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In my twenty gallon aquarium, there has been an increase in hair algea. Why does it only target some plants and how do i get rid of it?

Thanks for your help.

Fisher

Hi,
Here is a site on algae, its types, what causes it, and
how to get rid of it:
[link=http://www.otocinclus.com/articles/algae.html]http://www.otocinclus.com/articles/algae.html" style="COLOR: #FF00FF[/link]

Hope this helps...
Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Hi,

Man, it feels like I've been gone forever...

Anyway, another method for treating hair algae is to dose Flourish Excel. Months ago I first started reading bits and pieces here and there about people who dose their tanks with this stuff have seen hair algae disappear within a week or so. Then the whispers started getting louder. I tried it for myself in my planted tank. It's 46 gallons, 2.4 WPG with pressurized CO2. Had a bad hair algae outbreak, and tried fighting it off with increased CO2 - that stopped it from growing in new places, but it didn't get rid of what was already there. Even removing pieces by hand, it would grow back in the same places. So I figured it can't hurt to try dosing Excel. To my half-shock, half-no shock at all, it worked like a charm.

Now, I'm not sure if there's some chemical in it that just flat out kills hair algae, or if it's just because of the additional carbon (which is what I suspect - killed the algae by helping the plants grow), but either way dosing Excel made all the difference. I found it strange in my situation that the upped pressurized CO2 didn't do the job, but a few days of dosing Excel did. Anyway, I suggest trying it.

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Back in the saddle!

Hey nowhereman6, I've heard similar whispers, and I was wondering if there were any adverse reactions to this method, especially if you already use CO2 (I use a DIY setup). Do you just dose according to the instructions on the bottle, or less because you already inject CO2 in the tank, or are they absolutly different and one has nothing to do with the other?

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Hi,

Like I said, I use pressurized CO2 and I still dosed it with no bad side effects at all - or I should say, the fish showed no signs of being stressed. I think it's because Excel isn't straight C, it's some sort of carbon compound - but I'll leave that to the chemists here to figure out. The only side effect I saw was dead hair algae. If you're still wary, dose it every other day as opposed to every day.

Last edited by NowherMan6 at 07-Jun-2005 16:31

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Back in the saddle!

Sounds good. Thanks so much for the info.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

thx for the info...nowhereman