Well, this is strangely comforting. I've been struggling with hair algae for a little while now (it's getting better) and I didn't understand why I couldn't get rid of it, but now I understand it's a tough problem for everyone. Good luck to you too!
Love your voice AND the information....but really love how you add a musicality to your story ❣ Another easy algae killer is 3% Hydrogen Peroxide solution. I buy plastic lab droppers in bulk from online for all kinds of liquids used in the aquarium hobby. Turn off the aquarium lights and all water motion units, like filters & pumps. Let the tank calm down to a standstill than hover your filled dropper over the alien intruder and slowly squeeze out the HP slowly spiraling out from the center to get the best coverage. You might want to keep your hand still for a few minutes before pulling it out of the aquarium, since this will disturb the HP. You will notice the algae start forming bubbles, which means its killing the target, which will magically change color AND is readily eaten by a number of critters since you unknowingly became an aquatic chef. The HP is very weak in its structure and will dissipate or turn into oxygen, especially with light, {which is why it's sold in a dark bottles, LIGHT KILLS H.P. } Your hardscape can be removed to be cleaned with HP if its bad, {never use soap, HP or Vinegar is way better.} I've cleaned peoples smothered tanks with this methode off and on over a period of a week with this in tank spot treatment in 3 to 4 areas at a time. Any new aliens pop up, just repeat. Once you get the hang of it, and do tiny steps, wait several hours, repeat, wait a day, repeat....just don't go overboard ! Take your time and the aliens will disappear !
Great video👍 I had a nightmare hair algae situation in 3 large tanks, after fighting (and losing) for months I tried spot treatments of hydrogen peroxide and it worked perfectly. Within a week the hair algae was gone
I have been a fan of your videos for a while, but this one is particularly timely. It’s very comforting to see someone you respect and admire in the hobby still dealing with the same issues, because that’s what algae does! It’s one of the most successful life forms on the planet, of course anyone with a water box and lights is going to struggle with it. I am not smarter than billions of years of evolution!
I do a medium light tank that’s on a timer for 6 hours! I have a low-tech tank with lots of red root floaters, Java ferns windelov, and dwarf tiger lilies that seem to be thriving with less light time. No issues with hair algae!
Yup, I've tried every anecdotal method there is. One thing that has worked for me against the soft, very long stringy hair algae is hydrogen peroxide. My dose is 1ml per 10 gallons, of FRESH hydrogen peroxide. I say that because once you open a bottle of hydrogen peroxide it starts to break down into plain water and you can't dose right. That doesn't work against the much tougher, wirey cladophora algae that forms the balls and clumps. That you pretty much have to remove by hand but thankfully it usually doesn't stick to too much. That and as you say, keeping the tank clean and having lots of healthy plants out-competing the algae.
@@JJ-pe4jt Not normally. It can take a day or two to see the hair algae turning brown or gray and see that it's dying. Then you could repeat the dose after a few days if you want. Hopefully it would only take one dose. Keep in mind the peroxide could kill off some of the bacteria in your tank and filters. Some people turn off their filters for about an hour during the dosing. It doesn't take long for the peroxide to break down into water and you can turn the filters on again. Personally I leave the filters on to circulate the peroxide around. I haven't noticed any ammonia spikes or anything. YMMV.
Amanos will eat them, from my experience at least. They have reliably wiped the algae off my pieces of woods. HOWEVER, you need to not feed them at all.
Amanos, pygmy corys, and otocinclus are doing such a great job in my tank I feel like I have to add food every once in a while because they pick the plants clean. I disagree with the premise that hair algae is inevitable. BBA on the other hand...
@@sot8343 brother, green hair algae functions like a fast growing plants. They mainly are there cuz high nitrate/ nitrogenbased nutrients. BBA is mainly cuz of too much iron in the tank. I never have any problem with BBA, I just stopped /reduced the amount of liquid iron i put in the tank, less light and add more fast growing stem plants, all good. Green hair algae on the other hand… 💀
@@JS_Gaiserik I should test that iron theory. My tank is fairly stable and the BBA is minute and manageable specks on hardscape. I should supplement iron and see if it grows. My nitrates and phosphate doesn't register on tests.
Amano shrimp are great, just have a good lid. I cut out a notch for the cord to the heater & filter. The shrimp climb up and out and end up dead on the floor a few feet away
It's a curse to the aquarium fish keeper I gave up trying to remove it by hand so I decided to start again taking out every thing to kill of the algae. I have now put in a UV lamp in my new set up with an LED programmable light unit to cut down the amount of light. I now have to see how it goes and yes I was over feeding my fish, an excellent video 👍
At least your hair algae is pretty :) I had a dose of black hair algae that was pretty-ish and under control til it wasn't :( Then came the .... pretty much everything you said... Then came the peroxide... Then my black hair algae turned bright red, then disappeared... Fish were fine, most plants were ok, and had a little regrowing to do, but it did save resetting my tank.
Haha. Part of me does quite like the short fur looking one😀. But Black hair algae is something I’ve actually avoided so far, though I know it will get me eventually. It’s practically a waiting game.
For me the long term solution for old tanks and all new has been to go heavy on the floating plants. Duckweed, frogbit, water lettuce. Strategic placement of feeder rings on the surface to make sure the stem plants are receiving adequate light. Or skip the stem plants entirely, do all floaters above a pure hardscape and chuck in a bunch of catappa leaves go for blackwater semi-biotope. Algae never. And of course be careful about the light duration. New tanks I go 6 hour light cycle for the first couple months then up to 8.
The hair algae snail was hilarious to me. It’s hard but do your best not to over feed. Malawa shrimp, and goldfish eat hair algae happily. Guppy grass, water wisteria, hygrophila, and java moss can outcompete it. NEVER use soap. Hot water and bleach or hot water with hydrogen peroxide, or hot water and vinegar, are safe.
Hey! Im a new subscriber, I just came across your videos and love them! I was wondering if you have any advice for a 40 litre mini patio pond? Suitable fish for UK etc, thanks!
Love this video. I had it hitch hike into one of my tanks, I did the tweezer thing like you and then my plants became a jungle and took over. I decided it’s also like a plant itself. I just helped a friend setup her first tank (60 gallon) I told her to subscribe to your channel. You give best descriptions of fish
My fancy goldfish eat hair algae. Wouldnt really work to add them into any tank to remove them, though. I pull rocks/wood out from my tropical tank and feed it to my goldfish. They love chomping on it and a day later it's all gone.
Heyo. There’s a pair of apisto borellii in there. The male looks blue-grey in bright light and black-blue in shadows. Great little fish and wonderfully hardy.
Hair algae is not an infection, it's but to an imbalance of phosphates to nitrates. All you need to do is manually remove it or hit it with a little hydrogen peroxide to get it to go away. From there you just need to process a bunch of water changes to reduce the phosphates. Done and done 😊
Great video. I have a lot of green hair algae in 2 of my tanks and I see that I am going to have to up my game in fighting it. Please, I need to know, what is that beautiful black fish with the iridescent stipes and spots that keeps poking his head out.
1_menos luz 2_corydoras 5 o mas, se comen todo los restos de comida que cae al fondo! 3-plantas flotantes, consumen los nutrientes del agua y disminullen la luz. 4-photos planta, consume efectivamente nutrientes del agua. 5- menos comida, los peces no necesitan tanta comida, tus danios no se moriran con menos comida.
I got rid of hair algae in about 4 to 5 months by careful feeding and trimming leaves of affected plants , introducing more plants to the system and water changes of 24 to 30% at least once a week. Mollies and Siamese Algae Eaters helped too.
Great video, I finally got rid of my hair algae problem after a year or so...i added more plants did a couple water changes and stopped being lazy mostly. but my plants are kicking butt :)!
Timely video! My tank has been running around 6 weeks (so many cpd fry in that time lol) and I've had to remove so much hair algae. I've turned the lights down and shortened the time they're on but, like, I want to be able see my tank!
Funny, I never thought a lot about it, but I did have this show up recently in my little (10 gallon) tank. I have totally forgotten about it. I think that the duckweed (or frogbit? I forget to be honest) that I introduced made the environment challenging for the hair algae, since the floating plants took over the surface and the tank light is usually a little dark and green. I remove some of the surface plants when I do water and filter changes and such. I only have shrimps and a few snails.
No hair algue and keeping/measiing my phosphates and nitrates (I have to add nitrates to keep level at near optimum) therefore I don't think my feeding and stoking are an issue but then again even fast growing plants seem to decline over time and in the end do not make it (lighting?). My issue is with having BBA (or Staghorn?) in my tank. Sometimes it grows out of control on the slow growing plants then I remove infected leaves but I tend to keep it under control with 'chemicals', that does not fully remove it though.
Try running your tank water through a uvc unit. Any size, using a small water pump, similar to a water feature pump. This will prevent the spread and the growth. Turn the light off during the middle of the photoperiod for about 1.5 to 2 hours. Combine this with daily water changes of 25% to reduce nutrients and physical removal of the strands. As Lauren said, it's a long haul.
@@LilPinkPoodle7I tryed 2times Blackout. - 6 days Full covered black no light inside result = All algea gone eaten by my algea eaten fishes. - 2days not covered full. Just no open light. My 60-70% algea get reddish color and them stop growing I just siphon them
Someone needs to hire you to narrate nature videos. I wouldn't be surprised if your last name was Attenborough! Great video
Agreed! I rewatch old videos just because they’re so soothing
Well, this is strangely comforting. I've been struggling with hair algae for a little while now (it's getting better) and I didn't understand why I couldn't get rid of it, but now I understand it's a tough problem for everyone. Good luck to you too!
Love your voice AND the information....but really love how you add a musicality to your story ❣ Another easy algae killer is 3% Hydrogen Peroxide solution. I buy plastic lab droppers in bulk from online for all kinds of liquids used in the aquarium hobby. Turn off the aquarium lights and all water motion units, like filters & pumps. Let the tank calm down to a standstill than hover your filled dropper over the alien intruder and slowly squeeze out the HP slowly spiraling out from the center to get the best coverage. You might want to keep your hand still for a few minutes before pulling it out of the aquarium, since this will disturb the HP. You will notice the algae start forming bubbles, which means its killing the target, which will magically change color AND is readily eaten by a number of critters since you unknowingly became an aquatic chef. The HP is very weak in its structure and will dissipate or turn into oxygen, especially with light, {which is why it's sold in a dark bottles, LIGHT KILLS H.P. } Your hardscape can be removed to be cleaned with HP if its bad, {never use soap, HP or Vinegar is way better.} I've cleaned peoples smothered tanks with this methode off and on over a period of a week with this in tank spot treatment in 3 to 4 areas at a time. Any new aliens pop up, just repeat. Once you get the hang of it, and do tiny steps, wait several hours, repeat, wait a day, repeat....just don't go overboard ! Take your time and the aliens will disappear !
Thanks for these very detailed instructions. Will give it a try.
Excellent, and yes, you could narrate just about anything. An honest take on Hair Algae.
Great video👍 I had a nightmare hair algae situation in 3 large tanks, after fighting (and losing) for months I tried spot treatments of hydrogen peroxide and it worked perfectly. Within a week the hair algae was gone
I have been a fan of your videos for a while, but this one is particularly timely. It’s very comforting to see someone you respect and admire in the hobby still dealing with the same issues, because that’s what algae does! It’s one of the most successful life forms on the planet, of course anyone with a water box and lights is going to struggle with it. I am not smarter than billions of years of evolution!
I do a medium light tank that’s on a timer for 6 hours! I have a low-tech tank with lots of red root floaters, Java ferns windelov, and dwarf tiger lilies that seem to be thriving with less light time. No issues with hair algae!
Yup, I've tried every anecdotal method there is. One thing that has worked for me against the soft, very long stringy hair algae is hydrogen peroxide. My dose is 1ml per 10 gallons, of FRESH hydrogen peroxide. I say that because once you open a bottle of hydrogen peroxide it starts to break down into plain water and you can't dose right. That doesn't work against the much tougher, wirey cladophora algae that forms the balls and clumps. That you pretty much have to remove by hand but thankfully it usually doesn't stick to too much. That and as you say, keeping the tank clean and having lots of healthy plants out-competing the algae.
Hi
Is the peroxide dose daily?
Thanks
@@JJ-pe4jt Not normally. It can take a day or two to see the hair algae turning brown or gray and see that it's dying. Then you could repeat the dose after a few days if you want. Hopefully it would only take one dose. Keep in mind the peroxide could kill off some of the bacteria in your tank and filters. Some people turn off their filters for about an hour during the dosing. It doesn't take long for the peroxide to break down into water and you can turn the filters on again. Personally I leave the filters on to circulate the peroxide around. I haven't noticed any ammonia spikes or anything. YMMV.
@@JJ-pe4jt Forgot to mention, if you have riccia fluitans it will kill that too, but otherwise it's harmless to the higher order plants in the tank.
Amanos will eat them, from my experience at least. They have reliably wiped the algae off my pieces of woods. HOWEVER, you need to not feed them at all.
Amanos, pygmy corys, and otocinclus are doing such a great job in my tank I feel like I have to add food every once in a while because they pick the plants clean.
I disagree with the premise that hair algae is inevitable. BBA on the other hand...
@@sot8343 brother, green hair algae functions like a fast growing plants. They mainly are there cuz high nitrate/ nitrogenbased nutrients. BBA is mainly cuz of too much iron in the tank. I never have any problem with BBA, I just stopped /reduced the amount of liquid iron i put in the tank, less light and add more fast growing stem plants, all good.
Green hair algae on the other hand… 💀
@@JS_Gaiserik I should test that iron theory. My tank is fairly stable and the BBA is minute and manageable specks on hardscape. I should supplement iron and see if it grows.
My nitrates and phosphate doesn't register on tests.
@@sot8343 curious about it as well, hope I‘m correct on this one and wish you luck my friend
Amano shrimp are great, just have a good lid. I cut out a notch for the cord to the heater & filter. The shrimp climb up and out and end up dead on the floor a few feet away
It's a curse to the aquarium fish keeper I gave up trying to remove it by hand so I decided to start again taking out every thing to kill of the algae. I have now put in a UV lamp in my new set up with an LED programmable light unit to cut down the amount of light. I now have to see how it goes and yes I was over feeding my fish, an excellent video 👍
Amazing! I add more neocaradina and as many plants as I can to combat it👍
Forgot to say, two tanks have no hair algae anymore and the others need tons more plants. Happy Saturday!
Amano shrimps work great too!
At least your hair algae is pretty :) I had a dose of black hair algae that was pretty-ish and under control til it wasn't :( Then came the .... pretty much everything you said... Then came the peroxide... Then my black hair algae turned bright red, then disappeared... Fish were fine, most plants were ok, and had a little regrowing to do, but it did save resetting my tank.
Haha. Part of me does quite like the short fur looking one😀. But Black hair algae is something I’ve actually avoided so far, though I know it will get me eventually. It’s practically a waiting game.
scuds and pothos. scuds will eat hair algae as long as you don't feed them to much fish food and pothos will suck the nutrients out of the water.
For me the long term solution for old tanks and all new has been to go heavy on the floating plants. Duckweed, frogbit, water lettuce. Strategic placement of feeder rings on the surface to make sure the stem plants are receiving adequate light. Or skip the stem plants entirely, do all floaters above a pure hardscape and chuck in a bunch of catappa leaves go for blackwater semi-biotope. Algae never. And of course be careful about the light duration. New tanks I go 6 hour light cycle for the first couple months then up to 8.
The hair algae snail was hilarious to me. It’s hard but do your best not to over feed. Malawa shrimp, and goldfish eat hair algae happily. Guppy grass, water wisteria, hygrophila, and java moss can outcompete it.
NEVER use soap. Hot water and bleach or hot water with hydrogen peroxide, or hot water and vinegar, are safe.
Hey! Im a new subscriber, I just came across your videos and love them! I was wondering if you have any advice for a 40 litre mini patio pond? Suitable fish for UK etc, thanks!
Love this video. I had it hitch hike into one of my tanks, I did the tweezer thing like you and then my plants became a jungle and took over. I decided it’s also like a plant itself. I just helped a friend setup her first tank (60 gallon) I told her to subscribe to your channel. You give best descriptions of fish
I have hair algae growing on my hornwort and guppy grass plants. 😢 impossible to manually remove just the algae
Twizzle a tooth brush in it
Nice information and really soo pleasant to listen and watch... And what's that black center piece fish mam
My fancy goldfish eat hair algae. Wouldnt really work to add them into any tank to remove them, though. I pull rocks/wood out from my tropical tank and feed it to my goldfish. They love chomping on it and a day later it's all gone.
Wow. I’ve never even thought to feed it to gold fish. I might try putting a rock or two in the pond and see if they do a good cleaning job. Cheers!
I like I on hard scapes . What are these people doing to get so much 😂
rreally good video with great b roll shots
Hi! What is the species of that beautiful black cichlid you have in this vid? Great vid btw!!
Heyo. There’s a pair of apisto borellii in there. The male looks blue-grey in bright light and black-blue in shadows. Great little fish and wonderfully hardy.
Came here to ask the same question! ❤️
Excel .. sorted.
Use goldfish to get rid of it
duckweed was my weapon against hair algae it took like a month but it dwindled little by little
arguable just as hard to remove but I dont mind it
Hair algae is not an infection, it's but to an imbalance of phosphates to nitrates. All you need to do is manually remove it or hit it with a little hydrogen peroxide to get it to go away. From there you just need to process a bunch of water changes to reduce the phosphates. Done and done 😊
Adding riparium plants also helps significantly.
Thanku, timely advice, just planning setting up my first tank! ✌️
Great video. I have a lot of green hair algae in 2 of my tanks and I see that I am going to have to up my game in fighting it. Please, I need to know, what is that beautiful black fish with the iridescent stipes and spots that keeps poking his head out.
1_menos luz
2_corydoras 5 o mas, se comen todo los restos de comida que cae al fondo!
3-plantas flotantes, consumen los nutrientes del agua y disminullen la luz.
4-photos planta, consume efectivamente nutrientes del agua.
5- menos comida, los peces no necesitan tanta comida, tus danios no se moriran con menos comida.
Thanks now I have a reason to get my auto water change setup, and more plants I’ve been lazy for to long and it’s all well overdue….
I got rid of hair algae in about 4 to 5 months by careful feeding and trimming leaves of affected plants , introducing more plants to the system and water changes of 24 to 30% at least once a week. Mollies and Siamese Algae Eaters helped too.
Great video, I finally got rid of my hair algae problem after a year or so...i added more plants did a couple water changes and stopped being lazy mostly. but my plants are kicking butt :)!
Well some people don't like them but scuds will absolutely help clean hair alage.
I introduced floating plants which pretty much eliminated the hair algae in my tank.
My mature Siamese algae eater eats the hair algae…I have been putting smothered wood into the tank with him and he’s cleaning it in a day or so
Timely video! My tank has been running around 6 weeks (so many cpd fry in that time lol) and I've had to remove so much hair algae. I've turned the lights down and shortened the time they're on but, like, I want to be able see my tank!
moss ball grew rampant on my carpeting plant...ended up scraping the whole thing after months of trying to pull it out.
Funny, I never thought a lot about it, but I did have this show up recently in my little (10 gallon) tank. I have totally forgotten about it. I think that the duckweed (or frogbit? I forget to be honest) that I introduced made the environment challenging for the hair algae, since the floating plants took over the surface and the tank light is usually a little dark and green. I remove some of the surface plants when I do water and filter changes and such. I only have shrimps and a few snails.
Hair algae is not a negative it's a positive unless all you care about is how fancy your tank looks
Decrease light, hair algae can't grow without strong light.
You should be a narator yoh have a amazing voice also Siamese algae eater only eat it when young they stop when older
Just spent the last half hour clipping rotala and limno with clumps of hair algea on it. Noticed you uploaded a video and it's like deja vu.
Could you do a video on on the beard algae’s
No hair algue and keeping/measiing my phosphates and nitrates (I have to add nitrates to keep level at near optimum) therefore I don't think my feeding and stoking are an issue but then again even fast growing plants seem to decline over time and in the end do not make it (lighting?). My issue is with having BBA (or Staghorn?) in my tank. Sometimes it grows out of control on the slow growing plants then I remove infected leaves but I tend to keep it under control with 'chemicals', that does not fully remove it though.
Try running your tank water through a uvc unit. Any size, using a small water pump, similar to a water feature pump. This will prevent the spread and the growth. Turn the light off during the middle of the photoperiod for about 1.5 to 2 hours. Combine this with daily water changes of 25% to reduce nutrients and physical removal of the strands. As Lauren said, it's a long haul.
how does this compare to staghorn algae
❤
Beautiful fish
Blackout absoluty work on for my aquarium and my friends. Without chemical
How long did you black out the tank?
@@LilPinkPoodle7I tryed 2times Blackout.
- 6 days Full covered black no light inside result = All algea gone eaten by my algea eaten fishes.
- 2days not covered full. Just no open light. My 60-70% algea get reddish color and them stop growing I just siphon them
Your not doing car ads are you?
No, RUclips ads are based on the watcher and location.
@DashDrones no I heard an ad on the radio the other day and it really sounded like Lauren. :)
@@speckledjim_oh hahaha 😂
I’ve seen where people use peroxide to kill hair allergy. I’ve never been brave enough to do it myself.