2 inches is all it took.

[Rick Bunn]

I have six ten gallon tanks, situated on a shelving unit, with cheap LED lights from Amazon suspended on the underside of each shelf illuminating the tank below it, Each tank ranges from moderately to heavily planted, and range from lightly to heavily stocked with fish. I dose occasionally with Easy Green, and do water changes as the conditions in each tank dictate.

About 2-3 weeks after setting up this shelving unit, I began my battle with hair algae.

I tried adding less Easy Green. then a few weeks later adding MORE Easy Green, I played with light duration until I noticed plants struggling even more than they were just covered in algae. Peroxide worked.......for a little while, but it kept coming back. In forty years of fishkeeping I have never had so much trouble finding the balance in a group of tanks.  I was constantly removing hair algae, and scrubbing the front glass. and getting annoyed at myself for putting the shelves too close together to comfortably be able to really get into the tanks easily, 

Well finally one day about a month ago I decided to drain each tank into a tote, just low enough to move them off the shelves, so that I could adjust the shelves enough to give me about 2 more inches between the top of the tanks and the shelf above them. Just enough room to make my ongoing battle with the algae a bit easier. I then replaced each tank in its original location and put the water from the totes back into its respective tank.

The hair algae began to die!

Within a week or so it had almost disappeared from all the tanks in this set up. I changed nothing else at this time, as I had already tried everything else I could think of to balance out these tanks, and had resolved myself to growing hair algae forever and just working with it in these tanks. Maybe it had run its course, maybe I had finally found the balance just as I decided to do this, but also just maybe that extra 2 inches between the light and the tank made a difference. 

All I know is that as of now, plants and fish are all thriving and there is no hair algae in any of these tanks.

[OceanTruth]

That is pretty wild! Crazy how a very slight change can fix problems or introduce new ones. Glad it worked out for you.

[lefty o]

it is amazing sometimes how a minor change can make a big difference.