AM, Shadow said:

 

I stopped dosing my largest tank with Easy Green

 

You will never starve algae. You will kill your plants and cause more algae.

 

On 7/30/2023 at 9:38 AM, Shadow said:

curious what success everyone has had with Easy Carbon

It’s a band-Aid which carries its own set of problems.

 

On 7/30/2023 at 9:38 AM, Shadow said:

Easy Iron(to help colors pop more)

Dosing more Iron than what’s needed for healthy growth does not make a plant color up more. Higher lighting and CO2 addition do however.

 

On 7/30/2023 at 9:38 AM, Shadow said:

Is it pointless to use the Easy Carbon as I already have CO2

Easy Carbon and all Glut products are not CO2 and are a waste of money.

 

On 7/30/2023 at 9:38 AM, Shadow said:

should I continue using both Easy Green/start Easy Iron while the hair algae issue is ongoing?

Yes, the best defense against algae are healthy plants and larger plant mass.

[Shadow]

On 7/30/2023 at 1:00 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

You will never starve algae. You will kill your plants and cause more algae.

 

It’s a band-Aid which carries its own set of problems.

 

Dosing more Iron than what’s needed for healthy growth does not make a plant color up more. Higher lighting and CO2 addition do however.

 

Easy Carbon and all Glut products are not CO2 and are a waste of money.

 

Yes, the best defense against algae are healthy plants and larger plant mass.

Cheers! Will dose again this week and decline the other two. 

[Mmiller2001]

Easy Green is a bit low on iron when you are dosing CO2 so the addition of the Easy Iron should help you achieve better results. I would target .4 to .5ppm Fe weekly before water change. A little bit less if you do less than 50% water changes and always do a single dose immediately after the water change.

[Shadow]

On 7/30/2023 at 1:12 PM, Mmiller2001 said:

Easy Green is a bit low on iron when you are dosing CO2 so the addition of the Easy Iron should help you achieve better results. I would target .4 to .5ppm Fe weekly before water change. A little bit less if you do less than 50% water changes and always do a single dose immediately after the water change.

Gotcha, def not been dosing like that...just been keeping it on a regular schedule of once a week on Sundays, as I usually do water changes on Saturdays though as my tanks are super well, I never do 50% more like 20% weekly. I only jump higher when my tank's parameters seem off which they never do(knock on wood). I will be doing 50% water changes on my newer tanks I am starting as they will have more sensitive fish inside, but I am also not sure if I will run CO2 on them or not either. I do have CO2 running to 3 other tanks. 

[Pepere]

I find hair algae thrives if I dose easy iron heavily.   Backing off on it tends to help reduce its growth…

I have never really found Easy Carbon to do much of anything.I dosed daily for months, I spot dosed etc….it never seemed to do much.  
 

The appeal of such gluteraldehyde solutions is seductive.  Pour a liquid in, solve your algae… if it worked it would be more appealing…

I obtained definite results following advise gained from reading the 2 hr aquarist….  
 

https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/algae-control

 

Manual removal of algae, trimming leaves that are infested, trimming healthy tops, discarding infected bottoms, replanting the tops, 50% water changes etc…. Slow but steady and definite progress over a few months time… added with spot treating hydrogen peroxide….  Maintain stable fertilizer levels as well as gh, kh…  stable lighting and co2…  plants readjust to changes and they take 2 weeks to adjust.  Constantly changing parameters means the plants expend a lot of energy re  optimizing…   Old growth gets sacrificed and algae infests the old growth thriving on waste organics leeching from the sacrificed leaves…

 

I ignore the dosing instructions on the Easy Green Bottle.  I test nitrate levels and dose easy green to maintain nitrates between 10-20 ppm nitrate.  1 pump of Easy Green adds 3 ppm nitrate to 10 gallons of water…  When I complete a 50% water change, I add back 10 ppm Easy Green by adding 9 pumps of Easy Green to my 29 gallon tanks.  I also add 3 pumps of Easy Iron.  Repeating nitrate tests every other day gives you an indication of how quickly your plant mass is consuming nitrate.  You can dose accordingly…

 

after a few weeks of this intense testing, you can back off as you know how your tank is responding.  Ifind a single pump of Easy Green daily in my 29 gallon tanks maintains stable Nitrate levels.  I redose easy Iron on Wednesday and my 50% water change is on Saturday morning.  Water change is after wiping the glass, and scrubbing rocks with a toothbrush and manual removal , trimming plants as needed…

As growth improved, I was able to increase lighting intensity.  If I have the option of increasing intensity or photoperiod, my experience has been better with adding intensity and keeping photo period between 6-8 hours.  Bear in mind this is with a 29 gallon tank which is a bit on the deep side… And I run CO2… I currently run 2 30 inch long Finnex Planted Plus ALCs on each 29 gallon tank.  100% red, 50% greenr, 30% blue, 70% whites. 4:00 to 8:00 morning and night.  The split photo period is so the lights are on when I am physically present to enjoy the tanks.  If I were home more during the day, I would run a single 8 hour photoperiod…

Increasing waterflow and circular flow through the tank, either by primary filter or wavemakers helps if current is insufficient.  It flushes waste organics from plants and supplies them with fresh co2, ferts…

 

All of the above is more labor intensive than pumping chemicals into the tank, but it worked much better for me and keeps it at bay..  at this point,  prevention is much easier than treatment…

Healthy growing plants defend well against Algae…

Edited July 31 by Pepere

[MattyM]

For my water Easy Iron = Easy Algae. I solved 95% of my algae problems by using a good plant light, cutting the blues down to 3% or less, having a heavily planted tank, and dimming the light so I wasn't blasting the tank. I dose Easy Green and a little extra phosphate b/c my temple plants (stems) seem to need it. 

I do use Easy Carbon from time to time, but not often - once I got things under control I didn't really need it anymore whether the tank is low or high tech. 

[Shadow]

On 7/31/2023 at 3:57 AM, Pepere said:

I find hair algae thrives if I dose easy iron heavily.   Backing off on it tends to help reduce its growth…

I have never really found Easy Carbon to do much of anything.I dosed daily for months, I spot dosed etc….it never seemed to do much.  
 

The appeal of such gluteraldehyde solutions is seductive.  Pour a liquid in, solve your algae… if it worked it would be more appealing…

I obtained definite results following advise gained from reading the 2 hr aquarist….  
 

https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/algae-control

 

Manual removal of algae, trimming leaves that are infested, trimming healthy tops, discarding infected bottoms, replanting the tops, 50% water changes etc…. Slow but steady and definite progress over a few months time… added with spot treating hydrogen peroxide….  Maintain stable fertilizer levels as well as gh, kh…  stable lighting and co2…  plants readjust to changes and they take 2 weeks to adjust.  Constantly changing parameters means the plants expend a lot of energy re  optimizing…   Old growth gets sacrificed and algae infests the old growth thriving on waste organics leeching from the sacrificed leaves…

 

I ignore the dosing instructions on the Easy Green Bottle.  I test nitrate levels and dose easy green to maintain nitrates between 10-20 ppm nitrate.  1 pump of Easy Green adds 3 ppm nitrate to 10 gallons of water…  When I complete a 50% water change, I add back 10 ppm Easy Green by adding 9 pumps of Easy Green to my 29 gallon tanks.  I also add 3 pumps of Easy Iron.  Repeating nitrate tests every other day gives you an indication of how quickly your plant mass is consuming nitrate.  You can dose accordingly…

 

after a few weeks of this intense testing, you can back off as you know how your tank is responding.  Ifind a single pump of Easy Green daily in my 29 gallon tanks maintains stable Nitrate levels.  I redose easy Iron on Wednesday and my 50% water change is on Saturday morning.  Water change is after wiping the glass, and scrubbing rocks with a toothbrush and manual removal , trimming plants as needed…

As growth improved, I was able to increase lighting intensity.  If I have the option of increasing intensity or photoperiod, my experience has been better with adding intensity and keeping photo period between 6-8 hours.  Bear in mind this is with a 29 gallon tank which is a bit on the deep side… And I run CO2… I currently run 2 30 inch long Finnex Planted Plus ALCs on each 29 gallon tank.  100% red, 50% greenr, 30% blue, 70% whites. 4:00 to 8:00 morning and night.  The split photo period is so the lights are on when I am physically present to enjoy the tanks.  If I were home more during the day, I would run a single 8 hour photoperiod…

Increasing waterflow and circular flow through the tank, either by primary filter or wavemakers helps if current is insufficient.  It flushes waste organics from plants and supplies them with fresh co2, ferts…

 

All of the above is more labor intensive than pumping chemicals into the tank, but it worked much better for me and keeps it at bay..  at this point,  prevention is much easier than treatment…

Healthy growing plants defend well against Algae…

Wow...insane feedback! Thanks so much! Will give these tricks a try. 

On 7/31/2023 at 11:00 AM, MattyM said:

For my water Easy Iron = Easy Algae. I solved 95% of my algae problems by using a good plant light, cutting the blues down to 3% or less, having a heavily planted tank, and dimming the light so I wasn't blasting the tank. I dose Easy Green and a little extra phosphate b/c my temple plants (stems) seem to need it. 

I do use Easy Carbon from time to time, but not often - once I got things under control I didn't really need it anymore whether the tank is low or high tech. 

Yea I run a Fluval Aquasky, usually run my blues all the time at below 2% thanks to some schooling/assistance from @nabokovfan87 and my tank is very heavily planted. I also run the same time frame and levels of CO2 through my tank daily starting an hour and a half before the lights come on to cutting it off the same period before the lights go off. I think my problem came with not trimming as much as I should have, not doing heavy water changes and at the same time forgetting sometimes due to life, dosing with Easy Green. Will take all the advice here along with the awesome feedback from @Pepere & roll through the steps to fix it. Think I will be the Easy Carbon and use Easy Iron sparingly if at all. Might switch my light from my one tank that has a Fluval Plant light for the Aquasky currently on the tank as well.