# black hair algae



## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

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anyone have any ideas on where i can start with excessive bloom of black hair algae on my plants , this is in my new 55 gal set up , prob up and running from around dec/jan i am running a lifeglow 36" dual lamp ,not sure of the bulb wattages i think 21 and 3600k , will chk tommorow . also was running my nova extreme dual lamp light , i think i have given the tank too much light .
also running 2 aqua clear 70s
eco complete 
i also have dosed the tank with some fertalizer -sera /florena 
0-0-4 fert iron enriched . have been putting in the rec amount every other water change .

water parameters 
a=0
n03=0
n02=0
p.h= 7.6
i run the lights pretty much when i get home from work so around 3 thirty till bed time around 11 ish . i have 6 discuss in the tank , bushynose plecos ,and 2 angels , mildly planted not sure what plants i have , some vals, anubius ,any ideas .last time my plecos took care of this when it bloomed in one of my 35 gals .
i hope someone can help thanks 
tom
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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Pull up/off as much as you can (spend no more than a few minutes  ), then double or triple dose your tank with Excel. If you have critters that will eat the dead/dying algae, it will help (ie, Amano shrimp). After about a week, do it again. 

I did with my 20g very recently (it gets no attention as it's back at my folks place in my old room), and it worked wonders - now there's almost no BBA. There were a few crypts in there that I thought might melt, but they were fine. Shrimp in there were fine (cheeries and amanos).


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## Antoine Doinel (Dec 20, 2010)

Bring in the pros.


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## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

sae are only good if you buy them very young and starve them for 4-5 days before you put it in your infested bba tank. just pull out the infected plants and spray generously with hydrogen peroxide then leave it in a bucket of water for an hour and back in your tank. 


Antoine Doinel said:


> Bring in the pros.


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## Y2KGT (Jul 20, 2009)

I agree that SAE are the best fish for BBA as long as your tank is large enough. 55 Gallons is more that big enough for 2 or 3 of these amazing fish. I've had 5 in my planted tank for years and only the biggest one doesn't eat it but he thinks he's a clown loach.
Just make sure you Google Siamese Algae Eater (Crossocheilus siamensis) and familiarize yourself with what they look like. You don't want to get the wrong fish.
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_sae.php
--
Paul


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## 1200assassin (Jan 14, 2011)

Hi guys,

I had the same problem. I added a Phosphate Remover pad to my filter and the issue cleared itself up.


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## laurahmm (Apr 1, 2010)

I seem to always have this problem when I set up a tank then it eventually clears after several months but I add in an algae eating crew( Amani shrimp, ottos, plecos,horned nerite snails, sae). They help somewhat for all types of algae but not that much. I tried phosphate pad. Didn't help. What I find that helps the most is limiting the amount of light you have in the beginning to just like 4 hours a day till it clears up and your tank really gets established. Then the algae crew will be able to catch up and clean up the rest. This gnerally takes around 2 months or so. That's the only thing that has helped me. Limit light to 4 hours. Goodluck


Laura


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## duckyser (Oct 4, 2009)

Antoine Doinel said:


> Bring in the pros.


I have had good experience getting sae from ba scarb which immediately took the algae regardless of the fact that i was feeding flake daily from day one. I highly recommend them. Also i find the easiest way to tell for true sae is to look for the continuation of the black stripe to the end of the back tail.


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## mac_33 (Dec 29, 2010)

Just a heads up, BA Missauga has them on special. $2 for 2.99. I just got a couple and they seem to me like real SAEs. Just got them today, hoping they will take care of the BBA in my tank.


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## qwerty (Dec 15, 2009)

In my experience with BBA, a good course of action is to try to encourage vigorous and healthy plant growth, provide good water flow and circulation, and to simply be patient and wait for it to recede on its own once things have been corrected.

Do note I haven't been able to completely remove this from my tank... But it's under control and isn't much of an eye sore in the small amount that it's currently present.

Even if you do eradicate every last speck of it that you can find, it'll probably just come back if you're doing exactly the same lighting, dosing, plant mass, etc.

So unless it's really choking things out and getting a little nuts I would personally leave it. Failing that, I've heard excellent things about hydrogen peroxide. Safe to use, too.

Give more info on your plants, lighting, CO2, and fertilizer schedule if you want more suggestions regarding correction of the problem.


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