Black hair alage

[angel12]

starting to get this now on the broad leaves on some of my stem plants.. :( however my plants are growing with new leaves appearing constantly ...

Readings are as before 0 amm 0 nirite 1.5 Nitrate 0 Co2 the spot algae at the moment seems to be under control but im now getting this hair algae starting to form .. it is forming approx 4" under the water level on the older leaves of the Broad stem plants ......

How do i get rid of this is Po4 the problem ? would Ro Water changes help seeing as all the nasties are taken out ... at the moment i use normal tap water .....

This hair algae isnt massive but its starting ..(pity I cant get some octocinclus at the moment they are hard to comeby here)

as usual answers on a post card and thanks to whoever can help

:)

[Nightowl]

Black hair algae is a problem. Only thing I've seen that really kicks its a$$ is salt, and this algae eating grass shrimp whose name I can't remember. The shrimps are safe for plants. The salt?..... we use both at work. Good luck! J( the Nightowl)

[ChloroPhil]

Angel,

With your low light and low supplimentation regimen PO4 is likely the culprit. Kevin Conlin and Paul Sears did a study on the control of algae in planted aquaria in '96 based on the more common "low tech" approach. They found that in systems like that PO4 was the best limiting factor in algae control..or vice versa.

http://www.cam.org/~tomlins/algae.html

It's a really good read, kind of dry as it's a scientific research paper, but very informative none the less. This study is the basis for 90+% of current plant keeping methods. Tom Barr, long live the king, has done a similar study and found Nitrogen to be the better limiting factor in high light/high tech aquaria.

To answer your question about what eats the stuff....as far as I know only Siamese Algae Eaters will nibble on it. I've had some decorating a 5.5 with 7 Amano Shrimp and they didn't touch the stuff. Also, unless your water's high in PO4 to begin with (check with your municipal water supply people) tap water's going to be good enough. RO can cause too many problems.

[angel12]

well after testing my tap water for PO4 its shot of the scale 10ppm !
looks like if found the culprit that linked to the poor no 3 levels has given the Beard algae chance to get a hold .....

so im thinking of an RO unit to take out the nasties apparently speaking to other LFS keepers my water is loaded with PO4 constantly (now they tell me) so do you agree with my thoughts re the RO and then get hold of some KNO3 to up the nitrate level .... the plants have grown very well without the CO2 and it looks like they have stripped the water of NO3


http://opkikkertje.nl/smilies/huilen/huilen005.gif