Real bad algae problem

Okay well it has been a while since I have been on here. Busy with work and school and the family and all that. I have been fighting a losing battle with hair algae in my 36 gallon bowfront. I have 2 24watt t5 HO bulbs about 20 inches above the sand. One bulb is 5,000K the other is 6,500K. I have them on for about 8 hrs a day. I have used Phosguard and bumped up water changes. Not working. The fish are fine but my plants are suffering. I am a hare's breath from buying a UV sterilizer or using chemicals. I have scrubbed and tried to groom the plants, I am at the end of my rope what should I do?

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Permalink Reply by Connor on February 18, 2012 at 12:05pm

cut you lights down to like 4 hours a day just until the problem is fixed. also look into getting a fish that eats the hair algae i recommend a Siamese algae eater. they go nut for hair algae and will eat many different types of algae. i have one myself and just one of them took care of my algae problem in a 75 gal. they grow fast too!

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Permalink Reply by Nicolai (nicsaqualand) on February 18, 2012 at 5:40pm

Ok here a few things you can/should do. I just fought a bigtime hair algae problem myself and it's almost gone

First of all, if you don't have a timer, get one and reduce the light time to 7 hours.
Second you should try to limit the excess nutrients in your tank.

That means feed your fish less, don't use any fertilizer with minerals in it. Also feeding your fish less will make them pluck the algae off the plants (especially guppies and platies)

However you can and should use liquid CO2 because it will make your plants grow, therefore use more of the nutrients in your tank and leave none for the algae to grow. Also CO2 simply kills the algae.

Finally and this is the easiest thing, cut down all the affected areas, even if that means hacking down all your beautiful plants.

Then as a bonus you can also get a cleanup crew that will feed off algae and just keep your tank in balance. Snails are a really good addition to your tank (I have nerritina pulligera). They act as scavengers and feed off dead plant matter, left over food and algae.

Do this for about a week and the you should see major improvements.

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Permalink Reply by Brent on February 19, 2012 at 2:08pm

Okay well I have reduced the time the lights are on and I added a 9w uv sterilizer. It says that it is good up to 50 gallons. I don't use ferts anymore. Never tried the co2 but I will look into it. I have lots of trumpet snails. Don't know of any good small algae eaters I can put in the tank. I have tried shrimp but they just don't seem to keep.