Hair Algae and the best thing to add to my tank

[GoldenGardner]

HI All! I watched Cory's video last night of different Algae eaters. I had no idea that hair algae was a thing, I just thought it was me not doing the right thing for my tank. I'd like to add a fish that will eat Hair Algae off my plants. I currently have Guppies, Neon Tetras, Ember Tetras, Juli Catfish, A Pleco, 2 Cherry Shrimp, and snails in my tank. What would be a good friendly fish or two to add to my tank that will eat the Hair Algae? 

 

I attempted to take  pictures of my beautiful guppies yesterday. These are the best pictures I could get. I wish they'd sit still for a bit. 🙂  I have one really big female that you cans see in the first picture. She and the guy with the blurry yellow tale in the second picture are my first two surviving guppies. The rest were given to me by a neighbor and I LOVE their colors. There's an orange leopard-y tail and another guy with a sunset tail. They are still getting their colors on their bodies. It's so neat to see them change. Then there are several blackish ones with larger tails. Some of them are getting orange coloring on their bodies too. All my fish seem to be doing well. I'm so pleased. 

Edited March 22, 2021 by GoldenGardner
tank/take

[lefty o]

pandagarra, and some amano shrimp.

[Schwack]

I've had good luck with amano shrimp keeping hair algae under control, but I think the easiest way to control it is to change the photoperiod in your tank. Cut light by an hour or so and see if the algae responds. So far, this method has yet to fail me. Typically, I've been able to return my lights to 8 hours/day after the algae dies back and the plants in the tank grow enough to out compete for nutrients.

You can also try something like Easy Carbon from the Coop. When my last 10 gallon was going through its awkward post-cycle shuffle I had a large hair algae bloom and no critters to consume it (outside a few bladder snails.) A few days of Easy Carbon knocked it way back to the point I could just pull it out by hand. It did cause a small ammonia spike, however, but that's more my fault than anything.

[GoldenGardner]

Oh interesting. I have the lights on from 8am until 8pm. So that sounds like I have them on way too long to start with. 

I think I changed it like a month ago from 6pm to 8pm by accident now that I think about it.

 

Edited March 22, 2021 by GoldenGardner

[Schwack]

That is quite a bit of light! Try dropping down to 6-8 hours for a few weeks. I'm willing to bet that'll knock the algae way back.

[Lifeisgood]

Timers on the lights really help!

[GoldenGardner]

I just changed the timer. I can't remember why exactly I changed it from 6pm to 8pm, but I know we like to look in the evening as well, so I just changed it to 1pm to 8pm for the main bar light, and I changed the strip LED light which is just a few colored lights to 8am to 1pm. There's only a few lights on there that work and they are all colored so I don't think they'll be an issue.  I have a dual timer on this tank. 

I read that the grow out tank needs at least 12 hours of light is that right? Wrong? 

[Schwack]

7 minutes ago, GoldenGardner said:

I just changed the timer. I can't remember why exactly I changed it from 6pm to 8pm, but I know we like to look in the evening as well, so I just changed it to 1pm to 8pm for the main bar light, and I changed the strip LED light which is just a few colored lights to 8am to 1pm. There's only a few lights on there that work and they are all colored so I don't think they'll be an issue.  I have a dual timer on this tank. 

I read that the grow out tank needs at least 12 hours of light is that right? Wrong? 

12 hours seems like an exceptionally long photoperiod to me, especially considering how crazy bright lights are these days. IMO the ideal amount of light varies by tank. It's about finding a balance between light and fertilizer to minimize growth of undesirable plants/plant-like organisms while maximizing growth in others + providing viewing time.

For me, around 8 hours has been ideal. I've just purchased my first CO2 regulator, so I'm curious to see how the addition of CO2 will change things.

Keep in mind, that plants can make use of blue/green/red light, so a colored light bar is still light as far as they're concerned. I've also read that algae tends to thrive on red light, so that may make the problem worse!

[GoldenGardner]

UGH! So glad I have this forum. We got the bubble LED thing for free with the rest of the tank, and when we first got it, a couple of the lights were not working and now I think only 3 or 4 work, so it's very little light but I'll monitor it just in case. 

A couple of my plants have grown very tall, and thin, different then the way they were when I bought them, and I wonder if it's because of the light being on so much. 

[Tanked]

Siamese Algae Eaters, 8 hours of light, hydrogen peroxide treatments and a toothbrush fixed my hair algae problem.   The SAEs are doing all of the work now.

[H.K.Luterman]

I get hair algae whenever I pull out duckweed and so the light in the tank increases, so I agree on just experimenting with your light schedule. Most of my tanks run from 8am-1pm, then 5pm to 10pm, so 5 hours twice a day with a 4 hour "siesta" period (I work from home so I like having the lights on as much as I can get away with so I can see my fish). So far the hair algae is manageable; the bits I do get I just pull out manually. My pea puffer tank has a really short light cycle, only 5pm to 10pm, since I can't really have anything in the tank with him for algae control. 

[GoldenGardner]

I adjusted my light schedule yesterday and then my husband killed the power to the bathroom, and I didn't realize they were on the same circuit so it came on at 4am today....... UGHHHHHHH!!!!!! Just fixed the time on the timer. Next time he does that we'll know.