# Fish to eat hair algae?



## Tirianixie (Aug 3, 2014)

I have a hair algae problem in my 20g tank  with a female betta, an inch long bristlenose pleco, and neon tetras. Does anyone know of a fish or shrimp that would help keep down hair algae levels by eating it that would be compatible with my fish and tank?:lol:


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## Bikeridinguckgirl14 (Oct 22, 2013)

Shrimp might eat it but you'd have better luck with snails


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## tankman12 (Nov 13, 2012)

The only things that will destroy it is excel and siamese algae eaters (true ones).
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Tirianixie (Aug 3, 2014)

Would Siamese algae eaters be compatible in my tank? I hear they become aggressive, and lose their taste for algae when they mature. Do you know if flying foxes are good? I'm practically clueless about them. I was maybe going to try shrimp soon.  Thanks for replying!


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Siamese algae eater 100%. I put mine into my hair algae ridden tank and within a few days it was all gone. My guy wasnt aggressive and was an adult, he still ate it. Flying foxes are more useless at algae eating ime


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

But 20g might be a bit small for a full grown one. You could use him to do the dirty work then sell him on once its done/once he gets too big. Or buy a bigger tank! :twisted: Algae is usually too much light and too many nutrients so if you reduce those you shouldnt get your hair algae back


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## tankman12 (Nov 13, 2012)

Ya sell him or them once they eat the algae. A lot of people think the siamese are aggressive. Their not. The flying foxes and the chinese, suck the slim coat of fish. They do loose there taste for algae as they age. Is the tank planted? If so use so flourish excel, and it will destroy the hair algae.
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## Freedom (May 17, 2009)

Someone said you can use Excel to kill it - this is true. However, overdosing with Excel may also kill off some fish, so be cautious with that.

You will continue to have algae issues until you sort out the cause. Possibilities include:
- direct sunlight
- too much light - put your lights on a timer, not more than 6 -8 hours per day. This will stop future algae. To rid of current algae, you need complete darkness for 4 days which may not be good for the fish and plants in the tank
- over feeding - do you fast your fish one day per week? 
- over stocking
- too many nutrients - do you add ferts? Cut back on this. Do you have enough live plants to use up all the nutrients in the tank?
- a too clean tank makes it VERY easy for algae to multiply

While adding an algae eater of some sort will help, usually they can not keep up with algae in a tank which already has a large amount. And remember they do not eat ONLY algae, you still have to feed them!

You may do best by removing the current algae manually, and then changing things which caused it to develop in the first place.


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## tankman12 (Nov 13, 2012)

Overdosing doesnt kill fish or even shrimp IME. Unless you really overdose. If you have a good filter you will be fine. All my tanks are over filtered and heavily planted. So if you overdose and you have like 1 java fern, maybe it will kill something. Also maybe you should add a small power head. Cuz, more flow = less algae.
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## Freedom (May 17, 2009)

Excel is a reducing agent. Overdosing reduces the water's capacity to hold oxygen. Fish may end up at the surface, gasping.

- paraphrase from the Seachem Tech Support forum


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## tankman12 (Nov 13, 2012)

Ya IME that has never happened in 7 years. Im not saying it doesnt happen.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

I got some nasty hair algae due to leaving the lights on too long. I reduced the timer on the lights to 9 hours, threw away the two most affected plants (I tried to manually remove the algae and it shredded them), dosed with excel once, and by sheer coincidence had a ramshorn snail hatch-out at the same time. There's a couple of odd strands of algae here and there, but the worst of it is gone.

I've moved to dosing excel once a week.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

The issue with Excel is that once you use it, it alters your water chemistry by adding that co2. Either you keep up with it and dose it daily/every other day or you don't dose at all. If you only dose every now and then you are altering your water chemistry and making it less stable.

CO2 overdose causes a severe drop in O2 (this is seen naturally occuring in catfish farmers when at night, the plants in the pond no longer produce O2, the CO2 ends up suffocating the catfish and by morning every single fish is belly up.) the way to combat that is to use more aeration, catfish farmers use paddle devices to stir up the water at night so they always have enough O2. This isn't seen as much in the aquaria because, yes it does take a lot of CO2 to do that but at the same time, it depends on your pH level. If you have a lower pH level, you are more at risk of killing your fish with a CO2 overdose.

Anyway, I agree SAE's are good for hairalgae, my Golden Dwarf Barbs have been making a short job of it in my tank as well


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## tankman12 (Nov 13, 2012)

Oh i forgot, american flagfish. I got 3 females and they destroyed it, they can be mean though. But they eat it better than anything.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

lilnaugrim said:


> The issue with Excel is that once you use it, it alters your water chemistry by adding that co2. Either you keep up with it and dose it daily/every other day or you don't dose at all. If you only dose every now and then you are altering your water chemistry and making it less stable.
> 
> CO2 overdose causes a severe drop in O2 (this is seen naturally occuring in catfish farmers when at night, the plants in the pond no longer produce O2, the CO2 ends up suffocating the catfish and by morning every single fish is belly up.) the way to combat that is to use more aeration, catfish farmers use paddle devices to stir up the water at night so they always have enough O2. This isn't seen as much in the aquaria because, yes it does take a lot of CO2 to do that but at the same time, it depends on your pH level. If you have a lower pH level, you are more at risk of killing your fish with a CO2 overdose.
> 
> Anyway, I agree SAE's are good for hairalgae, my Golden Dwarf Barbs have been making a short job of it in my tank as well


Interesting. The package directions say to only use it once to twice a week...


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

hrutan said:


> Interesting. The package directions say to only use it once to twice a week...


Ah, you are using Flourish Comprehsive then, not Flourish Excel  that's a whole different story. Comprehensive is the liquid fertilizer and Excel is the carbon dioxide supplement.


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## Tony2632 (Aug 30, 2013)

Amano shrimp are the best hair algae eating shrimp from my experience. I also have SAE in my planted tank for black beard algae, which I rarely get. Also correct me if I'm wrong, starving a black molly will cause it to feast on algae. I never experience the molly method, it's from what I hear. From my experience with hair algae, I used to get a lot of it in my planted tank. I used to run my lights for 12 plus hours. I reduce my lighting to 8 hours a day + Amano shrimp and I never got it again. I never used a excel method on hair algae, I find it pointless. I rather use Amano shrimp. Plus I find them more interesting to watch.


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## Tirianixie (Aug 3, 2014)

:yourock:THANKS FOR ALL THE ADVICE!! 
I am planning on getting more plants and mossballs, and doing twice a week algae removal by hand. I don't fertilize, and there is direct sunlight, though not much, I keep the light on 9 hours a day, which I am cutting back on. I don't think I will do the flourish Excel, (It sounds scarily complicated) but I have been looking into Amano shrimp. 
Thanks again! :thankyou:


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## hrutan (Jun 25, 2014)

lilnaugrim said:


> Ah, you are using Flourish Comprehsive then, not Flourish Excel  that's a whole different story. Comprehensive is the liquid fertilizer and Excel is the carbon dioxide supplement.


Ha, okay. It must've been the simple light change that did the deed, then, combined with snails. Those little dudes are so hard working!

Hair algae is so ugly. :| Good luck, Tirianixie! :-D


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