# How can I deal with this algae?



## LouiMon (Feb 21, 2013)

My ten gallon has two 13W 6500K lights that are only on for 6hr/day. I hadn't been dosing ferts, but my plants have been dying, so I started dosing Flourish. Sadly, it's been five days since I added it and while the plants have really sprung back to life, I also have a significant amount of hair algae.

I don't have many plants right now. Would adding more fix this problem?

I would eventually like to start adding CO2, but there's not much point when I only have a couple plants. There's plenty of people that have successful planted tanks without CO2, though, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.


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## peachii (Jan 6, 2013)

I dose excel to deal with algae, although we haven't had an issue with it in awhile.

I've successfully planted all my tanks without Co2 and just recently started dosing excel daily, more for plant growth than to control algae in my tanks though.

When we had a hair algae outbreak in the big tank a few months ago when we switched lights to a brighter fixture, we dipped the plants in peroxide to kill the algae, replanted them after the dip and the tank has done fine since. Don't dose peroxide straight into your tank as you could potentially kill your fish if you over dose.

You have more nutrients than your plants can use at the moment and need to out compete the nutrients your plants aren't using so the algae has nothing to eat. Maybe try some floaters such as frogbit, water lettuce, greater duckweed, salvinia if you don't already have them.


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## Laki (Aug 24, 2011)

Is there a way to reduce it to one 6500k light? two seems like way too much for a 10 gallon.


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## peachii (Jan 6, 2013)

I have 1 10W and 1 13W on most of my 10 gallons. Will be 2 13 when it comes time to replace the old bulbs we bought first.


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## Quinn (Apr 4, 2010)

2 is not too much. That is 26 watts over 10 gallons. Generally its advised to have around 2 watts/gallon (depending on plants you want). I have 2 13 watt 6500K CFLs over my ten gallon tank. When I first set it up I had a hair algae problem, but I just got some Amano Shrimp to take care of it haha. I also reduced my light hours, but if you are already only doing 6 that's pretty low. As well as reducing, I broke up my lighting times (so I did a few hours on, then off, then on again) as I heard algae doesn't like irregular lighting times but the plants don't mind as much. May or may not be true but it did help me. Between the shrimp and snails now the only algae I ever see building up is in the lift tube of my sponge filter.
I think adding plants would help, for the excess nutrients. I know my floaters grow like crazy and definitely help, as Peachii suggested. 
What kind of plants do you currently have?


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## LouiMon (Feb 21, 2013)

Just a Hygro and some Wisteria, but they're not healthy. They've barely grown an inch in 3 months. Flourish has helped, but it's also caused way more algae.


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## LouiMon (Feb 21, 2013)

Okay, I've decided to get 7-8 new plants and a bottle of Excel. 

How do you add the stuff? I've heard people say to dilute with water and then pour it in. I've also heard people say to squirt it on the plants with a syringe.


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## sandybottom (Nov 29, 2012)

what kind of lights,spiral cfls,u shaped cfls,t5no,t5ho,t8?


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## LouiMon (Feb 21, 2013)

sandybottom said:


> what kind of lights,spiral cfls,u shaped cfls,t5no,t5ho,t8?


CFL... I've had them for about 4 months


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## sandybottom (Nov 29, 2012)

spiral?


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## sandybottom (Nov 29, 2012)

what kind of plants? how many? how often do you dose flourish? how much?


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## LouiMon (Feb 21, 2013)

Yes, Spiral. They'll be primary fast growing stem plants and I'll get about 7-8 of them. I'll be dosing 1ml of Flourish once a week after a water change. I might increase that if the plants need it, but I'm going to start slow.


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## sandybottom (Nov 29, 2012)

green hair or any other type of algae will keep coming back until you hit a balance in your tank.you have been dosing micros,but what about macros and co2?since your lights are spiral cfls you are in low light category due to the light loss from your bulb shape.i would not cut back on light duration,i would think about increasing it up to 8 hrs,with the addition of a co2 supplement.are your reflectors good?i cover mine with aluminum foil to help as mine are a dull metal. also make sure you have enough circulation in your tank.manually remove as much hair algae as you can by twirling it up with a toothbrush.you want to get your plants growing to out-compete the algae.adding fast growing stems and floaters will help suck up any extra nutrients. also,what kind of substrate do you use?what kinds of plants do you have in the tank now?


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## amykow (May 9, 2013)

I use one of these medicine droppers to dose excel and fertilizers:

http://www.amazon.com/Straight-Tip-...99&sr=8-16&keywords=ezy+dose+medicine+dropper


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